Picture yourself as a small business owner who needs a dozen or so mobile phones and a few mobile broadband cards for yourself and your employees. You want to pool your minutes, get a good deal on text messages, and maybe use some scheduling, payment, or GPS-based applications on some of your phones. You hit a carrier’s website and find lots of information for consumers that doesn’t quite meet your needs, and a little information for large enterprises, but nothing specifically for you. So you swing by the local retail store, where a twenty-something with too much gel in his hair tries to sell you a new Android device you don’t need. Unfortunately, this has been a reality for many small business owners as they’ve tried to empower their workforces with wireless services. Fortunately, the tide may be starting to change.
When a small business is evaluated on a one-to-one basis, it can look like a losing proposition for a carrier. The business might only need ten or twenty phones, but wants high-touch customer service, some special features, and discounts like the big boys get. It’s tough for a sales guy who’s compensated according to a very specific plan that’s either structured for consumers or large enterprises to meet small businesses’ needs just right.
“There are 27 million small businesses to call on,” says Tom Shaughnessy
Drive Business-focused Service: “You want to be recognized in the store as a business owner,” says Shaughnessy. That means reps need to talk about services, plans, and features that are relevant to SMBs, and aren’t simply re-branded versions of what’s offered to consumers. He says that having dedicated small business reps in the stores doesn’t make as much sense as making sure every in-store rep is trained to steer small business customers in the right direction.
Looking at small businesses as a customer segment reveals a different picture. “There are 27 million small businesses to call on,” says Tom Shaughnessy, director of small business for Sprint. And that’s the challenge. How can a carrier reach 27 million individual businesses, cater to their unique requirements, and provide them the kind of hands-on support their businesses require? Sprint has had a small business focused team in place for about a year now and is focusing a number of key issues it has identified as being fundamentally important for small businesses.
Create Value-Based Pricing: “Customers want straightforward, value pricing,” says Shaughnessy. That means eliminating overage, roaming, and other hidden fees that wireless customers often run into and become disgruntled over. “As a business, any time you can get a fixed expense rather than a variable expense, that’s a positive,” he says.
Respect the Customer’s Time: Business hours are hectic for small business owners. They have their own sales to make, employees to manage, and customers to serve. “We now have stores that open at 7 am,” says Shaughnessy, “...and we have appointment setting at all locations.” Business owners shouldn’t have to wait in line to receive service from their carrier. Instead, Sprint lets them make appointments online and skip the queue when they get to the store. “That’s an empowerment issue,” explains Shaughnessy.
Dedicate Call Center Support: The typical call center isn’t usually prepared to handle small businesses’ particular needs. Sprint lets small businesses dial *2 from their handsets which routes them to a business care center staffed by more seasoned, knowledgeable reps. “As your business grows to 25 or more devices, you get a dedicated rep to call who watches your account,” he says.
Pipeline
Publishing, Volume 6, Issue 9
