VODAFONE’S INVESTMENT of €150,000 in a new retail outlet in Dublin’s Blanchardstown Shopping Centre is “the beginning of a journey towards a data world”, said Stefano Gastaut, consumer director at Vodafone Ireland.
It signals a move away from selling bundles of voice minutes and text messages, which were simply “satisfying communications needs”, and instead being able to sell “different things to different customers”.
“People are using smartphones and tablets for very different things,” said Mr Gastaut. “In the corporate world, they are about productivity but, if you are an 18-year-old, they are about staying relevant to your friends by sharing pictures or chatting on messenger.”
In the recently opened store, all staff use Samsung Galaxy Tabs on the shopfloor to access individual customer’s account information, which allows them to analyse their usage patterns and recommend the most suitable tariffs and products for them.
Fully working samples of products are available for customers to try. Services like the transferring of contacts from a customer’s old phone to a new one are offered as standard.
Data is the only area of growth in the business, according to Mr Gastaut, and revenues are expanding rapidly enough to compensate for users’ reduction in spend on voice and texts.
Mr Gastaut said devices, the network and the customer experience were the three essential elements if Vodafone is to make a successful transition from a traditional telco to one that can thrive in the data era.
“Devices are really important and we need to have a big range - it’s not just all about the iPhone,” he said.
Some customers will want touchscreen keyboards while others, particularly the heavy-texting younger ones, prefer a tactile Qwerty keyboard for faster input.
While operator subsidies, which in the past have brought down the price of phones as long as the customer signed a long-term contract, are getting harder to justify, Mr Gastaut said Vodafone was now looking to develop its own low-cost handsets.
Over the summer months, the Vodafone Smart was on sale in Ireland at €59, which he said was the lowest-priced Android smartphone on the market. It is currently offering the Facebook-focused Vodafone 555 Blue for €49. Both are aimed at pre-pay customers.
“Those devices are helping us address segments that we haven’t tapped into before for data,” said Mr Gastaut.
Although Vodafone has invested €140 million in its network in the last two years, Mr Gastaut does not believe a flat rate “all you can eat” pricing model will work.
“If you keep giving all you can eat to all customers, you make a small number happy and annoy an awful lot of customers who will have a bad experience,” he said.
Although the new store is only recently open Mr Gastaut says customer satisfaction, which Vodafone measures by follow-up calls or texts to customers, is far higher than in other stores.
“It’s a bit early to judge, but if in a month’s time I am seeing the same results as last week, we will be rushing to open more of these stores,” he said.
