WHITE PAPER SERIES Reliance Toll Free Services

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER SERIES Reliance Toll Free Services

2 INDEX Executive Summary Page 3 Till today you needed to Page 4 Existing scenario & general offering in market Existing solutions Page 5 Product detail Features, benefits, limitations New remedy for new needs Page 6 Product brief How it adds value to existing infrastructure/ helps in changing scenarios Solution details Page 7 Product in detail Challenges it may face in implementation RCOM role & support Business Benefits Page 10 Summary Page 11 About RCOM Page 11 White Paper Series Page 2

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & EXISITING SCENARIO There is no level playing field. Success belongs to those who carve an edge for themselves. An edge created through innovation, operational excellence, cost leadership, effective communication or a delightful customer experience. Reliance Toll Free Service (RTFS) can contribute significantly towards creation of this edge with a holistic package of path-breaking features and benefits. This document details out the evolution of the service in last couple of years, the service architecture, the intelligent features that it offers and the application of these features to specific business needs to get maximum benefits. The document will be a useful reference for all the marketers and the customerservice professionals who are planning to attract a sizeable audience. Till today you needed to. The teledensitiy in India is showing a monthly growth rate of about 3.7%. With more than 545 million telephone subscribers, majority of them on mobiles, every segmentation approach of marketing in India just cannot overlook this specific target; the size of which is continuously increasing. Is your organization equipped to attract a sizeable share of this segment? Sure, there are websites and certain percentage of this segment can probably reach the URL through intelligent search options on the internet. However, the number of PC and internet users in India are far less than those with a phone; and these being mutually inclusive, phone users is obviously the more logical target segment. All said and done, making a phone call is far easier and user-friendly than searching the internet. More so, if the call is toll free. The word toll has a reference to the caller, hence, in this context, a toll free call is free of toll call to the caller. Being a reverse charging mechanism, the charges of the calls are borne by the subscriber of the toll free service. This capability makes the service a very powerful lead generation /marketing / customer service tool. The service, also called as 1800 number, is a virtual number which is translated to a real phone number on which the calls are answered. The toll free number typically looks likes 1800 XYZ ABCD. The calling person does not pay for the call made on this number, the charges are borne by the subscriber of the service. The 1860 number is another service for which the caller pays for the local call charges and the subscriber pays for the STD leg of the call charges. The structure of this number is 1860 XYZ ABCD. Some learning from the history Later part of the last decade provided an excellent market environment in India for proliferation of this service. This was the time when liberalization benefits were being felt by the consumers, and India as a country moved from license raj to the open market policy. You had a choice for almost everything right from a two wheeler, a car, a pizza, an airline, so on. The choices multiplied with passing time. White Paper Series Page 3

4 EXISTING SOLUTIONS As the liberalization was impacting many areas, it took a while before it actually hit the telecom sector. Until then, the incumbents had the service, but the same was never marketed. Most of the subscribers of the toll free service were essentially those MNCs who had understood and appreciated the service benefits by availing the service in the other parts of the world. With mobile services getting launched, the concept of Off-net call was introduced. A premium customer using a premium handset and paying premium rates for calls incoming to his mobile suddenly realized that he cannot call a toll free number Consider a case where A is a phone subscriber of service provider X and B is a toll free service subscriber of service provider Y. For any call to the toll free number from A, the service provider X cannot bill A despite part of the network of X getting used to complete the call. On the other hand, service provider Y gets the revenue from the subscriber of the Toll Free service. Product Details It was only expected that the service would be launched with limited accessibility. The telephone users of the same service provider who is providing the toll free service would be able to access the toll free number. Thus, the available product was essentially with on-net access and obviously had the limited acceptance. Features & Benefits The basic feature was the reverse charging capability i.e. the subscriber of the toll free number pays for the call and not the caller. For the caller, there are no charges. The IN based features such routing of the calls on the basis of the time or the originating location were also used depending on the user needs. Limitations As a purely on-net service, the marketers could not promote the number effectively. An average caller shied away from attempting a call on this number, especially if he had faced accessibility issue in the past. Even those aware about this limitation, would struggle to relate a particular toll free number to a particular operator. With more operators entering the market and with more customers demanding toll free service, it was essential to arrive at an interconnect agreement across service providers. This was easier said than done as there were no specific guidelines on the same. White Paper Series Page 4

5 NEW REMEDY FOR NEW NEEDS With a lot of effort from service providers, a proper toll free service was launched in India which was accessible from all types of phones (mobiles / landlines ) of all major operators. Reliance Communications took a major lead in ensuring that a truly world-class toll free service is made available to the market. Over last few quarters, the toll free service has matured and thanks to few good ad-campaigns, the prospects are not shying away from this number. It is well reported that some savvy consumers are now regularly updating the data of all toll free numbers and circulating the same rapidly using orkuts and facebooks of the internet world, among other ways and means. How it adds value to existing infrastructure/ helps in changing scenarios? Ease of recall The sooner you avail a Toll Free number service to reach out to your prospects, the more time and opportunities you will have to publish the same. The exacting competition out there further emphasizes the recall READ & CALL value. With so many distractions for the eye-share and mind-share of your prospects, the least that can be done is to quickly offer a toll free service for them to contact you. Needless to say, almost every such call is a filtered and very-easily-convertible lead for you Measure the effectiveness of marketing campaign One of the key features of a toll-free number, also known as 1800 number, is the ability to use it as a dip-stick or to gauge the effectiveness of marketing. Toll free number s call history can tell us things like how many customers called, where they called from, and what time of day they called. One can take this information and use it to create, edit, and launch innovative and effective marketing campaigns. For example, one can send out two different direct mail marketing pieces, each containing different offers and different toll-free numbers. The responses obtained will provide invaluable analysis of the marketing efforts. One can find out which offer performs better, which areas of the country express more interest in a particular offer, and the times of day people respond to the advertisement. Value Adds of the service Allow the prospects reach to you on phone without any charges to them. Give regional flavor to your callers.direct the calls to agents speaking different languages Direct the calls to different locations based on the time of the call Generate MIS Time &Region wise distribution of calling numbers, area wise effectiveness of the campaigns as explained earlier. The service is enabled by using an Intelligent Network (IN) platform which is a high end switch that stores, retrieves and acts upon specific information about behavior of call termination. The IN platform enables the product with some unique features that make this service a desirable tool for every marketer. White Paper Series Page 5

6 SOLUTION DETAILS Some of the features mentioned above are explained here with the help of simple schematics for better understanding: Origin Dependent Routing This feature enable the calls on the toll free number get terminated on different destination numbers based on the location of the caller. The destination number could be anywhere in India. Time Dependent Routing This feature enable the calls on the toll free number get terminated on different destination numbers based on the time of the call. The destination number could be anywhere in India. White Paper Series Page 6

7 SOLUTION DETAILS Load Balancing This feature enable the load calls on the toll free number get distributed among different destination numbers. The destination numbers could be anywhere in India. Call Distribution Call Centre A:B::70:30 Black, White and Grey Listing The specific phone numbers can be blocked the access to the toll free number. Alternatively, only specific phone numbers can be allowed to access the toll free number. A combination of the two is also possible. Number being independent of location Toll free number does not change even if the call center location is shifted anywhere in India. Single number across the nation Because of this, a uniform communication is possible and hence can give a much better recall value to the toll free number. White Paper Series Page 7

8 PROBABLE CHALLENGES The service provider needs to have an Intelligent Network platform capable of supporting the features mentioned above. An error-free reverse billing capability should be available in the billing system. Above all, the service provider has to have the necessary agreements with other service providers for accessibility. Since toll free is a virtual number, basic telephony service needs to be in place at the user s end. Because of the regulatory requirements, it is mandatory to have both, basic as well as toll free service from the same service provider. Generally, the toll free number is mapped to a E1 PRI number to support multiple simultaneous calls; however, depending on the expected call volume, the mapping can also be done on a set of fixed (wire line / wireless) or mobile phones. Multiple phones are part of a single hunt group to support simultaneous calls. The call flow of a Mumbai caller using non-reliance phone to reach a Toll Free number of Reliance terminated in Delhi is shown below: Accessibility from all service providers can sometimes be a challenge as new service codes (SCP codes) are getting added and new operators are also getting introduced in India. The service provider must have the necessary resources to carry out the accessibility testing (codewise and operator-wise) at regular intervals. For the user, correct sizing of the set up is crucial. For effective campaigns, there could be a sudden surge of calls on the toll free. It is the last thing to expect that the toll free number is engaged. The user can also take the help of the load balancing feature available from the service provider to manage this problem. Geographical and time based distribution of calls can further help to overcome this challenge. White Paper Series Page 8

9 RCOM SUPPORT IN DELIVERING TRUE BUSINESS BENEFITS As a leader in this product segment, Reliance Communications offers some unique features. The Reliance Communications subscriber can independently exercise the Route@ option of changing the termination number of the toll free service. E.g. if there is any emergency at primary contact center location, the subscriber can quickly change the routing of the toll free calls such that all the call would then terminate on the secondary location. The entire control of the routing change is with the subscriber, thus enabling him complete protection against unfortunate scenario of calls remaining unanswered. Reliance Communications also offers PIN based authentication for the service so that only genuine callers access the service. This is especially useful for internal services such as on line trainings, audio bridging etc. As a basic service provider, Reliance can offer multiple options for destination number such as PRI (Primary Rate Service), Direct Exchange Lines in hunting, Fixed Wireless Phones in hunting etc. Finally with Reliance expertise in the Hosted Contact Center domain, the toll free service is also capable of getting bundled with customized IVR capabilities. Business Benefits Effective Target Marketing & Personalized experience-as a marketer, a location independent nation-wide-single-number can be made available to the target segment. This number can be accessed from any phone free of charges. The calls can mature at different locations or on different phones in the same location depending on the originating telecom circle. E.g. a call originating in Gujarat can be answered in Ahmadabad, a call originating from Punjab can be answered in Amritsar. Alternatively, the Gujarat and Punjab calls can be answered by different persons knowing the respective language and both the agents could be in Mumbai. The caller will not know about the physical location of the agent and the language interface option will give him a highly personalized call experience. Manage you Opex-Organizations can reduce the call center operation costs by intelligently routing the calls to different cities depending on the time of the call. E.g. during office hours, the calls could be answered by highly professional,expensive agents in Mumbai, while other time, they could be answered by not-so-expensive-agents at other locations. Decide who can call you-the toll free subscriber can also choose to block certain phone numbers from reaching the toll free number, can allow only specific phone number to reach the toll free number or can combine both these options. All these options make the toll free service an indispensible ingredient of the MARCOM tools of any market facing organization. White Paper Series Page 9

10 SUMMARY While the use of toll free service is on the rise for last few quarters, there are multiple segments in the market who are yet to acknowledge its full potential. Many subscribers implement this service as one of the marketing initiative and can do much better by effectively deploying all the relevant features. It is high time that the marketer categorizes this service as a promotion budget rather than telecom expenditure. This change of outlook can open many more avenues of fresh opportunities in the marketplace! About Reliance Communications Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H. Ambani ( ) is the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 64,000 crore (US$ 13.6 billion), cash flows of Rs. 13,000 crore (US$ 2.8 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,400 crore (US$ 1.8 billion). Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company, with a customer base of 105 million including over 2.5 million individual overseas retail customers and nearly 3 million DTH customers, ranks among the Top 5 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers. Reliance Communications has established a pan-india, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 route kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. For further information please write to broadband@relianceada.com OR Reliance Communications Limited, H Block, 1 st Floor, DAKC, Navi Mumbai For further details visit us at OR White Paper Series Page 10