Consultancy offers 5G marketing tips
There’s bad news and worse news from a new study of European mobile operator customers. The bad omen is that users are happy with their phone services. The grimmer prognosis is that under these circumstances, they’re not upgrading to 5G, a study of eight European countries has found. Unless these feelings of fulfilment and content delusion can be changed mobile network operators could struggle to monetise 5G, the report said. Among the recommendations are to change user’s perceptions, entice users to watch high video at a premium and to adopt sustainability as a marketing tool.
Bearingpoint
Management consultancy Bearingpoint quizzed 10,850 mobile users and found a variation in the satisfaction levels that seemed to split the nations into two camps. Mobile network satisfaction levels appeared to be higher in the Netherlands (85%), Sweden (73%), Ireland (76%), UK (74%), and France (73%). By contrast, the three Central European countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland ranked their network performance ‘very poorly’, the report said. Only 13% of German customers were satisfied with their mobile network. Though the study figures are open to interpretation the conclusion offered by BearingPoint is that “telco operators need to do more to educate consumers on the benefits of 5G.”
Interpretation
In the UK, the report authors found, of the 2,608 mobile users surveyed, three quarters (74%) of mobile customers are ‘satisfied’ with their mobile network. This is one of the highest in Europe and less than a third (31%) are using 5G on their smartphone. Oddly, only 52% of them that had the option of 5G access knew of a ‘discernible improvement in performance’ compared to 4G. Across Europe, whilst 84% of customers surveyed by BearingPoint for its Connectivity Challenge Study were aware of 5G, they do not truly understand its potential benefits and are concerned about network quality, the consultancy said. “As such, the study says that more needs to be done by the operators in educating consumers on the benefits of 5G and creating compelling services,” it concluded.
Education
Taking the UK figures as a case in point, John Ward, UK CME Director of BearingPoint, explained why satisfied customers need educating out of what seems like blissful ignorance. “Awareness in the UK and across Europe is still low to the fact that 5G offers higher network bandwidth, better latency and higher reliability, and also provides the network technology with the highest data security and the best energy efficiency among the mobile access technologies,” said Ward.
Dach’s life
There is also a clear divide between the DACH region (Deutchland, Austria, Switzerland) and the rest of Europe. It might be that Europeans from these nations react differently to interviewers. While most European countries outside the DACH region are largely satisfied with their mobile network (averaging 75%), the opposite is true for the DACH region, and this trend is mirrored when it comes to customer satisfaction with their fixed broadband connection. “With massive investments in networks across Europe, this seems to be rather a matter of perception than actual quality,” said Ward. Operators must adapt their market positioning to respond to customer perceptions, such as the 74% of IUK customers who think they are happy. The report offered five interconnected action points that European mobile must act on.
Expectations
The first action point is that Customers expectations must be managed, even in the UK where people are seemingly happy, they must be made aware of 5G. Following on from that, operators need to continue to enhance the perception around network quality. Thirdly, the benefits of new technological advances need to be communicated effectively to customers. “Despite 5G having been launched four years ago, a significant portion of users do not understand its potential benefits,” the consultancy said. It does not consider that if customers are happy with their service, then perhaps there are ways to build on those foundations. Fourthly, according to Bearingpoint, the network operators must change their approach to capitalise on the new network technologies price premium, in order to convince people to pay more for 5G’s high quality video content.
Sustainability
The fifth point of action revolves around network sustainability which, though important to customers is not yet a key driver for monetisation. Around 53% of all respondents liked sustainable networks, but only 25% will change their usage habits to become more sustainable the report said. “Our survey shows that network sustainability is becoming a critical factor for the choice of consumers,” said Ward. “The study also highlights willingness to pay a premium for 5G high quality streaming services, which should be a positive message for network operators.”