I received a phone call at home one evening from an AT&T long distance salesman. How was I doing, and what long-distance carrier did I use?
“Sprint,” I told him. Then I thought to myself, “Is it Sprint? No wait, maybe it’s MCI.”
Hold on a minute here. I pay $50 a month in long distance and can’t remember the carrier? Maybe that’s because my long distance charges are listed in the local bill I receive from U S West Inc. Consequently, when I visualize my phone bill, my only involvement seems to be with U S West.
Hmmmm. The direct marketing relationship I once had with my long-distance carrier-good or bad-ended once those charges were folded into my local phone statement.
That might make it easy for local carriers to switch customers to their own long-distance service or talk them into a cellular offering or paging service, or any of the other wireless temptations the local phone company is stacking on its serving tray.
If loyalty to a long-distance carrier has already been weakened by lack of direct contact, such a switch-over should be easy, right?
That’s not what industry analysts say. Many believe the long-distance companies have a good chance of leading the future of U.S. telecom with end-to-end service offerings.
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. intends to sell consumers a single phone that will work as a desk phone extension at work, a cellular phone outside the office and a cordless phone at home.
MCI Communications Corp. has a special billing system that allows users to enter a code when they place the call, notifying the network whether the call is personal or business so it can be billed appropriately. One number, one phone, one carrier.
To “take over” the telecom world, so to speak, the long-distance providers also need to attract customers not currently in their service base. So not only will long-distance companies wrap wireless offerings around their existing client base, but they’ll lasso new customers interested in wireless.
I keep that in mind as new operators launch networks throughout the country. Is it going to be enough to offer only paging or only cellular or only PCS?
For many consumers, the purchase may boil down to sheer appetite and finances, like eating out. How hungry for selection has the advertising made you?
Pure-play wireless companies may be banking on the consumer’s feeling that too many choices, at some point, become wearisome. By the time the waitress has rattled off the name of 15 salad dressings, I don’t even care.
So, along with innovative products, today’s harried consumers seek familiarity and ease. Now that’s a tall order.
