Upwardly Mobile

When a company is in the midst of merger talks, sometimes marketing is forced to take a back seat. That is not the case with Bell Atlantic Mobile (BAM). Although the carrier's parent company is awaiting FCC approval to merge with GTE, its marketing is stronger than ever.

The woman behind that drive is Vice President of Marketing Debra Carroll. In one month, Carroll led the rollout of two major projects, which is more than some executives can claim for an entire year. Last September marked the grand opening of BAM's on-line store, an industry first, as well as the launch of SingleRate, the company's new flat-rate pricing plan. Both projects made it off the launch pad after Carroll had been in her position for only five months. That same month BAM earned the J.D. Power and Associates 1998 U.S Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study top ranking in four of its five major markets ranked.

Carroll's 10 years at BAM have been as dynamic as the wireless industry itself. She has left her mark in departments from accounting to product management. From her headquarters office in rural Bedminster, NJ, she oversees all corporate marketing, advertising and new product development. Perhaps Carroll's adaptability makes her a perfect fit for BAM; although the company has been around since 1984, it is not afraid to change. In fact, BAM attributes its high customer-satisfaction rate to modern technology.

On-Line Outlet

Although BAM prides itself on its high-tech network, its latest technological advance has been its on-line store. BAM was the first wireless company to offer an end-to-end shopping experience via the Internet, but a year ago the store was just an idea. When Carroll stepped up to vice president of marketing last April, she accelerated the timeframe it would normally take to launch such a large project. Her planning and attention to detail facilitated the store's launch in time for the fourth quarter's busy holiday buying season. She assembled a cross-functional team from the information services, finance, public relations, marketing and advertising departments to ensure that everything was in tune, from the back-end billing processes to the materials placed on the site.

The store's benefits to BAM are enormous. Carroll likes the fact that the web is an added distribution channel.

"It is a matter of choice," Carroll said. "We have just opened one more way for customers to do business with us and hopefully attract some customers who weren't doing business with us any other way."

So far, the store's popularity is increasing. In December, 50% of people who visited BAM's web site went to the store compared with November, when 30% of site visitors entered the store. Sales from the Web more than doubled from November to December. Much of the store's success has stemmed from the site's carefully planned design. Carroll hopes that as a customer clicks through the web pages, he feels as if he were walking through a retail store.

"When you walk into our store or when you sit down at our on-line store, there is a common thread," Carroll said. "The materials you see look like the materials that you see on the shelf in our stores."

For example, if a customer came in person to buy wireless service, sales representatives would show him a map of the company's service area. Now, he can view that same information on-line. If people know what they are looking for, they can do everything in about five minutes, Carroll said. First, the site asks the viewer if he is a current or new customer, and he can do different things based on his answer. The site gives details about the available services in his region. He can look at tips on choosing a phone or compare price plans.

"You can see all of the plans and the benefits that are included, so you get a good feel, maybe even better than a variety of brochures," Carroll said. "This has everything in one place."

One benefit to the Internet is that a carrier can display the items it wants to sell, whether the customer wants to see them or not. After a BAM customer picks his phone and service plan, he automatically views accessories to go with the phone. He can add anything he wants to his shopping cart and then check out. At checkout, the customer sees a list of the things he picked and has the option to remove anything, or he may return to the store to add items. He also can read the return policy here. Once the customer is ready to check out, BAM asks for his personal information so it can run a credit check. The web site interfaces with the same systems the company uses in its retail stores to process orders. The excursion ends as the customer either prints a receipt or requests an e-mail version. In two days, his phone arrives.

After BAM launched its on-line store Sept. 15, other carriers inquired about how it went about the project, Carroll said. She advises fellow carriers that no matter how nice a company's on-line store may be, copying it is not the answer.

"The store is another front end working with these strong and progressive systems that we already have in place for other sales channels and other parts of our business," she said. "You can't just replicate a super on-line store because it's all these several other systems working together."

Addressing Security

Carroll said many potential customers log off the site before purchasing a plan because they are hesitant to put personal data on the Internet. To ease customers' minds, BAM alerts customers to its security checkpoints. When someone starts the purchase process and begins providing a personal history, a secure socket layer (SSL) connection occurs between a customer's browser and BAM's web server. SSL is a widely used mechanism that ensures privacy, authentication and data integrity on the web. While the SSL connection is active, the customer sees a note at the bottom of each page indicating a secure link. BAM explains to customers that the data sent between the browser and the server is encrypted so an unauthorized third party can not read the message's contents. It also states that SSL makes sure data has not been tampered with between the time it was sent and received.

Carroll said 1998 was a tremendous year for e-commerce in general, as more people ordered merchandise over the Internet and realized how safe and convenient it is. She predicted e-commerce will be even hotter over the next two years.

"With a lot of people, it takes one good experience (with e-commerce) so they get over their fear of putting their credit card on-line," she said. "The web has been around for awhile, but it really is a new way to buy service. It is a matter of people getting used to it."

Some customers still prefer to place orders over the telephone. In this case, BAM gives each customer an order number before he logs off the Internet. When he calls a CSR, he simply references his order number and picks up where he left off.

Competitive Response

Although technology is important to wireless customers, a savvy marketer like Carroll knows it isn't everything. Competitive pricing and good service are must-haves for today's wireless companies. In its most competitive market, Boston, BAM is up against AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Omnipoint and Sprint, three of which offer national flat-rate pricing plans.

"We definitely saw what was going on in the market and are always going to position ourselves as being competitive," Carroll explained. "The trend said simplified rate plans, bundled rates, everything included."

BAM answered with SingleRate, another project in which Carroll had a pro-active role. The company differentiated itself by introducing plans beginning as low as $39.99 and offering the plan with any digital phone. The competitors forced customers to choose a certain phone. The plan is open to anyone, even existing customers with old CDMA phones.

"Existing customers are switching over because it makes sense, and we have customers from elsewhere that are switching over," she said.

Those people are satisfied customers, and BAM has the survey to prove it. The carrier received top ranking in overall customer satisfaction among wireless users in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Washington/Baltimore, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 1998 U.S. Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study. These cities represent four of BAM's six major markets. In the fifth market, Charlotte, NC, the company ranked second, and its sixth major market, Philadelphia, was not included in the study.

You can't help but wonder if having Carroll at the marketing helm had something to do with the ratings. Prior to her current position, she was executive director of marketing and inside sales for the northeast region, which includes Boston. Her leadership there helped earn the company the distinction of the best in overall customer satisfaction of Boston-area wireless providers two years in a row. But she is quick to point out that such an accolade is the result of efforts from every department.

"There are all kinds of things that help us improve our processes," Carroll said. "We take suggestions and cycle them back through our processes to make sure we are using it to improve."

For example, the company responds to every letter, then circulates them to all departments so they can make improvements. Customer satisfaction surveys regarding the point of sale are handed back to the sales agent who assisted the customer. Its answer book, which it gives to every customer to help answer common questions, is updated according to customer feedback.

The main driver of customer satisfaction is clear communication from BAM, she continued. BAM communicates with customers through welcome calls, bill inserts and newsletters. The company also sends out customer satisfaction surveys of its own. Customers can rate their experience at the point of sale, conversations with customer service or even bill presentment.

"Customers tell us that they want information, and they want it clear," she said. "They want the end product to equal what they understood in the beginning. That is truth in advertising. That is clear communication. And we do that," she said.

Bell Atlantic Mobile's (BAM) focus on technology does not end with its on-line store. If you ask employees what differentiates it from other wireless carriers, you always will hear, "the network." The company's guiding philosophy is that cellular service is only as good as the network it's on.

"We've built a network that's premier in both quality and technology, which is what drives call quality," said COO Jack Plating. "When the customer picks up their phone, the call goes through, the call is clear, and the call stays connected until the customer ends it."

BAM extends its love of technology to its customers, too, offering them the most up-to-date phones and features. Besides enhanced services such as voice mail, voice-activated dialing and text messaging, customers can take advantage of InfoAssist. Customers can dial 411 from their phones to find out which movie theaters are showing a certain flick or where the nearest Italian restaurants are. InfoAssist takes directory assistance one step further, too. If a customer needs a phone number and can't remember the name of the business he is trying to call or the city in which it is located, the InfoAssist operator will track down the number.

Interactive voice response helps customers obtain their account balances, the nearest store locations and more. Or, they can dial #BAL from their wireless phones for their balances. Dialing another code gives prepaid customers the number of minutes left in their accounts.

"We are using technology so the customer has ways to access us. If they don't want to speak to a rep, they can still get valuable information," said Debra Carroll, vice president of marketing. "A lot of the new technology is allowing us to get information to the customer more quickly."

BAM also is using technology to make its CSRs' jobs easier. Caller ID and screen pops help CSRs pull up account details quickly so that when they speak to a customer, his history is in front of them. In addition, it has used technology to help balance call volume in its call centers.

The Wireless Data Forum (WDF) announced it has contracted with Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing to create the Wireless E-Commerce Initiative. The multi-pronged programwill focus on the wireless industry using the Internet to sell existing products and services and helping to spark the development of new products and services.

Mark Desautels, WDF managing director, said the initiative will bring the wireless community together with experts in e-commerce from the computer industry and will include briefings during mobile communications conferences. The WDF is establishing a section within its current web site (www.wirelessdata.org) to provide detailed information on wireless e-commerce. In addition, the WDF is pursuing potential alliances with other wireless and computing organizations to help the growth of wireless e-commerce.

"When you look at what's available right now -- in terms of applications on the Internet and the capabilities of wireless networks -- there's simply no doubt that wireless e-commerce will become a significant part of both the computer and wireless communities," said Alan A. Reiter, Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing president.

When "Earth's biggest bookstore" amazon.com saw its stock and sales go through the roof, companies everywhere took notice. The company set an example for wireless carriers as they strive to achieve similar success with web-based activation.

Carl Artman, Airadigm Communications executive vice president, said his company jumped into electronic commerce (e-commerce) when the concept was virtually unexplored by wireless carriers so it could offer web-based activation in Wisconsin before competitors did.

"We wanted to be the first to market," he said. "Amazon.com beat Barnes and Noble and Borders to the Internet highway. That is how any Internet-based company succeeded. That is what we wanted to do."

Airadigm launched its on-line store Dec. 7. Customers can browse the e-store's digital phones, airtime service packages and accessories on-line. They can pay on-line via credit card, and the phones and accessories are shipped overnight. Although Airadigm did beat competitors in its markets to Internet commerce, wireless carriers in other markets had on-line stores in place already. Bell Atlantic Mobile (BAM) launched Sept. 15, followed by AT&T Wireless that same month. Others unveiled e-commerce capabilities on the web, including Western Wireless Dec. 1.

Ken Woo, AT&T Wireless director of corporate communications, said when amazon.com's fourth-quarter sales almost quadrupled to $250 million during the holidays, it taught wireless carriers a valuable lesson: People are becoming more comfortable with shopping on the web.

"This Christmas was the opening shot in terms of wider acceptance among consumers to use and purchase on the Internet," Woo said.

But experienced carriers caution that as the level of comfort rises, you can't throw a store together haphazardly just to beat out competitors.

"You can pop a page on-line, but you can't just pop up a store," said Debra Carroll, BAM vice president of marketing.

Airadigm looked for a consulting firm that concentrated on e-commerce to help it set up its on-line store. Artman said it selected MarkNet World because of the company's unique grasp on e-commerce. MarkNet suggested that Airadigm limit the number of rate plans it placed on the Internet, even though it offers dozens of plans through its other sales channels. Airadigm consented, and only a few phones, plans and accessories are available through its electronic store.

"Instead of inundating the customer with complexity, we wow them with simplicity," he said.

Artman said when people are on the Internet, they want to get in, get out, and move on. A logical flow is the best approach to e-commerce. MarkNet advised Airadigm to keep the store's design as simple as possible. The company analyzed a number of different formats in developing its store, and the result is a site that moves seamlessly from page to page.

BAM's Carroll agreed that an on-line store should not confuse customers. Pages should be straightforward. To gauge the site's ease of use, BAM relies heavily on feedback from customers.

"We are evolving it, literally, on a daily basis," she said. "We are able to use customer feedback to tweak the site, to add things, to change things and to be responsive to the way customers appreciate receiving information."

At first, BAM only offered accessories on-line that went with the phones it sold over the Internet. Customers suggested that the company let them purchase other accessories on-line too, and BAM immediately added several models to its store, said Andrea Linskey, BAM spokesperson. The carrier constantly runs e-store promotions that feature certain handsets, but customers also suggested that their handset choices should not be limited to those featured in a promotion. As of Jan. 15, a customer can substitute any phone to go with the current promotion.

In addition to making changes based on customers' suggestions, BAM's marketing department can follow the path that anyone took through the store. If several people have dropped out at a certain point, it could be a sign that the page is causing confusion.

"You can ask yourself, 'What would have helped the customer go from that page to the next?'" Carroll said. "Or maybe he made a certain choice, but he never got to a whole other series of choices. What do we need to improve so he will get to see that information?"

A successful on-line store is just like any other marketing project. It takes research, creativity, and an ability to understand the way customers think. That means involvement from every department in the company. Carroll said the marketing and information services departments work in concert to constantly improve the site.

VoiceStream Wireless, the PCS division of Western Wireless, also is working to continuously improve its on-line store. Customers already can order service with no contact from a CSR, but VoiceStream said it will introduce new enhancements to the site in phases throughout 1999. The company did not reveal details of those improvements.

Why the Web?

The World Wide Web offers tremendous potential as a low-cost sales channel, but carriers are embracing web-based activation for other reasons. Artman noted that if a wireless carrier is trying to market wireless data to its customers, it should at least be able to provide simple data communication through a computer.

"You have to achieve certain rites of passage in the eyes of your consumers in order to be taken seriously, and this is just one of those rites of passage," he said. "We thought it was important to illustrate our technical prowess."

Carroll, on the other hand, likes the ease with which she can change BAM's product offering through the web. The company added its prepaid plan to the on-line store for the holiday season. If she needs to move a display from one page to another, she can do it quickly. The same process could take weeks in retail stores.

The two carriers see the Internet playing a large part in other ways, as well. BAM's next step is to develop a way for customers to view their bills on-line. In addition, it is working on ways to hook corporate accounts directly to its site.

Airadigm wants to create a platform for business-to-business transactions. Artman foresees a corporate customer being able to type in a code, then see a list of phones it already has and the batteries and accessories that go with those phones to facilitate ordering.

"Corporations don't have time to run down to the store. Perhaps it isn't convenient for them to meet with our agents or direct-sales representatives in the near future," he said. "We really see this as the start of a platform for them to order their phones."