Peter Svensson has a story today on ABC News about how Verizon Wireless is apparently looking into ways to prevent accidental data charges for “fumble-fingered subscribers” who rack up charges of $1.99 in fees EVERY time they start up the web browser on their phones.
I suppose when the only tool you have is a hammer everything starts to look like a nail but here are a couple of much more customer friendly ways of limit customer complaints, deliver value AND encourage the adoption of the highly profitable mobile web industry:
1) Stop putting hotkey links to the mobile web on your phones.
2) Change the hotkey settings so they point to your white listed “operator portal”. Make access to your this operator portal completely FREE. This way customers won’t be penalised for accidentally pressing the wrong button and you might sell some of the content (Screensavers, ringtones etc) that you have advertised there.
3) Reduce the charge to a more reasonable per day maximum to drive interest in exploring this new and profitable opportunity for your company to expand its offering.
4) Start mobile web engagement campaigns to educate the market about the potential. A good example of that is offered today by Vodafone your sister network in the UK.
