BT, Virgin Mobile Billing Bosses Talk Shop

Contributing editor for B/OSS in Europe, Alex Leslie, sat down with BT Group billing manager Jonathan Jensen and Virgin Mobile head of billing, Stuart Madeley, for a talk about the recession, life and the prospects for the communications industry.

B/OSS: Let’s start with an obvious question. What impact do you think the recession will have on our industry?

JJ: There is no doubt that things will slow down. I suppose that there has been a constant pressure to cut costs for the last few years which has intensified. But I also think that in a recession people tend to use communications more. People need to talk, businesses fall back on telecommunications to do business, as travel and conferences and so on are cut back. So I think that communications is reasonably recession proof and that telecoms usage will hold up.

B/OSS: So, business as usual, but perhaps in slow motion?

JJ: Not exactly, I think there will be effects. One thing that tends to happen is that customers take longer to pay. I think that the payments area is where communications companies will need to focus. Actually it is an area they need to focus on even without the recession. Disputes may well increase, and inevitably we will sometimes find that if there is one item on a bill that is not clear, the whole bill will be delayed, not just that item.

B/OSS: That sounds as if it will impact cash flow quite badly.

JJ: Yes, it could, but it provides an opportunity too. It is the perfect time to review credit and debt management policy. It is a perfect time to review processes and I suspect that much more emphasis will be placed on on-line payments, prepaid products — a greater knowledge of the customer, actually, from the moment he signs up.

SM: I think it will change our business too. There is a trend away from prepaid to SIM-only contracts. Customers are getting wiser about the value for money they get from service providers. A teenager who sends huge numbers of texts a month may well be better catered for on a contract.

B/OSS: Does that reduce the amount of control that the customer — probably the parents of the teenager — has over the spending levels?

SM: Not necessarily, there are some contracts and techniques coming through that allow you to allocate a certain number of texts to a post paid account. In other words if your bundle of “family” texts is 1,000 per month, you can set a level of 250 for one phone and send warnings and block usage at certain levels.

B/OSS: So actually we are in a phase of more control by the customer. Interesting, as this should accelerate a key component of the customer experience.

JJ: Absolutely, and the more sophisticated we can make the payments technology, the better for the customer — and us. But it is worth noting that in the wider world the generally accepted payment model is a prepaid one. Telecoms is unusual in that we often provide service in advance of payment. Something to consider.

SM: Indeed, and if you look at Dell, they do not even build your computer for you until they have received payment. But perhaps the upside is the opportunity to get a better picture of the customer.

B/OSS: Do we need to put billing in the hands of the customer, on the handset, for instance? Is that a logical end point for this?

JJ: That may be some way off if it arrives at all. What it does do is put spending control in the hands of the customer. I suppose a logical next step is for the customer to get used to the idea of being able to control his tariff and be able to make sure he is on the best deal.