T-Mobile finds a new way to satisfy customers: redesigning their bills.
The issue
Two years ago, T-Mobile realised it had a serious problem. Customer satisfaction surveys ranked its phone bills worst in the industry and bill-related queries were clogging up the company’s helpline.
T-Mobile’s situation wasn’t unique – but its solution was. Few sectors have witnessed so many radical changes as quickly as the mobile phone industry. Just a decade ago, mobiles were used only for calls, but with the huge increase in available functions (roaming, texting, 3G) billing has become more complex, while understanding charge breakdowns has become increasingly challenging for customers.
The solution
T-Mobile gave direct marketing agency Tullo Marshall Warren and information design specialists Boag Associates a simple brief – make the bill design as clear as possible to ensure customers can understand information quickly and properly.
It wasn’t the first time a mobile phone company had sought salvation in improved information design. In 2005, Vodafone revamped its bills, which led to vastly improved customer satisfaction and a 35% reduction in paper use. Information design has also been employed successfully by Royal Mail and various energy suppliers.
Andrew Boag, director of Boag Associates, didn’t underestimate the magnitude of the task. “We knew the biggest challenge would be achieving a solution that would be colourful and an excellent manifestation of the brand – while working within the constraints of black-only print.”
Fortunately, T-Mobile had already conducted research that identified a number of customer needs and Boag says it soon became clear which design tools could meet them. What he proposed was revolutionary for the telecoms sector. The new bills would include visual snapshots of usage in the graphical form of pie charts and graphs. Boag says: “While there are examples of graphs being used on bills in other countries, ours were the first to be used on a mainstream mobile phone bill in the UK.”
Further changes included better signposting, improved space utilisation, layout and information delivery, as well as “bringing the T-Mobile brand experience to life on the bill” by being “honest and straightforward” and “dynamic” in its look and feel.
The outcome
The new bill was launched in November 2006 and it proved an instant hit. Bill-clarity satisfaction increased by the target 10% over 12 months and unnecessary bill-related helpline calls fell substantially, with those from new customers decreasing from 31% to 22%. The new bill’s clarity meant customer service representatives dealt with calls much more rapidly and 28 staff were redeployed elsewhere in the business.
T-Mobile’s product manager of billing, Paul Harrison, believes the company’s new bills exceed the level reached by Vodafone: “The new bills are highly user-friendly and make it significantly easier for customers. The use of graphs helps T-Mobile explain what would otherwise be a complex system for customers to understand.”
Boag says many companies still underestimate the role documents play in a customer’s brand experience: “Well-designed information documents are a manifestation of a brand that is straightforward, transparent and clear. Information documents that are not well-considered represent the brand as disorganised and uninterested in its customers.”