Dan Machen, director of innovation at HeyHuman, explains how unloved Mobile Network Operators can reinvent their relationships with consumers.

If Google, Apple or Facebook were to offer mobile services, 44% of people would switch to them. That’s according to a recent Capgemini report.

It’s a sentiment that doubtless reflects the seamless digital interfaces these companies offer – and the relationships people have with the brands, described as ‘best friends’ (in the case of Apple), while many see Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) as ‘marriages of convenience’ instead, based on recent HeyHuman research.

In the context of today’s digital lives, ‘mobile’ is at the heart of driving and enabling new behaviours. However, it doesn’t follow that MNOs are best placed to capitalise on its full value potential. Indeed – in common with any mature organisation – an MNO can be seen as at risk of disruption, driven by one of the new kids on the block.

So, why would people be willing to switch to the tech giants for mobile services? And what are the challenges that are perhaps holding back MNOs?

In many ways, they face the perfect storm of challenges:

1 – COMMODITISATION

CCS insight suggests smartphone market maturity will peak in 2017, meaning increased handset retention and a greater risk of commoditisation and churn to SIM-only deals.

2 – COMPETITION

Low and decreasing customer satisfaction scores means a greater risk of disruption from mobile virtual network operators, such as giffgaff, and perhaps tech giants like Google.

3 – COMMERCIALS

Unlimited data/data roaming, an offering that challenges ARPU (average revenue per user), from voice calls, SMS and data roaming.

So, how can mobile network operators steer their way through and make changes to unlock new value potential?

Noted cyber-visionary Douglas Rushkoff, drawing on his book Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, said that even the new tech giants are getting it wrong, in “developing companies that are designed to do little more than take money out of the system; they’re all extractive.” If the agenda of MNOs is ‘extractive’ – placing ARPU over ‘people first’ service design – then there is little to safeguard future value.

The solution lies in reframing the challenge – by changing our way of thinking about brand relationships, behaviours and communications.

“By embracing innovation, connection and effectiveness in a more human way, brands can marry the personal touch with the convenience that tech can offer”

The opportunity to maximise MNOs’ potential lies in focusing on digitising delivery to an extent – but retaining the human touch. What is key is the experience of using tech, how it liberates us, extends human abilities and keeps us ‘in the flow’ of our lives.

HeyHuman’s research into the current state of relationships with brands can help unlock new understanding and ways of thinking. In the digital age, the brands that will dominate are those evidencing evolved ‘human brand behaviours’. This includes the ability to adapt, simplify and actively listen; essentially, it is tech that puts ‘people first’.

By embracing innovation, connection and effectiveness in a more human way, brands can marry the personal touch with the convenience that tech can offer.

So, how can MNOs thrive amid the perfect storm?

By identifying new business models to build additional brand value and revenue

MNOs are uniquely placed to glean a ‘real-world research’ understanding of customers, identifying the most scalable opportunities with extended offers around data provision, Cloud services, or triple/quad-play offers; all could be additional revenue and brand-building opportunities.

Through a reframing of brand relationships

Meaningful service extension – communicated in the context of simplifying and making lives easier – has greater relationship value potential. Three, the network, appears closest to this, in terms of service innovation and comms: ‘If It Sucks, Make it Right’. However, Three is still framing itself as nullifying a negative rather than accentuating a positive. Those ‘marriages of convenience’ MNO brand relationships are certainly ripe for a reframe.

With effective broadcast, retail and direct communications, via behaviour-led strategies and new ways of activating

Mobile tech-led brands are blessed with an ever-present way of taking a customer’s pulse in terms of behaviour and emotion. Using behaviour-led approaches, MNOs can more effectively unlock the behavioural nudges that can really make a difference, from broadcast to retail marcoms. This, coupled with neuroscience-informed optimisation of messaging across the board, can aid activation cut-through in a particularly overloaded environment.

Our new perspective at HeyHuman is that it’s really down to that question of ensuring ‘life in flow’. We’ve consciously re-engineered the agency to identify the relationships people want with brands (and which will help them to grow), interrogate those behaviours that really drive what people do, and determine how to make the experience of a particular product or service both easy and human.

This is especially relevant in the context of MNOs, if they are to meet the challenges of increasingly digitising their services and remaining upwardly mobile versus future brand value.