Smartcom addresses customer concerns of rising cellular costs

As cellular phones become a more integral part of our lives, so do the costs associated with the use of them. Smartcom, a specialised cellular service provider, has been researching and adapting its product offerings to address the rising costs of cellular phone usage.

Over the past few months, Smartcom has developed and introduced several packages to assist customers in controlling their monthly cellular costs, including Autobar, Tariff Optimiser and its latest product, Smartcom Bundles.

Says Bertus Levendal, financial officer, Smartcom: "We deal with a wide spectrum of users - mostly those at the high end - but the common denominator with all of them is the fact that they want to control their expenditure. Ultimately, they look to us to assist them in this exercise. One of our core philosophies is to research and develop new products that will address cost issues."

Smartcom AutoBar - an airtime credit limit service - assists cellular phone users in keeping tabs on their monthly call costs. AutoBar has been designed to assist people in controlling call costs.

"Often high invoices are blamed on the service provider and not the user. AutoBar is ideal in that the customer determines the limit he wishes to set. Once that limit has been reached, an SMS is sent to notify the customer that the identified limit is near or has been reached. It is up to the individual to determine whether it is necessary to increase this limit, make a payment to Smartcom or wait for the next billing month when the limit is reset.

"We developed Tariff Optimiser after research showed that a customer's cellular airtime usage does not remain consistent throughout the term of their contract. As a result, the communications package that a customer starts off with is not necessarily the most appropriate package a few months later. With Tariff Optimiser, we are now able to monitor an account and facilitate the customer's migration to a more appropriate tariff plan.

"Recently, we launched our latest value-added service package aimed at giving the customer control over what cellular value-added services he wishes to purchase. The Smartcom bundles provide customers with a choice of six package options that offer a range of combined services at reduced rates. The bundles, which range between R10 and R80, are a step towards significantly reducing your monthly cellular account. Under one subscription, you get the benefit of choosing from a selection of e-mail billing, CLI (caller line identification), standard insurance and 200 free SMSs.

"So far we have had a tremendous response from our customers on these products. We find that people feel comforted by the fact that we are not simply trying to sell them more services that will ultimately cost them more each month, but rather that our products are aimed at saving them money. Despite the fact that Smartcom targets high-end cellular users, we need to respect the fact that even these individuals need to be able have some sort of control over costs - especially cellular phone expenses which have to date been a difficult cost to contain and manage," concludes Levendal.