In case you missed the American Idol finale last week (or TiVoed through the commercials), T-Mobile made a big deal of bringing back Catherine Zeta-Jones to promote its “Mobile Makeover” campaign. An astounding 80% of American with mobile phones know that they overpay for mobile services, yet they willingly continue to overpay for calls, texts and data plans.
I would argue that that percentage is declining, evidenced by the huge rise in Q1 2009 prepaid subscribers we’ve discussed previously. And defining “overpay” is a very subjective exercise, given the vast array plans and current price war to attract subscribers. But there is one objective question to ask – do you actually pay for your minutes?
Now part of this Mobile Makeover involves directing T-Mobile customers to Billshrink.com, an independent service that surveys your mobile usage and suggests plans that meet your needs and budget. I just took the survey and was surprised to find that Sprint offers the best plan for me (I’ve had Sprint for years, and am counting the days until my contract expires on June 18). Interestingly, Billshrink didn’t recommend a single prepaid plan, so I have to wonder what’s going on with their algorithm.
But back to the campaign trail, give credit to Catherine Zeta-Jones and T-Mobile for laying it all out there. However, we’re still talking conventional business models where you pay for time. But what if it went the other way around and the company paid you with minutes for your time?
We’ve listened closely to our customers, and here’s a good sample of what one person told us about incentive-based mobile service.
“I just wanted to say thank you for creating such an awesome program. I didn’t think it was real at first, in one day I got like $45. I never thought it could be so easy to keep up with my account. Thank you!!! If it wasn’t for you I would still be phoneless b/c I’m unemployed.”
We think this is the mobile makeover people really want, but would love to hear feedback from you – What do you want from your mobile service provider?
Eric Ortman is a co-founder of Embee Mobile, and has 3 weeks before his Sprint contract expires.
Tags: Billshrink.com, embee mobile, mobile, prepaid mobile
