Monthly mobile plans shouldn't cost more then your rent.

I recently had an interview with a major telecommunications company here in Australia, and it was without a doubt one of the most horrible experiences of my life. Picture yourself in a bland, dreary meeting room with a couple of wise-mouthed kids. Each time I started describing an idea they only let a few words in before cutting to the next question. Having no chance to clarify the meaning was misconstrued and they'd be armed with enough ammo to send the concept straight into the gutter. The feeling is similar to the dream where you turn up at school naked as the day you were born, or having a classroom of middle school kids laughing at you for farting loudly.

The request prior to the meeting was to familiarise myself with the company’s handsets and applications. I did this, and my observation was that they had lots of clever add-ons for their customers, but with all the extra costs on top of their basic plan. To me, this was an issue. As a consumer who opted to go with a different service provider because of the exorbitant fees I felt like this was an opportunity to bring my knowledge of social media to practical use.

Knowing that part of the job would include managing the app pages on the website the first order of business was to address the lack of consumer info. There weren't any indicators that customers were interested or even using any of these applications. I wanted to bubble-up how often the apps were downloaded. I also wanted to be able to read reviews and here feedback from customers. - To this point I received smirks and scrunched brows, and was asked, “you do know that this is a producer role, correct?”

My point was: If you want people to buy something they don’t need during an international financial crisis you’re going to need to do more then post generic info that states nothing and gives no indication of the added value by buying it.

The next thing I wanted to do was to allow customers to participate in the apps that are provided by voting for them. As I’ve stated in previous posts, Threadless and Amazon do a fantastic job at appreciating the wisdom of the crowd. Using algorithms to lead decision making is the key to sustainable development. Why guess what customers want? Why assume when you can ask them directly? Who cares what types of apps an executive in an ivory tower wants to buy when the majority of your customers want something entirely different?

Another way to enhance the added services is to provide an extra layer of support. I really like the value of open sharing and transparent customer service. This is why Zappos is such a strong favourite amongst internet shoppers. Bravely stand behind your policies and don’t hide individual responses. If the business is based on solid values and positive customer service attitudes there shouldn’t be any worry, right? Get Satisfaction is the modern way to cope with new challenges in managing customer-business relationships. Replies come from other customers or the organisation's employees.

While researching ideas I stumbled on an article about how Sprint has opted to create a developer sandbox, and shared this as an option for generating a massive directory of applications. Local businesses could create applications ready for use on all smart handsets, why not?

The final angle was to restructure the costs being sent to the customer. Why not involve advertisers instead of charging customers for apps? Or follow what other subscription-based business are doing to attract more users? The Washington Post allows you to become a subscriber in order to access certain online articles, or allows users to sign-in using the Washington Post Facebook application. The trade-off is free articles for access into certain portions of the user profile. Some say it’s a potential privacy issue, but it’s not compulsory - it’s a choice. If users would prefer to pay for an uninterrupted experience they are free to do so. Monetising the experience through advertising is a great way to keep costs down for the customer, and will likely generate more revenue in the long-run.

I also like free apps that make buying choices easier. A great example of a cool music app is Guitar Hero for iPhone. The commerce aspect can be easily set up via the App Store, and an application gives artists or labels an easy way to distribute content.

At the end of the interview the 2 goons asked me, “so what applications would you produce?”

My response was and continues to be, “Whatever the majority of customers want to buy and use. My biased opinion is irrelevant”.

Needless to say, I wasn’t invited for a second interview and have never received any form of communication from the industry giant. I guess some people have the wrong perspective of social media, and empowering consumers. The reality is that there are tons of apps out there and most are FREE. If you want consumers to pay for something you need to ensure it's set up as a valuable service.