LTE to repair customer loyalty disconnect

There is a significant disconnect between what drives loyalty among mobile consumers and what mobile operators believe drives loyalty as well as churn. Research released at MWC this week suggests that consumers in general will focus on a single aspect of their mobile service – such as device, tariff, or coverage – whereas operators tend to believe that a collection of issues drive positives and negatives in churn and loyalty.

The study, carried out by MobileSquared on behalf of Tecnotree, found that 90 per cent of consumers believe they are loyal to their mobile operator. But over one fifth of these have changed carrier in the last six months, with a similar number planning to do so in the coming months.

This implies that at any one time there is only a settled subscriber base of around 50 per cent. Yet the study also found that the longer a customer stays with the same operator, the more likely they are to spend on non-communication services.

Key to driving loyalty and decreasing churn today are better devices and tariffs, but going forward, Tecnotree and MobileSquared believe 4G connectivity will be the ultimate weapon.

The study found that almost 60 per cent of respondents said they would move to a different carrier in order to access 4G connectivity. As a result, those which have already launched LTE should be looking to capitalise on it as soon as possible, while those that haven’t will need to talk to their customers and explain their plans for provisioning the technology.