Telecom Companies forfeit middleman’s
commission, Consumers get more through online recharge offers – it’s a win-win
for both!
In exclusive
recharge offers, telecom companies have found the perfect gratification to woo
their prepaid consumer base towards the online recharge sections on their
respective websites. Why do the telecoms want you – the prepaid mobile phone
user, to recharge
online rather than indulge in the age-old practice of going to the
local recharge walla bhaiya and get it through cash? That’s a topic I have
addressed in other articles. But let me briefly delineate a few of the reasons
– it seems the telecoms want to save up on the commission of the middleman.
This will be a direct benefit that the companies would enjoy if the consumers
recharge online. Another reason for promoting online recharge – the provision
twenty four seven recharge. The regular recharge practice is limited to office
timings of the local recharge vendor. But in a consumer base that includes
youngsters many of whom also buy and use night time packs, the companies have
realised that a large portion of the consumer base are using mobile services at
night, and thereby, would want to renew and recharge the service at time they
are using it. Online recharge provides for this very purpose. Third – it’s
environment friendly. This is because paperwork is drastically reduced with online
prepaid recharge.
Now that you
have been informed of the premise of the advantages of online prepaid recharge
over regular recharge from the local vendor, let’s look at a case study related
to prepaid recharge offers, both general and exclusive, which telecom companies
are using to woo consumers to their online recharge pages.
Uninor recently
made public an exclusive online recharge offer on any online recharge above Rs.
100, which entitled the consumers to couple movie tickets. This exclusive
recharge offer, which was valid in Maharashtra & Patna circles, proved to
be a blockbuster. The online recharge page of Uninor received a boosted number
of hits because of this recharge offer, and to think that this was achieved
with virtually no media spend –it is absolutely phenomenal. The only promotion
of the recharge offer was through the telecom’s Facebook page and the regular
banner on the home website www.uninor.in.
Uninor has recently introduced 2 step instant
mobile recharge facility for easy and quick recharge