subject: Strategies To Make Bundles Work For The Customers And Service Providers Alike [print this page] The temptation to bundle products are very strong in strategic industries especially the communication industry covering cable TV, Internet and home phones. Although the concept of bundling has been vogue for ages the practice took off in a big way after the competition amongst the communication service providers. There wasnt much to bundle when they were single product companies offering nothing other than traditional telephony. With the advent of mobile service providers in a big way they had to look elsewhere for increased business revenues.
The introduction of optic fiber in a big way made things move faster than before. For the first time, communication companies began consolidating all the three communication tools into one, and there evolved bundles. Charter bundles for example give TV, internet and digital home phone in a single package. That means advantages for both the stake holders; the consumer and provider. Whether it is a single service or all the three the expenses on hardware part is always the same. Hence when all the three services are availed by the customer the cost involved in laying the cable, providing the equipment and services get distributed over all the segments. That is the reason why it is cheaper to go for bundles.
The concept of bundling works best only when the customer is benefited. That is because they are the ones who provide the revenue for the companies to survive. So it is always prudent to keep the customers interest in the forefront rather than using it as a business strategy. The advantages of bundling are many. And amongst them are the billing, documentation, and ease of use. Customers who use bundled service can learn to use the products faster as products are synchronized to optimum levels.
The other advantage of bundling is the ability of the three services to integrate and use the capabilities of the other to give the users a richer experience. Products become easier to configure, set up the equipment and finally coordinate the interactive aspect. Even complaints are easier to resolve. However if the companies use bundling as a strategy to move laggard products then customer dissatisfaction can build up and the benefits are sure to disappear. Instead a better way is to include only the good products and keep the laggard products as a separate entity while marketing.
Persistently trying to push laggard products can be counterproductive to the service providers in the long run. Chances are that even the good products will be seen in poorer light shoving the way for reduced returns and sales. So it is prudent that the short comings of the product be identified and be remodeled to be more user friendly. It is very important that all the component factors of the bundle be of the finest quality as technology will permit. In other words it is better to delay introducing new products until it has been tried as a single product and then introduced into the bundle. That will ensure that all the stake holders get a fair deal.
One of the biggest mistakes that service providers do when bundling is planning their sales revenue around a fast selling product line without understanding existing customers and prospective ones. Introducing a product bundle is like gambling with cards. To insure against going wrong, bad products should be kept outside the ambit of being included in the bundle. Another way to keep the customer happy and come of more is to let them make the bundle on their own. Give them the tool to assemble a bundle on their own and give an instant quote. The quote can come even as the bundle is being built with every increment included.
