mmulligan | 10:55 am Dec 16, 2011

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Out with the old, in with the new

The holiday period is an important time for carriers and handset manufacturers. New phones and tablets feature high on wish lists and gift lists. Up to 25% to 30% of upgrades and new connections for the year can happen between U.S. Thanksgiving (end of November) and Christmas.  The increased foot-traffic is a double edged sword for those working in retail. On the one hand the extra volume of customers is very welcome for employees who often are working on commission.  But on the other it will bring into sharp relief the problem of migrating user data from the old device to the new one.

In the early days when phones where simpler in all probability the only personal data a user would have were some phone numbers stored on a SIM (for those in the GSM world). Changing phones was a simple matter of taking the SIM card out and placing in the new phone.  But as phones have become smarter and more powerful the problem has become very complex. Now a device will contain many different types of data including user data (e.g. contacts, calendar, and email), user multimedia (e.g. photos, videos, and music), user applications and app data, and user settings (e.g. device settings, wallpaper, language, etc.). All of these settings and data have to somehow get from the old device to the new one before the user will feel comfortable with their new device and start to use it as they intended.

In quieter times of the year retail assistants will usually have time to talk with customers and guide them through the various strategies for migrating between devices. However, in the holiday period the volume of customers coming through means there isn’t the time for long customer interactions. The customer will leave excited with their new purchase, but often frustrated that it doesn’t do what the old one did – doubly frustrating because the new phone is supposed to be better than the old phone. It is the case that a call to customer care is often not far behind, pushing up the cost involved in acquiring/retaining that customer.

As I’ve said, this is a complex problem.  In fact, for many years the problem was compounded by the fact that there was a good business reason for the problem. Case in point; for carriers, the value was on the SIM so they wanted contacts data there.  This made it harder for customers to switch networks. For manufacturers, the value was in the device so they wanted contacts data there. This made it harder for customers to switch manufacturers. When customer penetration was growing making data sticky protected the investment in that customer.

So what is the answer? Let’s start with a stark statement – there is no technological bullet that can completely solve this problem at the push of a button. There are many solutions out there that claim they can solve this problem for all data on all phones. But in my experience of this, they always fall short. For example, feature phones still account for 73% of the market. On these phones the best you can usually hope to retrieve is contact information assuming it is on the device and not the SIM. Technology has its place and the cloud paradigm in particular has an important role to play. But it is equally important not to convince yourself that technology alone will solve this problem.

Phone migration is a topic that I receive questions on often and it is one that I intend to return to in future posts. But I will leave you with this; a comprehensive solution for customers will involve technology, processes and people all aligned behind a very clear goal to succeed. If any of those elements is missing, the solution will not hit the mark.