Telcos operate in the somewhat unusual position of being central to the mobile revolution, and yet at the same time continuing to have challenges adjusting to certain aspects of it; namely communicating with customers over mobile and other emerging channels.  

Swrve works with a number of telcos, all over the world, to help them with this challenge, and build deeper customer relationships through their mobile apps. As a result, we help them increase engagement, reduce churn, cut down costs and drive upsell/cross-sell conversions.

In this post we thought we’d take a quick look at a few campaigns that have delivered success for some of our telco customers.

1. Increasing Purchases Through The App

The Problem: A global mobile network that we work with had a number of key goals for their mobile app that they were struggling to reach. These included: increasing the number of plans sold through the app; reducing calls to support centers enquiring about account balance; and increasing awareness of cross sell/upsell features such as sending credit to a friend.

The Solution: We identified that the problem originated in a lack of customer lifecycle segmentation. This meant that all users received the same messages, regardless of where they were in their user journey.

Together we planned and created a stream of 240 push notifications across 10 markets, reaching everyone from new users, to active users, to lapsing customers. They increased their new user journey from 15 to 30 days, and then regular users who were active within the last 14 days were targeted with weekly promotions. Inactive user journeys were expanded from 15 to 40 days.

Customers were then targeted with campaigns that were relevant to them, instead of one-size-fits-all campaigns that only resulted in being a nuisance.  

The Result: It was a huge project, and the results were equally big. Overall there was a 5% uplift in DAU, and also a 6.3% lift in people checking their balance through the app. But the real difference came in the number of plans purchased. The active user segment bought 253,000 more plans, which came to a total of $2 million, as a result of the customer lifecycle campaign.

The active user segment bought 253,000 more plans, which came to a total of $2 million, as a result of the customer lifecycle campaign.


2. Increasing Opt-Ins For Paperless Billing

The Problem: Another telco that we work with was struggling to convert customers to paperless billing through their app. We see similar situations all the time: companies spend huge amounts of time and money developing and releasing a feature only for it to go underused and undervalued by customers. A major cause of this is customers not understanding the value the feature provides, or worse, not knowing about it at all.

The Solution: The solution was painfully obvious - tell customers about paperless banking! But conventional channels like email and SMS are no longer the best options; response rates are plummeting, and people expect a better and more fluid user experience - any friction in the process causes completion rates to decrease drastically. Again, there is a better way.

We worked with the company to implement an in-app message campaign, targeted at customers who had not already opted in, educating them of the many benefits of paperless billing. If they agreed to opt-in, they were then guided through the opt-in process through the app, from start to finish.

The Result: One simple campaign delivered an uplift of 355% in paperless opt-ins, which will save the company a huge amount of money in paper and postage over the years, as well as being kinder to the environment, and making it easier for customers to keep track of their bills. That’s one heck of a result if you ask us.

One simple campaign delivered an uplift of 355% in paperless opt-ins


3. Increasing App Store Rating

The Problem: A leading European telco were not happy with their app store rating, which was lower than some of their competitors. This mattered, because the higher your rating, the better your ranking, which can have a considerable effect on user acquisition.

Unfortunately most of your happy customers will not think to leave a positive review in the app store. Let’s face it, they probably have a million more pressing things going on in their lives to be thinking about. Unhappy customers, on the other hand, are only delighted to leave a bad review.

The Solution: Thankfully in-app messages have reimagined how businesses can conduct app rating requests.

Our customer used Swrve to target a defined audience of customers who regularly used their app, and then served an in-app message asking if they have enjoyed the app experience. There were two options ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If a customer chose ‘yes’, they were asked to rate the app in the app store, and if they chose ‘no’ they were asked to fill in a survey asking for feedback on what could be improved.

The Result: The results were particularly impressive, with nearly 2 million customers viewing the in-app message, and nearly 1 million customers completing it - a completion rate of 47%. Over 130 thousand customers agreed to rate the app, and were deeplinked to the relevant page in the app store. This resulted in an increase in their app rating in the Google Play store from 3 to 4 stars.

Resulted in an increase in their app rating in the Google Play store from 3 to 4 stars