Are Capped Calls Telephone Packages Worth It?
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
John Greenshaw asked:
Capped Call packages are sweeping the country. You can call the USA for 60 minutes for only 20p or mobiles for an hour capped at 30p local and national calls capped at 10p these are great deals aren’t they?
No they are not! From my experience only about 5% of business clients benefit from these packages so that means that 95% do not!
Yes capped rate calls appear to offer great value whilst not being totally honest to the user in how the tariff works and how much they are paying for their calls.
Let me explain firstly with facts that will highlight why so many Telecoms companies want you on a capped or bundled call package and then you can determine if you are getting value or not, as I have found that knowledge is power when it comes to being in control of what you are buying.
The average call duration in the UK is around 2 minutes and has been for years. However, the marketing plays on the - great value you get by having a capped call, “you can talk for up to an hour”. So taking into account all the time that you spend on the telephone the times you remember are the long ones - ergo you think great deal!
Remembering that 19 out of 20 do not benefit you have to be able to analyse your calls to determine your call patterns (we do this for all our clients and report this back to them.) i.e. number of calls, the duration and the cost armed with this information you can determine your best plans.
So the Capped Calls if you read the small print will cost you to set up the call and charge you very quickly so that you get to the Cap as soon as possible. They do this because 1. If you see itemised capped calls you think great a saving and 2. Because it allows them to benefit from all the short duration calls that you do make, making the capped call offer very profitable!
We have on occasion demonstrated this to our clients when they were sure that we were wrong, they have on every occasion taken our advice when faced with the facts.
The steps you need to take to find out what telecoms solution is best for you:
1 Know what you are using
2 Understand what you are contracting yourself to
3 Understand the technology available for your business
If you find that the above steps are daunting then if you have a good telecoms supplier they will walk you through this and you will find that over time they will educate you in the technology so you can apply the best solutions for your business - if you do not then please do not hesitate to contact me john.greenshaw@wrnsltd.co.uk and I will hopefully be able to assist you.
ALDEN
Capped Call packages are sweeping the country. You can call the USA for 60 minutes for only 20p or mobiles for an hour capped at 30p local and national calls capped at 10p these are great deals aren’t they?
No they are not! From my experience only about 5% of business clients benefit from these packages so that means that 95% do not!
Yes capped rate calls appear to offer great value whilst not being totally honest to the user in how the tariff works and how much they are paying for their calls.
Let me explain firstly with facts that will highlight why so many Telecoms companies want you on a capped or bundled call package and then you can determine if you are getting value or not, as I have found that knowledge is power when it comes to being in control of what you are buying.
The average call duration in the UK is around 2 minutes and has been for years. However, the marketing plays on the - great value you get by having a capped call, “you can talk for up to an hour”. So taking into account all the time that you spend on the telephone the times you remember are the long ones - ergo you think great deal!
Remembering that 19 out of 20 do not benefit you have to be able to analyse your calls to determine your call patterns (we do this for all our clients and report this back to them.) i.e. number of calls, the duration and the cost armed with this information you can determine your best plans.
So the Capped Calls if you read the small print will cost you to set up the call and charge you very quickly so that you get to the Cap as soon as possible. They do this because 1. If you see itemised capped calls you think great a saving and 2. Because it allows them to benefit from all the short duration calls that you do make, making the capped call offer very profitable!
We have on occasion demonstrated this to our clients when they were sure that we were wrong, they have on every occasion taken our advice when faced with the facts.
The steps you need to take to find out what telecoms solution is best for you:
1 Know what you are using
2 Understand what you are contracting yourself to
3 Understand the technology available for your business
If you find that the above steps are daunting then if you have a good telecoms supplier they will walk you through this and you will find that over time they will educate you in the technology so you can apply the best solutions for your business - if you do not then please do not hesitate to contact me john.greenshaw@wrnsltd.co.uk and I will hopefully be able to assist you.
ALDEN
