Telecom and Vodafone are falling over themselves to provide businesses with bundled pricing and service deals, and TelstraClear isn’t far behind, promising attractive pricing bundles for mobile and fixed line customers come April.

“There’s an opportunity for us to provide a melded product with Telecom mobile and TelstraClear fixed line services. This would be packaged services providing customers with savings and benefits,” says Raymond O’Brien, head of wholesale for TelstraClear.

Sounds good, but as the details are yet to be announced what’s happening right now? Victoria Crone, head of SME marketing for Telecom, says there’s no doubt that bundled services and loyalty rewards are exactly what SME customers are looking for.

“Besides cost savings, a primary reason for their interest is they do not have the time to manage multiple telecommunications providers,” says Crone.

“A SME likes to be in control of the solution they’ve got, so that when things go wrong, as they do, it’s easier to receive service for any part of a telecommunications solution via one provider. We make sure we are a one-stop-shop for products and service, so that SMEs can just select from a menu and ensure they get what they want.”

Rewarding experience
She says besides all telecommunications services turning up in one bill for easier accounting, and making bill details available online for customers, Telecom rewards customers who buy across its product and service ranges in different ways.

These include price discounts on fixed line broadband charges and mobile calling costs, and better deals on equipment pricing (particularly mobile handsets and mobile data cards designed to connect laptops and desktops to the Telecom mobile network).

One example is Telecom’s BusinessTime offer, a plan with $1 cap per call between a designated mobile phone and a business landline and 16 cents per minute for calls between Telecom landlines and Telecom mobile numbers.

Another plan is TeamBuilder Zero, which lets businesses call designated Telecom mobile numbers from a Telecom business landline, for a set monthly fee per designated number. Then there’s BusinessConnect, a bundle of land, mobile and broadband data services for new business start-ups.

“We do consider what other products and services the customer already has with us and we do look to provide better deals. We also look to future-proof the customer. For example, they may be transitioning to an IP [communications] world or want to access a Software-as-a-Service provider,” says Crone.

She says while the level of service and consulting support a business receives is dependent on its size and spend with Telecom, the company ensures sales staff have the flexibility to make on-the-spot decisions about increasing support and consulting service levels or providing discounts as a reward for customer loyalty.

“We do have a tiered pricing structure [according to business size and spend], but that sits within a spectrum. We are very competitive on price and ready to talk through a wider range of plans and options,” says Crone. “We also have mobile and landline bundles and discounts developed to meet the needs of specific industries. So we have plans for businesses in construction, agriculture, and real estate. We have rewards according to industry.”

Bundles of joy
Hamish Sansom, head of At Home and new product development for Vodafone, says bundled deals for combinations of Vodafone mobile and fixed line internet services is where a lot of Vodafone’s focus will be over the year. And he says as businesses use mobile networks to do more and more, the more Vodafone is prepared to do to get that business.

For example, Vodem and Vodafone mobile data cards for laptops and desktops are completely free for businesses that sign up to a 24-month Vodafone mobile data plans.

Vodafone’s “Fixed Line Business” plans delivered via its ISP business (previously known as ihug, but recently brought under the Vodafone brand) deliver a 57 per cent saving on what customers would normally pay for a fixed line and mobile service together, says Sansom. This includes 15 cents per minute calls to Vodafone mobiles from a Vodafone fixed line, and 9 cents per minute to national landlines. Vodafone will also cut 20 per cent off its business fixed line rental rate for businesses that sign up to a 12-month term.

In the consumer space, Sansom says many small businesses have taken up Vodafone’s offer of 1GB of free fixed line broadband data if the business also has its mobile phone business with Vodafone. Businesses that want a larger fixed line broadband allowance can have the cost of the 1GB plan discounted off the larger plan.

Have we got a deal for you
For more information on Telecom and Vodafone bundle deals, check out:

Telecom

Vodafone

8/3/14_ex_m_h

By Vikki Bland