Reporter's Notebook: Sprint’s Service Goes Proactive

Sprint has adopted a proactive service approach via its mobile channel to lift to both customer satisfaction and revenue

Proactive customer outreach through the mobile channel is becoming more popular as customers interact more and more via their mobile phones. Companies large and small are taking advantage of the one-to-one benefits of a mobile interaction with customers.

Sprint , for example, wanted to increase the purchase of prepaid minutes to plans in its Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile brands, which together have about 10 million customers. Instead of using direct or email channels, or trying to entice customers into a physical store, Sprint sends weekly service reminders to 300,000 of its customers' mobile numbers. It prompts them to add money to their phones, notifys them about promotions, or alerts them if their phone gets lost or stolen. The goal is to reach out to customers in real time, before they call or email the company. This will help to improve retention and engage as many customers as possible, according to Brian Oakes, director of base communications and program implementation for Sprint's prepaid use. Sprint works with SoundBite Communications on the effort.

Oakes can correlate the proactive messaging to an increase in usage of minutes. "It is a direct-connect back to our care group," he says. "The customer gets their problem resolved or adds money to their phone."

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