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Voda’s “value” consumer push
Vodafone is changing the way its rewards its indirect consumer partners by putting increased focus on the value of business they deliver, instead of simply paying for volume. Vodafone said it had levelled the ‘playing field’ also between its indirect and direct channels.
The operator addressed 80 representative from 30 of its indirect channel partners at its head office in Newbury last week (May 6) to discuss its strategy over the next 12 months. Those in attendance included Phones 4U, Carphone Warehouse and Argos, as well as all six of its distribution partners including Data Select and Elite Mobile.
Vodafone recently aligned its internal management team to provide a “greater emphasis” on its indirect and direct consumer channels, led by new UK head of channel partners Nick Birtwistle.
The new structure, trialled late last year by four of its indirect partners, will see dealers rewarded for adding additional services – including data, high ARPU devices such as smartphones on prepay and contract, and for reducing levels of box breaking.
Birtwistle said: “We are moving the way we reward our partners from volume to value. If they can deliver higher quality business then they will earn more. We are now actively talking to all our partners about the new volume to value terms.
“We have been raising the profile of the indirect channel and have restructured our consumer business and created a level playing field between the direct and indirect parts of the business. I now have a greater focus on what I want to do and what our partners want to do.
“Historically we used to reward partners purely for volume. Now we are going to reward them for quality. That doesn’t mean we don’t want volume; in fact, we will encourage partners that deliver quality business to add much more volume.”
Vodafone UK chief executive Guy Laurence, also in attendance, explained the “importance” of the indirect consumer channel and said Vodafone will continue to invest in it to improve efficiency.
Vodafone conducted a partner survey last December asking for ways it can improve the channel and make it “the easiest network” to deal with. Birtwistle claims the feedback has been used to shape its new channel proposition.
“The key message is we are positioning ourselves as the easiest network to deal with. We have listened to what our partners are saying.
“We wanted to know and understand the positives with dealing with Vodafone and where we can improve. The feedback gave us a lot of great ideas for us to be more efficient.”