Mystery Caller: Business handsets

Mystery Caller has been rewarded by his boss for all his hard work with a promotion. He now has to go out on the road and has been given a budhet of £35 a month to find the best business-focussed handset. Can the networks look beyond BlackBerry?

6: Virgin Mobile

Halfway through the call she asked me: “What is your monthly budget?” Had she been ignoring me for the first three minutes?

Manner – 3/5
Understanding – 1/5
Knowledge – 2/5
Helpfulness – 2/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 2/5
Total – 12/30

5: Three

“You practically have access to all phones when paying £35 amonth, so it just depends.” Depends on what? I was confused

Manner – 3/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 2/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 17/30

4: O2

Straight away, Natalie wanted to understand what I wanted from a contract to suit my needs. This was encouraging

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 21/30

3: Vodafone

Kelly explained that it would be 100 minutes less a month but the 1,000 landline minutes would make up for that

Manner –3/5
Understanding – 3/5
Knowledge – 3/5
Helpfulness – 3/5
Clarity – 3/5
Overall – 3/5
Total – 24/30

2: Orange

David explained I could register up to one BlackBerry account and 10 other email accounts on the handset. He was spot on

Manner – 4/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 5/5
Helpfulness – 5/5
Clarity – 4/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 26/30

1: T-Mobile

He mentioned BlackBerry Enterprise Server and was the only CSA to do that

Manner – 5/5
Understanding – 4/5
Knowledge – 4/5
Helpfulness – 5/5
Clarity – 5/5
Overall – 4/5
Total – 27/30

Summary

This was a closely fought Mystery Caller with three operators all very near to taking the winner’s prize.

However, Virgin Mobile was way o the pace. Maria didn’t seem to listen to me and her recommendations and explanations were woeful. Gary at Three lacked clarity with his answers and O2’s Natalie put in a solid all-round performance.

Kelly at Vodafone put in a strong shift and was clear and understanding. It was a very close-run thing between the two companies that make up Everything Everywhere but Jamie’s knowledge and recommendation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server was the clincher, something considered essential in the B2B market today.

Full review in Mobile News issue 499 (October 10, 2011).