Carriers Training People To Use Data
A great writeup by Alan Reiter linking to an article by Peggy Anne Salz at TheFeature about how Orange changed the focus of their sales process to encourage their salesforce to focus not on quantity of sales, but on teaching subscribers how to use the data services available to them. The wireless carriers have been bitching and complaining about not getting people to use data services, and perhaps that's because most people don't know they're there, or don't know how to use them. However, by focusing on that aspect of the offering (and making sure the sales incentives lined up), Orange is seeing higher ARPUs as people actually start using wireless data services. Hopefully, now that people are talking about this, other carriers will realize this is the way to go. It's unfortunate that companies that sell complex products still think that sales and marketing means only "how can we get people to buy," rather than "how can we provide people with something they find useful."
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