WLR

Info and resources

Premium lines offer a fantastic opportunity to gain new business and build customer loyalty. To help you move quickly and take advantage of this opportunity we've pulled together information and resources you can use to plan your Premium lines marketing campaign.

In this section you'll find information covering:

• Market insight
  An idea of the target audience, based on our research
• Benefits at a glance
  Covering the key benefits in selling Premium Lines
• WLR3 benefits
  If you're not already enjoying all the benefits of WLR3 then find out what you're missing

• Case study
  Highlighting the benefits of being able to confidently work from home
• Presentation
  The future of teleworking. See how technology will enable “FreE-working” in the future
• Marketing resources
  Including campaign ideas, straplines and key benefits to use in your own marketing push

Market insight

Who needs a Premium line?

Small-medium enterprises. For a significant proportion of SMEs, external suppliers are not always seen to be providing the level of advice or support to enable greater engagement.
Lack of confidence in the advice and recommendations provided by suppliers may be making SMEs hesitant about investing in changes/improvements to their current set-up.

This presents an opportunity for you to re-engage with your SME customers and provide them with advice surrounding the additional value to be gained from a WLR Premium line at very little additional cost to them.

Homeworkers. Homeworking is becoming more and more popular - for both small businesses that can't afford dedicated premises and larger companies looking to cut office and travel costs. It also presents a family-friendly option to new parents or part-time contact centre staff.

Premium lines in the home also provide greater flexibility and resilience. Having business lines and services means neither mother nature nor transport disputes can throw businesses off course.

New businesses. Around 7,000 new businesses enter the UK market place every week. Many new businesses fail within their first year of trading and, in turbulent economic times, it is important to safeguard fledgling businesses with reliable communications.

A large proportion of these new businesses will start from home and may not be aware of how they would benefit from a Premium line. A phone line is critical to any company's future success. A Premium line takes this to the next level by including a business directory listing, expert proactive monitoring and quicker repair times.

Moving or closing businesses. Our own analysis shows that smaller “SOHO” type businesses may be tackling the recession by closing premises more quickly than they are cancelling lines. This is, in part, due to people choosing to close external offices or shops and trade from home (moving the lines to their home). This presents an opportunity to offer to transfer small office lines to homes for free.

Similarly SMEs are cancelling lines more quickly than they are closing sites - perhaps because they are laying people off and cancelling lines but not always closing sites. For businesses to be in a position to take advantage of a future upturn in the economy, you can advise them to retain their lines - making it much cheaper and easier for them to get up and running quickly, than having to organise reconnections.

 

Case study

BT's Caroline Waters has been promoting the benefits of flexible working, in the wake of snowfalls earlier this year that left many businesses across the UK struggling.

The disruption caused by the weather on Monday 2nd February 2009 alone is believed to have cost the economy around £1.2 billion, with one in five people failing to make it to work.

But in an article in The Times at the weekend, BT's director of people and policy explained how working from home could be an inexpensive alternative to taking the day off.

“Once you've got the PC with the broadband line and a phone, that is pretty much all you need for occasional home-based working,” she said. “It really isn't complicated or difficult.”

Caroline was one of a number of representatives from information communication technology companies talking about how flexible working could enable businesses to cope better when faced with problems like the recent weather.

But she said there were also many other benefits. With more than 70,000 flexible workers, BT believes it has so far saved 100,000 tonnes of CO2 and done away with the need for 800,000 face-to-face meetings.

At the same time, the need for less office space has led to a saving of £500 million in building costs - while absenteeism has dropped by around 20 per cent and productivity has risen by up to 30 per cent.

The benefits of homeworking can include:

• Staff productivity levels boosted through more comfortable working environments and less office-related distractions
• Employee motivation rising because of better work-life balance and less stressful surroundings
• Reduced likelihood of staff sickness due to illnesses circulated in the office
• Savings made through reduction in office premises and equipment
• Broader employment pool including disabled people who may be housebound
• More mobile sales staff who are based closer to clients instead of the office
• Higher retention of employees such as working parents

How you can help your business customers work remotely

If you think that homeworking is suitable for your business customers then you can bundle value add products such as remote access, security, business email, online workspace and conferencing with premium lines that enables them to do just that.

 

Presentation

The future of teleworking

Today we are seeing the growth of a different and newer way of working. nVision (The Future Foundation), has analysed this trend, and shows how new technology and working patterns will help establish “FreE-working”.

View the presentation here

 

Benefits at a glance

Key benefits and marketing messages

1. Where do you want to be - in the business directory or the residential phone book?
Only WLR Premium lines attract a business directory entry which is applied to the OSIS database. OSIS is the UK's central depositary for directory information. So your WLR Premium line directory entry is available to all downstream directory providers including written, online and telephone. If you are a residential customer you can of course choose to be ex-directory.

2. Do you want the security of knowing the experts are keeping an eye on your lines?
Openreach has 21,000 engineers servicing a network that connects 5,500 local exchanges and over 30 million end users. Openreach pro-actively monitors Premium lines for potential faults.

3. And if something does go wrong, do you need your lines up and working again quickly?
You get faster actual repair times with Premium lines. 48 hours or by midnight for appointment repairs compared to 96 hours (for Basic). Service Level Guarantee compensation payments become payable after only 48 hours on WLR Premium lines compared with 96 hours for WLR Basic lines.

Repair by the end of next working day and guaranteed Saturday appointments if you need them; exactly what your business customers want most.

4. Do you run events and exhibitions or provide temporary site offices and Payphone lines?
Site offices / events & exhibitions and payphones are only available with WLR Premium lines.

5. Do you need your lines as quickly as possible?
Premium lines are supplied faster than basic lines.

 

Marketing resources

The background information above should help you understand the benefits of Premium lines and define your potential customers. Your marketing campaign will need to communicate these benefits in the most appropriate way to your chosen target audience.

You'll need to think of:

• A campaign theme

This might be “security” or “peace of mind” or some other slant we've not thought of that chimes with your target audience.

• A strapline

A campaign strapline should sum up your offer and encourage people to read more or dig deeper. It might be fun, or hard-hitting, but should work with any supporting images to provide a coherent message.

• Supporting images

People like pictures, and the right image can be a very powerful marketing tool. You can find royalty free image libraries (such iStockphoto) online

• Your audience

Large organisations, small-medium businesses, homeworkers, residential customers. The potential market here is huge, so you would be best to focus on one area and adapt your theme, benefit messages and images to capturing the interests of your target audience.

Email copy examples

Example 1

Get WLR Premium. It's cheaper than a cappuccino

• The ability to connect a PBX
• Proactive monitoring to detect potential faults
• Shorter repair times (compared to Basic lines)
• A business directory listing

How much is this worth to your business? Just £2.33 a quarter more than a Basic line rental seems a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Example 2

Wake up, smell the coffee and relax with WLR Premium service.
If anything ever goes wrong, we aim to repair Premium lines within 48 hours, that's two days quicker than for Basic lines. For your business, this might mean the difference between plain sailing and going under. It also provides extra peace of mind for ever more internet dependent households.
Just 77p a month more than Basic line rental is a small price to pay for this level of security and reliability.

Example 3

Start ups and small businesses can't risk being out of contact. You need a service provider that keeps them connected.

Premium lines are proactively monitored to prevent potential faults. For your business, this might mean the difference between plain sailing and going under.

Just 77p a month more is a small price to pay to for the reliability and security of a Premium line.