Being a Vodafone customer is about to get easier

Stuart Corner
Friday, 15 February 2008 03:25

Your IT - Home IT

Vodafone is to deploy SNAPin’s SelfService software to give its customers the ability to automatically resolve common problems directly on their mobile phone: such as fixing configuration errors. making account inquiries and to have "more control of when and how they access help, quickly and in an intuitive way." Vodafone and SNAPin described the deal as "global" but the announcement gave no indication as to where or when the SNAPin software would be rolled out.

SNAPin is a UK based startup founded in 2003 by "renowned technologist Brian Roundtree". Despite having won several awards and having scored trials with major cellular operators, this is the company's first announced contract for a commercial service.

SNAPin SelfService "intercepts calls to customer support organisations and presents each user with personalised tools to resolve most support issues on the device, quickly and easily solving as many as three out of four customer problems without requiring a call to the service centre." It "automatically repairs critical device and network settings, such as those required for roaming, messaging, or data networking." You can read a more detailed review of what the company does (and our prediction that a big deal might be imminent!) in this iTWire blog.

Paul de Laat, global director of customer value management for Vodafone, said: "We have conducted thorough trials with SNAPin and it was very clear that self-help directly on the handset improves overall customer satisfaction and grows loyalty. It was also evident that this kind of differentiated service could potentially stimulate additional revenue as customers become more confident and interested to try new service offerings.”