Mobile Bill Shock: How an IVR System Can Help

Bill shock has been on the front of newspapers, online- and print-based, recently as the number of mobile users worldwide increases dramatically each month, and with that increases the risk for faulty charges and erroneous roaming charges. Bill shock is real, but preventable, and the experts over at Interact, Inc., have expounded upon how certain elements of an IVR system can be deployed to help.

“Bill Shock can be prevented by addressing two main issues, the lack of real-time insight of mobile usage by the consumer, and inability of the mobile user to easily update, change, or add funds to their account to thwart overage fees,” wrote Interact officials on the company blog. These two obstacles certainly create hindrances when developing transparent and satisfactory customer relationships. Luckily, there are remedies.

Real-time billing and rating platforms, in addition to online charging tools, are available, and they can be deployed on an operator’s network to resolve the two previously mentioned problems that contribute to the proliferation of bill shock. Interact’s Invigorate solution is one such product which enables subscribers to “confidently utilize the services provided by their mobile operator, without the threat of Bill Shock, by providing greater knowledge to their account information and usage and enabling greater flexibility for subscriber’s when the need to add funds or change their current plan arises.”

The overall trust between the customer and the network provider is another important consideration to take into account when remedying the occurrence of bill shock. High-profile bill shock cases have made their ways to mainstream media sources, which have led to general public discontent and distrust of wireless providers. This initial distrust makes for a poor customer relationship and management practices.

It behooves every business in the wireless space to look into real-time billing platforms in order to maintain a trusted brand and a loyal customer base.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Tammy Wolf