All highway convenience stores sell the same gas, but they compete on the extras. Transport service providers can learn from this as they venture on summer vacation.

As we pack up for summer vacation and hit the highways with spouses, kids and family, we all become experts at identifying where to stop for gas or other “necessities”. Which station offers the best access to the highway? Which one looks as if it has a modern convenience center with food and coffee? Which one appears to be clean and efficient? Oh yes, at 70mph in 3 seconds I can discern how well the gas station will meet spousal mandates and keep the junior influencers happy!

The convenience store business for gas station owners has grown over the past few decades. In fact, an industry trade association recently said that “convenience stores have evolved from gas stations to retailers that happen to sell gas.” The core product is fuel, but they have diversified into selling many high-margin products: candy, gum, soft drinks and more. They are strategically working to increase the value of their customer interaction; one-stop shopping.

For the past several years telcos have been selling their own version of fuel: transport services in regular, super and premium speeds.

But now, customers are now looking for more than just fuel. The telco’s customer portal is your highway frontage and key to increasing revenues, margins and retaining customers. Does your portal represent your brand and provide clients a reason to get off the highway? Clean, modern, easy to use. And when you get them in, can they seamlessly access valuable services such as bandwidth reporting?

Not unlike meeting the spousal mandates, your customers often need to respond in seconds to demands: Is it the network? Is the circuit up or down? How’s the circuit performing? What’s the latency, utilization, speed? What can we do to correct it?

Real Life Use Case: Customer Fills Up!

A leading CE2.0 provider trialed OcularIP’s customer ordering capability on their portal. The first day it was released a customer upgraded their bandwidth. The carrier’s customer noted: “We had logged on in the past to review performance. This time we saw that we were exceeding our CIR and needed more bandwidth so we ordered it then and there – no calls, no waiting. What we need when we need it”.

Now that’s convenience!

The above transport service carrier recognized revenue, margin and a happy customer immediately. How much time could you save if you didn’t have customers calling about service issues, reports and user/account information? How much more money could you make if your customers could buy when they need it? If these factors will make a positive impact on your business, it’s time to consider OcularIP.