The Clueless SME: Thanks VoIP Service Providers!
Source: smithonvoip.com
Small Medium Enterprises are clueless on the possibilities that VoIP opens for additional application delivery and communications convergence. Thanks VoIP service providers, you managed to sell customers on price, and now all of us have to suffer. According to The Register, a report polling 181 UK small medium enterprises, found that of the 57% of companies that were already using VoIP, approximately 10% had no clue what convergence meant, while 40% thought convergence meant one bill for all communication services. Talk about a lack of customer education by VoIP service providers!
VoIP service providers certainly did a great job selling them on the cost savings of VoIP (most respondants were utilizing VoIP for this reason), but it makes me cringe to think of the difficulty these same providers are going to have selling additional IP applications once their VoIP subscription growth plateau. As usual, by selling and marketing price, service providers are creating a market place in which customers view the service as nothing more then a cost saving commodity. Their strategy was great for the short term “land grab”, but at what cost to future ancillary service sales?
