This is a little jumbled to me and it has the glaring problem that what I really want, to see what my usage looks like, whether that's an issue and an easy way to fix it, simply does not appear.
It's certainly an interesting thing for the curious, but it doesn't provide any important information to me qua user. Even the presumably important things, like data rates or dropped calls, aren't really: I have very little (no?) control over how this impacts me since my behaviors are prescribed largely by external demands, I simply hope the network cooperates.
I don't think there will be any issues that you can fix. "Walk somewhere else to get better coverage" is the level of control that customers have.
What carriers can do is tell you what caused the problems you had, what if any patterns exist (map), their assessment of performance, the impact, cause, and resolution of problems, and how your experience compares with others. Basically, demonstrate through transparency that they're confident in the service they're providing.
As far as being jumbled, I agree. They're definitely first drafts. Taking it further would depend on what data a specific carrier already collects.
Well, that's kind of the thing: it's not so much "customer-facing" as "geek-facing".
It doesn't really do the customer much good at all except tell them that their service sucks or, contrary to their experience (why else are they looking?), that it doesn't. Either way, you're making people angry and not doing anything about it.
For people who actually care about and can make sense of the information, it's more about curiosity than transparency. The information there could all be falsified, there'd be almost no way to hold the carrier to account.
It's more a UX searching for a carrier, particularly one who's built their brand on real customer service and honesty. You know, the one who would, at the end of your dashboard say "we think we dropped the ball last month" before offering you free minutes, messages or megabytes. Otherwise, it's just a frustration engine even if the carrier isn't doing anything bad.
It is very much a UX searching for a carrier. I think the most likely US carriers would be Sprint, or if they could get the data, Virgin Mobile's MVNA.
As far as the value of transparency without accountability, I disagree. Carriers have a choice between a frustrated customer, and a frustrated customer who knows the carrier is aware of and working on the issue, tracks the same things that they care about, and is comfortable sharing them.
As you said, that customer is still powerless (short of changing carriers). They're more confident in the provider, though, and the provider now has direct line to their savviest customers - the ones that some are already trying to reach on Twitter and GetSatisfaction. "New tower in your neighborhood. We expect 10% fewer dropped calls. <Share on Twitter>"
We've already seen a bit of this, like AT&T's Mark the Spot app to report a dropped call. Customer is still powerless, they just feel a little better about the end result.
We are working on something related: http://chill.ly/. We aren't as focused on dropped calls as I don't think even the carriers track that, but we will help you save some money.
For me, cost control was a concern 10-12 years ago, but I pay for unlimited usage, have for years, and consider it cheap for the value.
I perceive that among folks with smartphones, doing more with the phone is higher priority than saving money (or even getting a better value). Upgrading to an iPhone 4 was totally elective, and that 3rd $2 game or ringtone didn't add much value. Of course, if I could press a button and save $30/month, I'd do it, I just don't think I'd trade away services.
I think it's a totally different story with the feature phone market (which will soon evolve into the prev-gen/smaller smartphone market).
We haven't proven who exactly our customers are, so these are still loosely validated assumptions, but we're doing our best to learn more about them.
Here's what we think so far.
A chill.ly customer:
* Is a customer of major telco in Canada (for the time being, at least).
* Has an app phone / smartphone / phone with a decent browser.
* Has monitored their personal finances, sometimes with services like mint
* Is a a premium customer for the telco ($70+/month)
* Ignores their phone bills, whether they're digital or print
* Typically sees their monthly bill as a line item on a bank statement
* Spends an average of 30-60 minutes choosing a provider, plan and device.
* Typically uses their phone in professional and personal contexts
* Travels out of their coverage zone
* Has combined many options to form their plan (IE chooses a base plan and adds various options/add-ons)
* Has been a customer of more than one telco in their lifetime
* Is concerned that changing their plan will result in a worse deal.
Very cool summary (and that does describe me). Just subscribed to the beta list.
BTW, I'd be willing to do extra legwork to test it. If you eventually add CSV import, AT&T has CSV (and XLS) CDR downloads. Feel free to email me if you need a sample.
There are two main areas we are interested in: People who pay for unlimited usage (like yourself) who might be overpaying and not actually using their plan more than a metered plan might offer for cheaper.
The second segment are users who are getting burned with overages because they don't understand their usage properly.
We also want to help people navigate the complicated wireless market as many of the major carriers have 1000s (literally) of combinations.
It's certainly an interesting thing for the curious, but it doesn't provide any important information to me qua user. Even the presumably important things, like data rates or dropped calls, aren't really: I have very little (no?) control over how this impacts me since my behaviors are prescribed largely by external demands, I simply hope the network cooperates.