Citizens Utilities
Guess who invented flat rate long distance in 1996? (or, “Becoming a household name on a limited budget”)

Case History
From unknown and un-named...to changing the face of the telecommunications industry.

Situation: In the US, the big three (telecoms companies, that is) have such incredibly high marketing budgets that it’s nigh on impossible for companies of lesser stature to be heard above their roar. In the early 1990’s, Citizens Utilities, a US company with a customer base of over 1.8 million people, operating five different utilities in twenty-one states, decided to take up the challenge and introduce a long distance division to complement its local market telecoms services. The Q Group was hired to shape the product offering and launch the new company (which we also named, did all the logo work for, etc. but that’s another story altogether).

The Market: The casual calling long distance market (which is one of the ways the industry refers to the “dial a code before the one and area code” long distance market ) is the most fiercely competitive of the long distance arenas - and one in which customer loyalty is virtually unknown.

Q Solution: Suspecting confusion in the marketplace, we conducted consumer research. Based on the learning, we recommended a flat rate structure be adopted. The client concurred and one rate, anywhere in the US, any time, any day was introduced to a warm consumer reception. More than a year and a half later AT&T followed suit in the states and Sprint did likewise in Canada.

Today, flat rate calling is the norm.

Oh, and how did we manage to keep an 18-month jump on the competition? (Short answer: Data-driven, “off the radar screen”, direct marketing – done in such a way that we averaged 20 – 30% response rates). And how did we manage to achieve 80% - 90% retention rates over more than a year? (For this and answers to other conundrums, click on "contact us” and we’ll send you the whole story.)