Finding A Better Way of Buying Data Packages
This personal exploration begins with my own experience when I want to buy data package for my handphone. I find the experience quite tiring as I need to search for the plan that suit my needs for some time and there are so many packages or offers on the provider app. That was made me curious how people do this kind of activity.
The Personal Project
The project was aimed to study people behavior when purchasing mobile data package and design solutions for the app if there are interesting cases that can be solved. I took about 2 weeks effectively to do this project. Firstly, I do some research on the people’s behavior when purchase their data package. The analysis of the research result then will determine the next step of the project.
When the problem statement and the proposed solution were determined, I then started to sketch the design and make low-fidelity prototype. After considering the information structure, color scheme, and typography, I created the high-fidelity design. This prototype represents the general flow of data package purchasing in provider app, not a certain internet provider in Indonesia. So, it will be best to consider this as a general recommendation for information structuring of the data package purchasing flow.
Research
I began the research process by conducting quantitative research through questionnaire. Target respondents were people using prepaid data package plan. There are two kind of data package subscription plan, pre-paid and post-paid. The latter is a recurring plan which people do not need to buy data package plan repeatedly and the bill of their data consumption will be charged at the end of the payment period, basically that is the way providers keep their loyal customers. This research was meant for the pre-paid users.
Generally, the main purpose of the questionnaire was to know how people buy their data package. The emerging of digital transformation has provided many ways people can buy their data package. The old ways also still applicable like bank transfer through ATM (now mobile banking too), offline kiosk (stores where people can buy airtime credit and data package), and USSD code (*123#, etc). The new ways are using mobile app, e-wallet app, mobile banking, e-commerce app, super app (Gojek and Grab) and the providers’ own app (MyTelkomsel, myXL, myIndosat, etc).
The scope of the research just considering when people buy their data package and pre-paid only. Because the general flow is buying airtime credit first (generally using mobile banking, ATM, e-wallet, offline kiosk, or wherever people put their money), then they buy the data package. Some people may straight buying data package only without buying credit, but that will be impacting their mobile number active period and inability to do phone calls or SMS.
The questionnaire was gathering data of the following from customers:
- Gender
- Age
- Job
- Internet providers used (Telkomsel, XL, Indosat, etc)
- Spending for data package per month
- Data package period that usually bought (monthly, weekly, or daily)
- Buying method (how they buy their data package)
- Short explanation for the reason regarding that buying method
Research Result and Analysis
The questionnaire has gathered data from around 32 respondents that can be mapped by these graphs below.
- The respondents’ genders were fairly distributed with 17 females and 15 males.
- Respondents’ ages were ranging from 16 until 35 years old, with majority age 25 years old (12 peoples).
- Their mobile data package providers were dominated by Telkomsel (20 people), followed by XL (8 people), Indosat (6 people), and 3 (2 people), align with the known market share (noted that there were 4 people using 2 providers).
- Around one third of them usually buy their data package using different method than using providers app. The methods were varied from offline kiosk to e-wallet, but mainly using USSD code.
- Almost all respondents buy their data package subscription on monthly basis.
Other findings that I consider interesting are these:
- The percentage of people using method other than providers’ app for Telkomsel, XL, Indosat, and 3 (Tri) users are 25%, 50%, 66.7%, and 50% respectively (need bigger sample size to confirm the accuracy). More least popular the provider, more users do not use the providers’ app (the price scheme also getting cheaper, like how Indosat is generally cheaper than Telkomsel and XL).
- The major reason of people who buy using providers’ app is simplicity, easy, or fast method, the other reason is around useful features like tracking usage or automatic billing, only 1 respondent said that the method is cheaper (can provide comparatively cheaper data package).
- 1. About 9 out of 12 people who buy using other method said that their reason is cheaper option, they find the data package offered by the other method other than providers’ app are generally cheaper, the other reasons are familiarity, easy/fast, and reluctancy to register their number in the app.
Based on these findings, I concluded that people who buy using other method value price more than other aspects. People who using the providers’ app seems not really bother by the price, with around 75% people with Telkomsel numbers also using MyTelkomsel app, they more likely find the simplicity, tracking feature, or the wide signal coverage to be more valuable than the price (Telkomsel is the market leader with the widest signal coverage and also the most expensive mobile data package provider in Indonesia).
In-Depth Interview
I decided to dig deeper on the people who using-other-method’s behavior by conducting in-depth interview. Because of the limited resource and research period, I can only interview two respondents successfully. They are usually using e-wallet (Gopay) and USSD to buy their monthly data package. The purpose of this interview was to understand their behavior of not using provider app as the main method to buy data package.
Based on the interview, the user persona of these user segments can be represented by these two people:
These two personas depict two completely different context of data package buying behavior. One persona data consumption is dominated by wifi usage, live in private house/apartment, working from home, and rarely going out during the pandemic. The reason to buy is only for a little consumption while going out (mainly when buying groceries).
The other persona’s data consumption is dominated by mobile data package, live in a big co-living (the wifi is often out of service, maybe can be caused by many people used it at the same time), still working from office during pandemic, and relatively more often to go out compare to the first persona (hence bigger data spending).
In order to attract these user segments to use provider’s app, a more inclusive, hassle-free, and fast buying flow is needed. That is a way to easily find the cheap and suitable data package when needed (the use case is when they suddenly ran out of package while outside, because the notification of data run out usually get ignored maybe due to ineffective copy or because through SMS who also rarely seen).
Proposed Solution
The new buying flow actually not completely different than the usual. I just tried to make promos more prioritized in the information structure on the app so our target segment can do their task easily in urgent situation. Actually, some providers have introduced a “pulsa-free” feature that can help people to access their provider’s app, or still using internet, when their package already zero byte without easily draining out their airtime credit. When facing with the package options, I provided a way for them to sort the order based on price and also subscription period (monthly, weekly, daily, with monthly being the default because majority use).
Other Consideration
I realize the current strategy deployed by internet providers on their app is a mixed of business needs. In order to make a seamless experience for the targeted segments, a cooperation between business, marketing, and research team also needed. The matter of clear messaging and effective copywriting of the packages need marketing help who understand both the customers and competitors. This study case also still far from appropriate from research and design perspectives, so a constructive critique and suggestion are appreciated. Thank you for reading!
