Musings of a Marketing Maven

The idea of phone com­pa­nies lis­ten­ing to their cus­tomers is per­haps an oxy­moron, but I haven’t given up hope.

Brows­ing Verizon’s list of sup­ported cell phones, I was struck by their obvi­ous lack of needs-based seg­men­ta­tion. Like most car­ri­ers, they seem to be pre­oc­cu­pied with the mar­ket for feature-packed Swiss Army knife style phones-cum-camera-cum key­board. Voice qual­ity seems to be an after-thought…

I’ve been look­ing for two years for a sim­ple phone that makes no com­pro­mises when it comes to voice clar­ity or audi­bil­ity (or ease of dial­ing). To no avail.

When you read their cus­tomers’ reviews of the cur­rent gen­er­a­tion of mobile phones, you can’t help but notice that there’s a com­mu­nity of frus­trated Ver­i­zon sub­scribers out there who just want a sim­ple phone that deliv­ers on the basics really well:

• Long bat­tery life
• Clear voice qual­ity — no muf­fled audio, no “hol­low tin can” voices, no clar­ity prob­lems caused by the carrier’s over use of com­pres­sion — deliv­ers a great audio expe­ri­ence for both caller and the per­son called — nat­ural sound­ing voice
• Easy-to-use but­tons when dial­ing num­bers, even for peo­ple with “nor­mal” size fingers
• Won’t turn on, dial ran­domly or “speed dial” when dropped into a purse or backpack
• Vis­i­ble caller ID so you know who’s call­ing you
• Sim­ple but ele­gant — no unnec­es­sary frills that con­sume bat­tery life or add ounces to the car­ry­ing weight

This is a phone opti­mized for the human voice — not for tex­ting or replac­ing your cam­era or camcorder.

As more and more peo­ple ditch their land­lines, I’m sure there will be increas­ing demand for such a phone — at least among Baby Boomers who still value spo­ken con­ver­sa­tions and person-to-person dia­logue. What it truly means to be “social.”

And no — we don’t need a 911 panic but­ton right in the mid­dle of the screen or key­pad. (Verizon’s pre­vi­ous keep-it-simple phone was obvi­ously aimed at techno­phobe seniors.) I bought one for my hus­band — but he made me return it as soon as he saw the 911 but­ton. He was embar­rassed to be seen at work car­ry­ing a phone clearly designed for senior citizens.

Yes, I use (and love) an iPhone for work. It’s usu­ally good enough for mak­ing or receiv­ing calls, but can be dis­ap­point­ing when it comes to audi­bil­ity. The speaker is still too quiet at times (even with the new iPhone 3Gs).

Plac­ing calls with an iPhone can be a has­sle for those times when you just want to make a quick call, and you don’t want to mess around with Apple’s UI to search for your con­tact. Or you’re out in broad day­light and can’t see the on-screen key­pad. (Or you’re a scofflaw and want to dial the phone while stopped at a red light.) And you haven’t yet read the man­ual to learn how to pro­gram your phone for voice-activated dialing.

Or like me, your fam­ily uses Ver­i­zon so you want to make and receive per­sonal calls on the same net­work your fam­ily uses.

My Motorola Razr is wear­ing out. Over time the key­pad but­tons get sticky (I’m now on the sec­ond phone — same prob­lem). These sticky keys cause repeated mis­di­als. Sadly, there’s noth­ing in Verizon’s line-up that moti­vates me to replace it (or re-up for another two years).

I just hope that one of these days Ver­i­zon will delight me (and peo­ple like me) with a phone opti­mized for the human voice. And ease of dialing.

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