His team are spending more time abroad than ever and are racking up huge bills on their mobiles. He is aware of various solutions in the market which enable people to connect to data networks when abroad for a fixed cost but he isn’t sure if that’s better than going straight for a dedicated SIM card which has special international allowances on it. Logging on to dodgy cafe WiFi isn’t cutting the mustard either and he is worried that these unsecure connections could leave his business vulnerable to attack. He has heard of a few solutions that enable you to still present a local number when abroad from a mobile which can cut costs but what do you do when you don’t have a WiFi connection? He needs some more information
Cellhire
A delightful receptionist who I didn’t catch the name of picked up the phone to me and was happy to listen to my request. She explained that they did a wide array of solutions to suit many different types of business. What we would end up with would depend on how we are currently using the devices abroad and how we wanted to use them going forwards. I was told Josh in the sales team would be the best person to ask and I was promptly handed over.
Josh picked up the call from here and said our story was a familiar one. He asked me several questions about the business and where employees were travelling to. I could tell Josh was keen to get some information over to me to look over but I wanted to keep him on the phone. He started asking me questions about current bills and how much data each person was using. I couldn’t give him exact numbers but gave him ball park figures and the main areas employees travelled to.
Josh said he would put something together and send it over via email for me to look at. Then he said we would need a consultation, which would be free, and that would give me a better idea of what would be the most useful, and cost effective, for the business. I gave josh my details and waited.
Later that afternoon I got a call back from Josh and he informed me that he had sent over some information which included a few questions about usage I would need to go and find out. Josh was eager to know if I had read the email and if I had any initial reactions. As I hadn’t had a chance to digest it at that point I said I would go away and find out what he needed before we spoke again.
Total 22/30 – Pretty solid. Josh has scored well here mostly because of the way he has approached the conversation. Although he may not have had much information to give me upfront, he has gone away and delivered… and then followed up with a phone call.
Dataroam
After a short tussle with the automated menu I got through to Emily who was surprisingly chipper considering it was a Monday. I asked for advice and I was told that they could offer me either a SIM card which would cover the countries we went to or we may like to consider a MiFi device. Emily told me that typically users save about 90% on calls with their SIMs and we could connect up to ten devices to any of their MiFi devices.
I needed more detail, I told her I didn’t know which one was better to go for as the people using them were quite happy to call in via WiFi, so perhaps we didn’t need a SIM card. Emily said the best thing to do would be to speak to her director who could run me through everything in a bit more detail. She took my details and I waited for the call.
Unfortunately the call I was expecting that same day never happened. It was a shame because the initial call with Emily went well.
Nul points
WorldSIM
I hate being left on hold and normally deploy a five minute rule in the face of any type of (usually horrendous) on-hold music. WorldSIM had some particularly awful music to serenade me whist I waited. Luckily, roughly four and a half minutes in Eleanor picked up the phone.
The line wasn’t great which didn’t help things from the start but I managed to tell Eleanor what I needed. She wanted more specifics and asked if I wanted just calling or data too. I explained I needed a bit of everything but the calls were up for debate as the users were happy to use WiFi to call out.
Eleanor didn’t waste much time in saying I needed one of their international SIMs which would work in over 200 countries. I asked how that would work between each country in terms of joining networks etc. and I was told that users could simply select the recommended network from their phone and manually register when they arrived in a new country.
It was at this point I sensed a bit of frustration in Eleanor’s voice and I was told the website has all the information on it and I could find out what I need from there. I didn’t want to let the conversation drop there so I pushed on and asked about data bundles etc. World SIM offers up to 1GB of data in a thirty day period which seemed a bit paltry to me. I was assured if users go over that then it is quite easy to top up via the WorldSIM website.
I enquired about MiFi devices but I was promptly told that because I needed calling as well then its best I just go for the SIM card. It was at this point Eleanor referred me back to their website and said if I had a look on there I would find everything I would need. I went on my way without even giving her an email address.
Total 15/30 – Very average! To be fair, this could have easily been marked less if Eleanor didn’t have a compelling solution to offer. I was disappointed to get referred to the website and even worse, she didn’t get any contact details out of me.
Round up
I was a little surprised this month. No one really blew me away, and of the three only one person came close to being a decent standard. It was a shame I didn’t get a call back from dataroam, their website gives the impression they are a small business and I would have liked to see them come through with a good result. Eleanor at WorldSIM seemed to be quite irritated that I even dared to call her and ask questions but gave me a solution that would do the job. I either wasn’t a hot enough sales lead or I just caught her half way through her Monday afternoon Twix fix and I was interrupting that well needed rush of sugar and chocolate. Josh has to take it this month for his sheer persistence and follow up.