Friends and Family Plans

[surfshoptom]

Hi - I have a little app that I thought was a great idea. It runs on your computer - not on your phone. I had a college kid write it for me to help me save from overage charges. Every time you run it, it tells you which numbers should be in your Friends and Family list. It was so helpful, I thought I could sell it to other Verizon customers that were on plans that involved Friends and Family lists. My marketing has been limited, but completely ineffective. I haven't sold ONE COPY!
I'd like to hear your comments. Was it just a bad assumption that other people would like help managing their F&F lists? Do you think it's a good idea, but suspect my marketing is the problem? If so, HELP!! Any ideas how to effectively market would be fantastic.
Do you think $15 is too much? My experience has been that when you go over, it's usually WAY more than $15.

I hope this post isn't inappropriate. I don't know where else to solicit opinions and/or advice.

Thanks.

 

[Skull One]

Hi - I have a little app that I thought was a great idea. It runs on your computer - not on your phone. I had a college kid write it for me to help me save from overage charges. Every time you run it, it tells you which numbers should be in your Friends and Family list. It was so helpful, I thought I could sell it to other Verizon customers that were on plans that involved Friends and Family lists. My marketing has been limited, but completely ineffective. I haven't sold ONE COPY!
I'd like to hear your comments. Was it just a bad assumption that other people would like help managing their F&F lists? Do you think it's a good idea, but suspect my marketing is the problem? If so, HELP!! Any ideas how to effectively market would be fantastic.
Do you think $15 is too much? My experience has been that when you go over, it's usually WAY more than $15.

I hope this post isn't inappropriate. I don't know where else to solicit opinions and/or advice.

Thanks.

While your idea has merit, the issue is the Friend and Family list is now basically obsolete. It has already been dying since 2011 when VZW made mobile to mobile on the same network free. Lots of families switched to that plan. In fact the switch rate was huge enough that it actually impacted land line retention for Verizon as people when to cell phones only. With the new Family Share plan that was introduced two months ago, now all cell phone calls are free. So basically your market has been reduced to legacy contracts (older than 3 years with no adjustments) and targeting them isn't going to be easy.

 

[surfshoptom]

You may be right although Verizon to Verizon was unlimited back in the day as well. The F&F list was for non-Verizon numbers and land lines. Those numbers were then treated like they were a Verizon number. Oh well, darn it.

 

[Danimal]

I wouldn't say it's a lost cause because of any of the above. Verizon has had free calling between Verizon users for some time. Where the family and friends comes into play is between multiple carriers as well as landlines. I know plenty of people, such as me, who still have and will continue to have landlines. Now the new Share Everything plan allows you to have unlimited calling to any number. However, when I upgrade to the I5 I will not be switching my plan as it will cause my bill to go up about $20\mo. When I upgrade I will just switch to a 2GB data plan and keep the rest of my package the same.

Where your app fails is that you can log on to Verizon and run a report for the previous month and see who you top called numbers were. Right there Verizon is doing what your app does....and it's free. Even if Verizon didn't have a plan like that all a user would have to do is export their call info into Excel and then sort the data by the field that hold the telephone numbers. This could accomplish the same thing with minimal work. The idea of the app is nice but trying to charge $15 for it when there are plenty of free ways to get the info isn't going to help your cause.

I just wanted to add that this wasn't meant to bash your idea...just show you that there are alternatives to it out there already.

 

[hookbill]

I wouldn't say it's a lost cause because of any of the above. Verizon has had free calling between Verizon users for some time. Where the family and friends comes into play is between multiple carriers as well as landlines. I know plenty of people, such as me, who still have and will continue to have landlines. Now the new Share Everything plan allows you to have unlimited calling to any number. However, when I upgrade to the I5 I will not be switching my plan as it will cause my bill to go up about $20\mo. When I upgrade I will just switch to a 2GB data plan and keep the rest of my package the same.

Where your app fails is that you can log on to Verizon and run a report for the previous month and see who you top called numbers were. Right there Verizon is doing what your app does....and it's free. Even if Verizon didn't have a plan like that all a user would have to do is export their call info into Excel and then sort the data by the field that hold the telephone numbers. This could accomplish the same thing with minimal work. The idea of the app is nice but trying to charge $15 for it when there are plenty of free ways to get the info isn't going to help your cause.

I just wanted to add that this wasn't meant to bash your idea...just show you that there are alternatives to it out there already.

Unless the Verizon rep I spoke with was smoking something they told me going to the family share plan would save me $20.00 with 4GB.

But he also seemed unaware that I was paying full price for the iPhone so I got to keep my current plan anyway. I think in April my wife may want to upgrade then we will lose our current plan.

 

[Danimal]

Unless the Verizon rep I spoke with was smoking something they told me going to the family share plan would save me $20.00 with 4GB.

But he also seemed unaware that I was paying full price for the iPhone so I got to keep my current plan anyway. I think in April my wife may want to upgrade then we will lose our current plan.

It all depends on how many lines you have and what kind of phones. I currently Have a GNex with unlimited data and a text package, an I4s with 2GB data and a texting package, 3 dumbphones with no texting. If I got the share everything with 4GB data my plan would go up. They have a wizard when you go to their website that models out plans based on your devices and needs and gives you a price.

 

[hookbill]

It all depends on how many lines you have and what kind of phones. I currently Have a GNex with unlimited data and a text package, an I4s with 2GB data and a texting package, 3 dumbphones with no texting. If I got the share everything with 4GB data my plan would go up. They have a wizard when you go to their website that models out plans based on your devices and needs and gives you a price.

Ah, I see. I thought that how many phones you had might be the difference, there are only 2 involved over here. Looking at our data usage my wife and I combined used less then .5 gb so that 4gb deal would definitely work for us. Good luck to you.

 

[Danimal]

Yea I have both of my parents and my m-i-l on my plan. If I didn't the share everything would make the most sense. We were originally on the 700 minute share plan but after I added my parents on and based on their usage we felt it was best to go to the 1400 minute plan which got us friends and family. Now with F&F we barely use 200-300 shared minutes.

To keep with the original topic. When I first went to the F&F I made a few numbers F&F numbers that I knew would be high volume numbers. After that I did exactly as I described and used the tools that Verizon provides and figured out some of the other numbers that way. I'm sure there would be others out there that would enjoy the simplicity of an app...but not at $15.

 

[surfshoptom]

Yea I have both of my parents and my m-i-l on my plan. If I didn't the share everything would make the most sense. We were originally on the 700 minute share plan but after I added my parents on and based on their usage we felt it was best to go to the 1400 minute plan which got us friends and family. Now with F&F we barely use 200-300 shared minutes.

To keep with the original topic. When I first went to the F&F I made a few numbers F&F numbers that I knew would be high volume numbers. After that I did exactly as I described and used the tools that Verizon provides and figured out some of the other numbers that way. I'm sure there would be others out there that would enjoy the simplicity of an app...but not at $15.

You know what? You're right. That "Top 10 Most Called Numbers" comes pretty close to providing the info you need. A little more work to determine whether those numbers are Verizon and do that for every line in the plan and you have the same information my app reports. If that Verizon report had been available 6 months ago, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble. I wouldn't say the Excel route is "minimal work" however - but it seems hardly relevant at this point. Now I'm depressed. Just a little.

 

[Danimal]

You know what? You're right. That "Top 10 Most Called Numbers" comes pretty close to providing the info you need. A little more work to determine whether those numbers are Verizon and do that for every line in the plan and you have the same information my app reports. If that Verizon report had been available 6 months ago, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble. I wouldn't say the Excel route is "minimal work" however - but it seems hardly relevant at this point. Now I'm depressed. Just a little.

It was available over 6 months ago. Don't let it get you depressed. We all have to learn from our mistakes and we all make them.