Yak getting aggressive with home phone marketing

Armed with survey results showing that three-quarters of Canadians believe they pay too much for local telephone service, Yak Communications Inc. is ratcheting up its marketing machinery in a bid to attract disavowed customers, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. Andrew Boone, VP of marketing at Yak, says telephone customers are being "victimized" by the ILECs' practice of adding fees on top of the advertised price as well as rate increases even after signing a contract. "To me, it's almost insane and it's no way to do business," he tells Network Letter. The survey conducted by Harris/Decima also reveals the frustrating experience with conventional telephone service providers. About 59% of Canadians have been frustrated by a rate increase; 56% of Canadians who agreed to a contract were surprised by the price when promotional pricing ended; and just more than half of Canadians aged 25 to 44 feel limited by their options when choosing a home phone provider. Yak aims to change that with a monthly flat rate of $34.95 (plus applicable taxes) for home phone service that includes voicemail, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting and conference calling. Most importantly, customers don't need to enter into a long-term contract to get this price. Best known for its dial-around LD business, Yak has started taking out full-page newspaper ads in some of Ontario and Quebec's major centres, explaining some of the misconceptions with today's local telephone rates from the incumbent providers. "Maybe they told you it was $29.99, but when you really look at it and see all these extra charges, you're really not paying that rate," explains Boone. "So we're just trying to educate consumers." Yak debuted its home phone service last November and the customer response early on was overwhelming, according to Boone. But since the coming into effect of Bell Canada's whole local voice and features tariff in January, Yak has been able to expand the reach of the service across much of Central Canada and translate a lot of interest into customers. "Since Ontario and Quebec have become available, we're hard-pressed almost to keep up with the response," says Boone. Yak is well-positioned to succeed in the local telephony business as it can leverage the one million customers who use its dial around or other LD services. Boone says 99.99% of its local line customers also take long-distance service, and the company is going the bundle route as well. By combining local and high-speed Internet ($34.95 per month), customers receive 500 minutes of Canadian LD. But success in this market is also a matter of timing, and Yak believes it has that right too. "I think it's a right time, right place for us right now, just like dial around was a few years ago. People were frustrated and it was a real option for them," Boone tells NL. "With home phone and high-speed Internet, the way we're pricing them is I think people are feeling the way again." Yak's home phone service isn't available in Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Atlantic Canada (with the exception of Halifax). Results of the Harris/Decima survey, conducted between February 14 and 17, are accurate to +/-3.1% 19 times out of 20.

Yak getting aggressive with home phone marketing

News | 04/07/2008 2:23 pm EDT

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