Late last year, a regional ISP began a program of monitoring data usage across their network, and using in-browser messaging to alert those subscribers who reached usage thresholds, specifically at 75%, 85%, 95%, and 100%. Implementing this model helped the ISP not only to understand how data traffic was affecting various parts of the network, but also to identify heavy users and encourage migration to the appropriate data plans for best performance.

PerfTech followed the new campaign for the first 3 months. Note that results below omit the data from the 95% threshold, as frequently the time between reaching 95% and 100% were so close, that the subscriber essentially “skipped” the 95% alert and was added to the 100% alert list.

High Response Rate Measured by Action Clicks
Subscribers responded to the alerts through actionable button selections. In addition to being able to Close or Remind Me Later, each browser message offered these 3 buttons: Ok Thanks, View Plans, or View Usage. Response results follow:

MONTH 1 75% Threshold 85% Threshold 100%Threshold
OK Thanks: 31.6% 34.9% 39.3%
View Plans: 14.7% 8.7% 15.1%
View Usage: 10.4% 7.1% 9.3%
Total % Responding: 56.7% 50.7% 63.7%

MONTH 2 75% Threshold 85% Threshold 100% Threshold
OK Thanks: 37.4% 37.8% 44.5%
View Plans: 7.2% 4.6% 9.6%
View Usage: 7.9% 5.8% 5.4%
Total % Responding: 52.5% 48.2% 59.5%

MONTH 3 75% Threshold 85% Threshold 100% Threshold
OK Thanks: 40.0% 41.8% 45.2%
View Plans: 4.7% 4.5% 7.9%
View Usage: 7.4% 4.0% 5.8%
Total % Responding: 52.1% 50.3% 58.9%

Number of Subscribers Reaching Thresholds Past 75% Progressively Decreased
% Reduction in # of Subscribers from 75% to 85% from 75% to 100%
Month 1 down 23.9% down 41.5%
Month 2 down 28.3% down 49.6%
Month 3 down 36.1% down 62.2%

Number of Subscribers Reaching 100% Decreased from Month 1 through Month 3
% Reduction in # of Subscribers Reaching 100%
Month 1 to Month 2 down 49.6%
Month 1 to Month 3 down 67.1%

Additional ISP-Supplied Statistics of Note
The ISP has passed along additional information indicating the successful results they are seeing, as follows:

  • Average revenue per revenue generating unit (ARPRGU) is up 8-10%

  • Average upgrade revenue for the 3 months is 5.5 times the normal upgrade revenue

  • Average number of upgraded accounts during this time is 4.4 times the normal average

In Sum
From the introduction of the usage-based plan model, the respective in-browser alerts posted excellent response rates. The highest percentage of responses, not surprisingly, came when a subscriber reached 100% of their plan’s allowance. The number of subscribers who received 75% alerts and who then went on to reach additional thresholds began to decrease as subscribers became more aware of current-day usage demands and their own usage needs, upgrading as needed. The fact that the number of subscribers who reached the 100% limit dropped each month—indeed from Month 1 to 2, there were 49.6 percent (almost half) fewer subscribers reaching 100%--reflects the fact that subscribers were effectively migrating to more appropriately-sized data plans. This migration has not only resulted in generating significant revenue for the ISP, but also a higher-performance experience for the subscriber.