Many thanks to friends who have read my last blog about Circle’s Life and it has garnered over 1400 views since it was published.
I now added this post as a disclaimer and update that I have since gotten a Circles.Life (CL) line without porting over because I really want to see for myself how the whole thing works. CL has extended an invitation to try their service for 3 months for free and this is important I update the story a bit.
Why disclaimer? Because I am a reviewer and just want to make it very clear about my position. Friends who know me will understand when I say something, I try to be fair and I can basically do without Disclaimer. But I also want to be fair to people who don’t know me and so here it is.
Just to update too I have written something on October 17 2013 about Phone Plans and Customer Loyalty. That was way back before CL was even born. In it, I have said a few things so I am going to point form.
Customer Loyalty will be the impetus for people to stay through the pockets
T-Mobile CMO let us know our mobile plan charges is very high (90% profit margins). Even the New York Times has acknowledged that in America once customers paid off their bills, our subscription charges doesn’t go down. It sounds very similar, right? Read it right here.
T-mobile will get rid of International Roaming Charges.
Mr Sievert (CMO) best quote “We (T-Mobile) sit around and say, ‘What can we get away with not charging the customer?’”
Guys. I have been saying for the longest time. If you are okay with 4GB at 90 dollars, then you’d better off re-contracting with a phone (hence I say it is a form of slavery). There’s no phone subsidy involved just that you have to pay them around 50 dollars more (4GB for 30 is about there) since you are in the contract. Please wake up. Even New York Times already say there is no phone subsidy. WAKE UP!!
But I know for a fact a lot of people is NOT OK with the 90 Dollars charge for a measly 4GB but got worried about paying for a phone upfront. So yes. You won’t worry if you buy a phone with CASH (seriously, OnePlus 3T is cheap online) or just pay with a credit instalment plan. What you have in return if you go with SIM Only plans is that you
Won’t get ripped off
Can get away from the company if they play punk because no contract to hold you hostage (that to me is the best customer service you can give to a customer).
Freed from mental torture every 3rd week of the month. That means anything more than 10GB should be fine.
That leads to my next point about data capacity. What is the level of data you need so you don’t feel hampered? And what things needed to be done so you don’t overuse unnecessary data? Here are my tips
Anything over 10GB to me is as good as unlimited. 26GB from Circles.Life basically you can be worry free. But being worry free means bad habits will come. It is like a camera and ISO performance. As ISO performance gets better, shooters develop bad habits when shooting. They totally ditched tripods or don’t want to use the shutter release for example.So if you have an unlimited data package, that would mean you will download any TDH (Tom, Dick and Harry) apps and the resulting background app usage will surely affect you sooner rather than later.
If you are on an Android phone, totally get rid of the notification services. I switched off practically everything except for WhatsApp messaging (and for some WeChat and Line). I don’t need Facebook to tell me some chicks added me (they are fake by the way judging by the pixelated profile pictures) and certain, the game’s notification can basically just go hang themselves wasting my data.
Kill off background workings of the apps. Sometimes the apps have to work in the background so they can be updated and notify you things. If you find some nonsense apps you hardly use keep hounding the resources, do yourself a favour and uninstall it.
Use Wi-Fi as much as possible.
Please get rid of watching video on the way to work. That is the worst data hogger ever…not to mention battery waster too. Spotify still not as bad.
Get on a habit to use as little data as possible and work on it continually. Such habits will save you money and don’t allow Telcos to hold you hostage just because of data. It has happened already, that’s why CL is reaping the benefits. Besides, as apps and phones get more complicated, more data will be used. Know how to control and that’s my number 1 tip.
Okay, I know the tips above will need some work. Learn how to control data usage. Your wallet will thank you in the future.
Still, I want to applaud CL for giving us 20GB for 20 dollars. That helped because new phones and apps have to use around minimum 3-4GB of data a month now on average.
Some even say 8GB is average!
My goodness, that is bad even when I am someone who practically lives on Facebook for work and yet I am already at 8GB thanks to my data saving methods and the rest of the world is already 8GB average? Seriously? You guys are setting yourselves up as data slaves for the Telcos man!
Anyway back to CL 20GB offer. It is a good thing…but it is also a bad thing. And since I am at it, I am certainly happy about CL’s customer loyalty plan but it also has a very bad side effect.
So here’s the low down
Unlimited Data will create bad habits that lead to data slavery (already shared above)
CL customer loyalty program is working very well. Too well in fact. After I shared the CL stories online in Facebook and WilzWorkz.com, people pushing their discount codes has become super irritating. I know 200MB increase in data per referral is really a good deal once the person you referred to also signs up with a $20 discount when they registered.But Singaporeans being kiasu goes to your post and shaft the code in the comments section? Really lah~ don’t be so desperate leh! This supposed to help your friends and thank you for referring, not helping yourselves like that to the point of invading other people’s space. Don’t be so cheap lah, just go sign that 20 dollars for 20GB.
I hope CL people read this now. Once the 20 dollars for 20GB comes about, those who actually bought it will have no incentives to introduce their friends already UNLESS they are truly helping people to get rid of lousy mobile phone plans. To me, people use my codes so they can get a much cheaper registration fee (more than 50% off) and not enrich myself. If you do want my code, please comment below and I will connect with you.
I also appreciate Circles.Life being proactive in getting and retaining customers but please cool down!! I just talked about their plans in Facebook and the black belt customer service was so ‘enthu’ they came to help. I seriously love the enthusiasm! But relax lah. Maybe say “Hey Wilson thanks for talking about us (since I tagged so it is okay), we will be happy to help if there’s any question!!” That is so much better instead of stepping in to face the potential customer (the person replying to my post).
And this customer loyalty plan can also lose its effectiveness sooner now thanks to the new product add-on. Once people pay the 20GB, the customer’s loyalty of 1GB per year they stayed with CL will not be as effective. There will be a point people don’t need the data so what’s it for them to continue making them feel treasured in CL?
Here’s my feedback
Go beyond free data as rewards. Allow people to redeem towards SMS or Voice time for those whose work relies on voice communication.
Have fan-centric events and promotions. Yes, a lot more work when it comes to events, workshops, outings or even travel trips. but it shows commitment to give CL fans benefits. So even if they have enough Data, Voice, SMS…they still will stay because of these intangible benefits. Does it increase cost? Definitely! But sometimes, gifts that are cheap doesn’t mean it is insincere. There can be cost effective stuff to do! (perhaps CL wants to talk to me about this?!)
Last Points: My Tests with CL line. I will say again, CL uses M1 infrastructure so the conclusion should be very similar with the MyConnections SG (IDA) results. That said, the speed experience is also affected by the handset you have, the content (bad programming will result in slow apps – Instagram and Facebook are the worst at the moment), the bandwidth from Circles.Life server to the server serving you as the user and the speed of the servers.
For the test I used MyConnectionsSG by IDA. Government third party line test app. If it is lousy don’t blame me. I also use dual SIM phone – Huawei Mate 9 so the equipment is same platform.
Information is presented as such – Ping (ms) smaller number better / Download Speed (Mbps) bigger number better/ Upload Speed (Mbps) bigger number better.
Selegie Road: CL – 16/66/8.2, ST – 30/29/1.8
Anchorvale (Sengkang): CL – 17/47/41, ST – 27/53/40
Edgefield HDB 13th floor: CL – 13/40/38, ST – 30/28/1.9,
Edgefield HDB Carpark: CL – 39/3/0.689, ST – FAIL (sibey jialat place, the HDB block basically is a fortress design), SH (using iPhone) – 56/2.2/2.5
Edgefield HDB Groundfloor: CL -26/56/46, ST-27/31/14
Punggol Central HDB: CL -14/84/40, ST – 29/31/40
Conclusion – Circles.Life (and M1) is blowing away SingTel pretty handsomely. Maybe because I am super old contract and they throttling the data throughput rate? But this weekend I feel Circles.Life is the real deal with much faster speed lesser amount of money I am paying.
I still have 3 more months of testing to go. So stay tuned. If you do want my code, please comment below and I will connect with you. Any questions welcomed.
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