Dutch mobile operator Telfort lets you do almost everything online: receiving bills, keeping control of your contract or pay-as-you-go connection. In the case of theft you can block the sim card as well as requesting and activating a new one. This removes the need to call or write to the company. The developments have lead to a 36,5% increase in logins (via mc, Dutch). In the future brands will be built in dialogue. Currently we talk about self service, but it's just service: the consumers questions are answered more quickly and they receive a visual overview of their calling habits which could never be given over the telephone. Now it's done with an eye to cost saving and the interaction is pretty business like and cold, soon emotion will play a role. Only then can dialogue in brand thinking really get started.

The number of Telfort customers using self service grew by more than 20% in the last 12 months.

89% of customers now receive their bills only online. In 2007 had Telfort an average reduction of 97,8% in emails, in other words only 2,2% of Telfort customers couldn’t find the answer to their question on the website and needed to send an email. The number of logins for ‘My Telfort’ rose by 36.5% 2007. Telfort director Marco Visser is pleased with the growth in self service: “Customers are becoming more comfortable with self service which allows them to free themselves of a lot of paperwork and call center waiting time.”

• in Dutch