n unnamed customer of new Singapore mobile operator Circles.Life likes the service so much that he has referred over 600 new customers, thus earning himself 100 GB of free data, said Donald Chan the firm’s international director.
Chan outlined his company’s business model and strategy in a keynote on Day One of CommunicAsia2017 and included details of their data bonus plan-their cornerstone of customer retention.
He described Circles.Life as Asia’s “first fully digital telco”–from customer acquisition to service delivery. Customers communicate with the company through their iOS-or-Android app, and 95% of queries are resolved via this channel.
The only aspect of the experience which is not digital is SIM card delivery (via courier) to the customer two days after ordering.
To drive retention, Circles has a bonus plan where customers who recruit new customers earn 200MB of data. The company maintains a leader board, and the current top rank is held by a customer who has recruited 600 others.
Circles has no contracts-customers for the post-paid service engage on a month-to-month basis.
The pricing plan, said Donald Chan, is like “buying a pizza” and deciding on the toppings later.
The base plan is S$28 per month with 4GB of data, with up to 20GB of extra data for S$20 per month.
Customers can go into the Circles app and determine settings on voice and data use, alerts and caps.
Chan said Circles, which uses the M1 network in Singapore, was a “niche player” designed to appeal to “tech-savvy younger consumers who want control and flexibility.”
He said the company was looking to expand to “three-to-five” other regional markets in the next five years.
Circle’s proprietary operating system, which is “plug-and-play,” is easy to connect to any other MNO, limiting the cost of starting up in new markets.