Ilya said:
The churn rate was high in the first year because VOOM had no commitments and had a money-back guarantee on its initial purchase offer. A lot of people signed up just to give it a try without plans to stay. The latest offer requires 6-month contract, so I would expect the churn rate to go down.
I must disagree. Everyone seems to have opinions as to why Voom ONLY has less than 30000 subscribers at this point. Note that that number has not changed much in the last 6 months. That means that the churn has been 100% lately. Why?
In my opinion, and I have stated it before; they are running Voom as if it where a cable company (read almost monopoly).
1. Why no self installs. (DirecTV has done this.)
2. Why make most users call Voom's support line to find out about the little red button behind the front panel to modify the resolution (1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i, auto). My installer obviously knew about it since he left it at 480i and did not tell me. Since I had experienced HD using DirecTV on the same display, I knew something was wrong. How many are still at 480i because the "professional" installer wanted to get on to the next job asap.
3. Missed installs. I have seen countless messages from users on this and other sites were people take a wasted vacation day. Not a good way to start a relationship me thinks?
4. Buggy receiver (and only one model).
5. No DVR. I got my DirectTV HD Tivo in July, and cancelled Voom in Sept. During the three months I had both, I watched DirecTv's few HD channels 95%+ of the time. Having control of the viewing time is extremely important for us with jobs and who value our time.
I would consider signing up again when:
1. They offer self install
2. HD DVR.
I would also suggest giving current users an incentive to tell friends and family by offering referrals. (Say 1 month free VaVaVoom). I would even install for friends and family if they offered say $50-$60. If they did do something like that, perhaps they could deduct $10-$20 from that amount for every support call.
But, I do not expect such creative ideas to flourish at a cable company. No for some reason, they believe that simply adding more channels will bring more customers. I say be proactive. Include useful manuals. Give the customers more detailed info, then the support lines will not be busy with callers getting the same basic support that could have been avoided.