BT is offering all ADSL customers in areas covered by the 549 exchanges that have so far been enabled for 21CN a free upgrade to the new faster broadband speeds. John Carter, Managing Director of DMSL, says that this presents SME resellers with an opportunity to put new ideas in front of existing customers.
“In the current climate, anything that is being provided for free is going to be welcomed by small businesses. The 20Mbps upgrade gives resellers the opportunity to re-engage with customers and offer them other value-added services, such as BT voice plans, backup, business contingency and hosted applications. We’ve had a lot of success in helping resellers drive sales these areas and we think there is much more potential. The BT offer is the perfect opportunity to get out there and put some new money-saving ideas in front of customers.”
The 21CN upgrade also gives resellers the chance to earn extra commission on switching customers back to BT Business Broadband, says Carter. DMSL is currently running a special promotion for customers that switch back to BT from other service providers, which effectively gives them three months free connection.
“There is a lot of talk in the media at present about some ISPs not delivering the sort of download speeds that they claim to offer. No service provider – not even BT – can guarantee you will get a 20 Mbps downloads, they can only assure you will get up to that speed. But at least with BT you know that you are connected directly to the 21CN network and right now, that’s a reassuring message for small business customers. Add to that the attraction of 90 days free connection and you have a very attractive proposition for the SME looking to save money and make sure that they have a reliable broadband service in place. From a reseller’s perspective, it’s a great way to build trust with customers and earn extra commission.”
To date, some 40 per cent of the UK’s homes and businesses are within reach of the 21CN exchanges and BT plans to increase coverage to 55 per cent by March next year. The 90-day rebate offer on customers who switch to BT Broadband is available to customers signing up for two-year contracts.