Seems nobody at 3 has a grandma

A wise journo once advised me to write as if my dear old grandma was the audience.  Judging by 3′s latest effort at explaining a wireless broadband offer, it seems nobody has explained the virtues of clarity to them.

When a monthly $39 plan could easily cost you a couple of thousand bucks, marketing and legal need to work hard to design a clear explanation.

The challenge

3′s issue is that its 3G wireless broadband service hands over to Telstra’s slower and expensive GSM system in places where the 3 network has no coverage.

So 3 needs to tell people this:

• We have our own 3G network.
• It has gaps in coverage.
• We fill many of the gaps by using Telstra’s GSM network. Your service will automatically swap over to the Telstra in those ‘gap’ areas.
• For broadband usage while you’re in an area covered by our network, we’ll charge you $39 a month and allow you 6GB of uploads / downloads combined. After that, we’ll charge you 10 cents a MB.
• For usage while you’re in a ‘gap’, we’ll charge you $1.65 a MB after the first 4 MB. This is equivalent to about $9,893.40 for 6GB of uploads / downloads combined.

How does 3 actually convey this information ?

Here’s how it fits together on the 3 web site (if you can call it ‘fitting together’).

• In the plan description, we learn that there’s a ‘National Roaming allowance’ of 4 MB, and a charge of $1.65 a MB after that.

Well, OK.  But what’s ‘National Roaming’ and when will I pay this rate ?

• A visit to the 3 Standard Form of Agreement reveals that ‘National Roaming’ is when ‘when you are in Australia and you Roam outside of the 3 Network coverage area on the mobile network of an Other Provider’.

Well, fine, but where does that apply ?  I am buying a wireless broadband service because I move around.

• If you spend enough time looking around, you’ll find a page describing 3′s ‘zones’.

Now, there’s no reference to ‘National Roaming’.  But there is a zone called ‘Talk & Messaging Zone’.

• ‘Talk & Messaging Zone’ is explained: ‘When you’re outside 3′s network, you still get fantastic coverage. You’ll automatically roam onto most of Telstra’s GSM network.’

Hey ! That sounds like that ‘National Roaming’ thingy they were talking about on other pages.

Why it’s not called the ‘National Roaming Zone’ is a mystery.  Well, not a mystery, really.  Just thoughtless, careless, bone-headed, lazy work by 3.

So, if I assume that the ‘Talk & Messaging Zone’ is really the ‘National Roaming Zone’, it starts to fit together, and the info on the ‘Talk & Messaging Zone’ page that your mobile will display ‘Roaming/2G’ instead of ‘3′ when you’re in a $1,650 / GB area looks like vital intelligence.

There are even geographical coverage maps on that page that would give you a fighting chance of understanding that if you live in Melbourne’s St Albans and work in Bacchus Marsh, you’ll spend a lot of your train travel time in the high cost zone.

• But none of this detailed information is linked to the page where you’re urged to sign up for the $39 plan. That page only speaks of ‘national roaming’, and never mentions the ‘Talk & Messaging Zone’.

It doesn’t need to be this hard !

A good marketing and legal review should shake out this kind of confused presentation of information.

With commitment to simplicity and clarity, marketing and legal materials can help customers understand what you’re trying to say, instead of piling confusion on confusion.

No wonder so few grannies use mobile broadband