Over £5m could be saved across Europe per year; over £400k in the UK alone

Europe’s mobile operators could save millions of Euros per year with better management of mobile payments compliance, claims Empello (www.empello.com). In the UK, a market with 80 million mobile subscribers, Empello estimates that £400,000 could be saved per year by the big four UK operators, just from the reduction in call centre costs. Across Europe, a market with a combined 1,000 million subscriptions, the savings could add up to £5 million.

“We know from direct experience that monitoring and auditing for compliance can save mobile operators significant amounts of money. By dramatically reducing contact centre costs through a reduction in complaints, operators can reduce their  mobile billing operational costs,” said Jeremy Flynn, Director at Empello.

Call centre savings could be as high as £140,000 for each mobile operator each year. Empello’s figures are based on first-hand data from working with a major UK operator and there are obvious cost benefits to boosting compliance.

On top of the cost of managing complaints and disgruntled customers is the threat of regulatory fines. During the last financial year in the UK alone, the regulator, PhonepayPlus, issued a total of £2.7 million in fines.

“Good compliance isn’t only about saving money though,” continued Flynn. “By removing unwanted, illegal or misleading sites the operator will increase both consumer and merchant trust. Trust is a vital ingredient for the success of mobile billing”

Of the audits that Empello carries out each month, currently 28% of them reveal compliance issues. The vast majority of those issues are not major and would not result in a regulatory examination. However, each and every single compliance issue degrades consumer confidence in both the operator and mobile billing.

By monitoring, auditing and then removing issues of non-compliance the operator can improve consumer confidence and remove the chance of a fine from the regulator.

“Compliance is something that all operators must take seriously, but this does not have to be hard or expensive. In fact as we’ve seen, good compliance can save operators a lot of money,” continued Flynn.