India is no new to the concept of missed call services. In fact, with over 1 billion mobile subscribers, India is a market where missed call service has been used to market services, and its potential is only expected to grow with time.
Here is the statical data which proves India has a vast potential for missed call service today.
- to figure released by the World Bank, population of India as of 2014 is over 1.2 billion
- As per a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 1.03 billion citizens are part of mobile network.
- The Pew Research Centre in 2015 found that at least 17% of the Indian populace owned a
smartphone. This figure roughly equates to around 220 million smartphone owners.
So, with all these phones and smartphones being used all around by such a large section of people, it’s fascinating that missed call service is a huge storm in the Indian market. Missed calls are convenient, less time consuming and cost nothing at all. Considering that a majority of the India population are subscribers of prepaid connections, the cost factor is a really significant factor to why missed call service is a big hit.
So, now let us take a look at some of the things that a simple missed call can get you in India.
1. Get Your Account Information with a Miss Call
The most common things that customers of banks do each is to check their balance frequently to remain updated of their expenses. Now, this routine can get really tiresome if one has to visit a bank to get this information. And not every customer is aware of net banking or can use this facility to enquire their balance, especially old-age people or people with less literacy. Also, even the young working class mostly do not have time to spare to go to the banks or ATMs to check their balance. So, what does one do in this case?
Banks have started their own native miss call services where the customers can get basic account information, including account balances by just a miss call. The only authentication required in this process is your registered mobile number with the bank.
Some banks have taken it a bit further to make things easier for the customers such as Federal Bank in South India. It introduced a feature through which their customers could transfer money to another account in any bank, by just verifying the transfer via a missed call. Although, the customer has first had to verify their as well as receiver’s account number through SMS.
2. Connect With Prime Minister
In his tenure since 2014, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has employed the use of missed call for the citizens to connect better with him and the other politicians.
PM Modi tweeted on 24th March 2015 that anyone with a phone could reach out to his tweets by just leaving a missed call on 011 3006 3006. Once they leave a missed call, their mobile numbers would get registered in the database, and the latest tweets are sent to them over an SMS.
One more used case of Missed Call Service used by PM Modi has been in ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio show. He used missed call service to send an audio recording to those people who could not listen to the live broadcast due to any reason.
They can simply leave a missed call in 1922 to listen to the ‘Man Ki Baat’ recording. Once done, their mobile number gets registered, and they receive a call on the same number with an audio recording of the latest ‘Mann Ki Baat’ episode. So, in this way those who missed the live broadcast and catch up.
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) also used the missed call feature in 2014 general elections to get the support of people who backed their election campaign and trusted the party. Anyone who wished to support the BJP or join their ranks would simply have to leave a missed call at the provided number after which their support or induction into their ranks would be verified.
3. Job Search
It’s a bit staggering for those who are seeking jobs when they do not have access to the internet. Most vacancies and new positions are mostly notified over the internet as companies and government organisations are choosing to opt for the digital world for notifications and promotions and not opt for printed media or very less of it. This causes a lot of problems for those are on the lookout for jobs using newspapers and other printed media.
Missed call services in this regard make things much easier. Quikr.com offers a job listing service, which can be accessed by anyone by leaving a missed call at +91 1800 1033 331. Once a missed call has been registered, an agent from Quikr calls the person back and takes their information to outline a basic resume. Once done, the person is then notified about potential job offers and openings as per their resume and requirements.
4. Entertainment (Bollywood/Reality TV)
The entertainment industry is also not left behind when it comes to utilising missed call service. Hindustan Unilever launched a missed call campaign in an attempt to make entertainment accessible to the remotest places of the country. All one has to do is give a missed call on the number +91 1800 3000 0123. Once done, they soon receive a call, which will then play any entertainment channel
Bollywood fans in the remotest places of the country, launched a missed call feature so that fans can get entertainment right on their mobile phones. All one has to do is call on the number +91 1800 3000 0123. Once done, they will soon receive a call, with a variety of entertainment options such as jokes or songs.
Indian TV is home to a wide variety of singing shows, dancing shows, talent shows and other kinds of reality shows. So, if one is into reality TV, then they can vote for their favourite contestants on a particular show by leaving a missed call on a specific number. Thus, missed calls act a simple channel for people to connect to these shows, more specifically to their favourite contestants.
5. Voting/Surveys
Surveys are often conducted by public sector organisations, private companies and the government of India to get to know the opinion of the people about the latest products, services, laws and other government schemes.
Mass surveys and polls are conducted across the target demographic, and people find it easy to take part by leaving their opinions or votes through missed calls. One saves their time this way, and the conducting organisations can effectively draw out a reasonable analysis by having a larger number of people participate.
6. Miscellaneous
Apart from the ones mentioned above, people in India can avail other things through missed calls.
If you want to subscribe to offers, for instance, from your mobile service provider or cable TV provider, then you can do so by leaving a missed call on the provided numbers.
When one buys products online, then the E-commerce companies can have the customers leave a missed call to confirm if they would want the payment as Cash-On-Delivery. In India, Cash-On-Delivery is a huge factor for customers to buy products online. So, in this regard, the missed call feature is vital from both a business’s perspective and the customers.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the missed call has proved to be a crucial in engaging rural as well as urban audience and has made it a crucial part of our everyday activities. From consumer-facing MNCs to big corporates, everyone is using it missed call service in one or the other way to save their time and cost.
Looking to use missed call service for your business? Don’t wait. Contact us today.