The Power of Customer Experience for Telecoms

Customer experience (CX) has become the single most significant factor driving customer loyalty—and, therefore, revenue growth. It is gaining traction as new-age digital consumers acclimate to higher expectations from their broadband and telecom operators to watch and stream their favorite TV shows. 

Subsequently, successful network operations depend on advanced actionable intelligence, automation, and robust data analytics capabilities to move from a reactive approach to a proactive approach–decoding billions of data points to make sense of network issues before they become customer issues. 

As the customer journey evolves to a more automated future, service providers struggle to ensure that customer needs are met efficiently. The ultimate goal? An exceptional customer experience that encourages the consumption of multiple services. 

Customer behavior is primarily impacted by digital transformation across the business landscape. The spike in the usage of mobile devices, applications, machine learning, and automation is boosting instant gratification among customers, mostly getting them what they want in less than an hour. 

This is why there is a massive shift in customer expectations too.

The importance of focusing on customer experience for the telecom industry.

The telecom industry is witnessing an increase in competition and customer churn. Telco businesses, therefore, are pushed to make more significant investments in service improvements to retain customers better. 

Although the telecom industry followed a customer-centric approach for the longest time–however–customer needs are evolving at a bullet speed.

a) Customer engagement

Keeping every user engaged with your business is paramount in an industry as saturated as the telecom industry. 

Customers are more likely to see the value your service adds to their needs while they’re engaged with your brand. Moreover, they are more likely to suggest changes and give feedback through reviews or testimonials. 

Personalizing your customer communication and service delivery according to your customer’s preferences will help keep them in the loop and improve their experience. One strategic way of personalizing your communication is by observing key customer experience metrics like a Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction score (CSAT). 

Keeping a tab on these metrics is an excellent place to start–however–you should also look for in-depth insights. Telco analytics tools like neo360 by Lepton Software are intelligent solutions to capitalize on your telco data and understand your customers better, ultimately serving them better. 

b) Company reputation

To a large extent, customer behavior is similar across industries. However, when it comes to the telecom industry, customers’ expectations are at an all-time high from their communication service providers, and it has become critical to the success or failure of a business.

In addition to uninterrupted and reliable network services, customers look at aspects like round-the-clock support, fast response times to their issues, and proactive assistance to their problems. 

Therefore, having consistent customer communication across channels should be the first priority of the telecom operator to improve the overall customer experience.

c) Customer retention

The telecom industry has the largest customer base in the world, with Reliance Jio catering to 403.99 million subscribers. This also means that with network portability being an easy and accessible option, the industry is highly susceptible to customer churn.

Moreover, with the rapid digitization and plethora of alternatives available, customers quickly move to a better service provider to meet their expectations. Also, with so much being dependent on our network services, it is only valid for them to look for service providers which put customer satisfaction at the top of their priority list. If you deliver the services and delight the customers with something extra that adds value to the overall offering, chances are you will stay on top of customers’ minds because it is human to never forget how a brand made them feel. 

Hence, customer experience is crucial in preventing customer churn in the telecom industry. 

d) Service enhancements

During the infancy of the telecom industry, service providers had a limited pool of services and technologies to offer. In contrast, today, telecom operators can offer services–ranging from standalone internet services to a combination of services for multiple devices categorized in a family plan. 

Technological-sound service providers can also provide services like device insurance, GPS location services, and many other innovative solutions. 

Having said that, you can’t deny that not all services are relevant to each individual. Hence, segmenting and categorizing your offerings per each customer’s preferences is essential to capitalize on your technological capabilities and massive telecom user base. 

Therefore, understanding your customer at a deeper level helps you get clarity on the kind of services that might be gaining traction among a specific segment. This, in turn, can help you judiciously target your sales and marketing efforts to amplify your revenue.

How can we help you elevate your customer experience, keeping in mind the recent trends in the telecom industry?

As mentioned above, new technologies are shaping new expectations of customers from the telecom industry. With chatbots, text chats, specialized customer care numbers, virtual customer support, and many self-help options, new digital customers are looking forward to an omnichannel customer experience. So, the telcos need to level up and offer immersive and intuitive experiences that your customers have become accustomed to.

Let’s look at some progressive strategies to improve CX for telecom subscribers.

1) Adopt an omnichannel customer communication approach.

Today, a considerable part of customers’ attention is caught by their mobile devices and, specifically, their social media channels. They have now become customary to instant gratification, such as social media likes, comments, and shares. 

Therefore, it is undoubtedly best practice to be present on channels your audience prefers and seamlessly transition from one to another without dropping the context. 

Telecom companies adopting automation, AI-powered tools, and other growing trends will swiftly steer ahead of their competition.

2) Leverage data analytics to know your customers and their preferences.

A customer-centric approach is, hands-down, the foundation of customer experience for the telecom industry. To build solid and long-lasting relationships with customers, telecoms need to have a fair idea about what their customers do in their day-to-day life–where they travel next, what restaurants they prefer, where they work, and so on. 

All this information is needed to craft a buyer persona and understand the customer’s behavior. 

For instance, if you identify that one of your customers is about to travel internationally, being a telecom operator, you can trigger international network plans and offers and make the most of this information. Adding value and functionality to existing services is vital to enhancing your customer journey.

Regardless of how simple this may sound, achieving a customer-first approach is challenging and can act as a differentiator for your brand. 

Innovative geospatial solutions like neo360 by Lepton Software–a geo-analytics platform tailor-made for telcos–can help you with similar data points. It also enables you to optimize your network performance and utilize it to its fullest by providing a holistic picture of your fiber network against business-specific KPIs.

3) Never forget the human touch.

Orienting your customer communication to a conversational tone rather than monotonous robotic or machine-generated responses and leveraging profile and behavioral data based on previous interactions across multiple channels to personalize your customer experience.

The future of customer experience in the telecom industry

The customer experience mainly caters to what customers want, when, and how they want it. For a telecom service provider, a sophisticated customer experience is the cumulation of best practices fostered into every possible aspect of the network. From planning and design of the network to the addition or removal of services or even cancellation of services, customer interaction is constant–and so should a customer-centric approach.

If you have questions or want to discover more, don’t hesitate to connect with us! Our team is always here to help and answer any queries you may have.

So, if you’re prepared to take the next step and unlock your full potential, connect with us today!

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