Customer Experience in Telecom Industry

Customer Experience (CX) in Telecom Industry

With new technologies like artificial intelligence becoming a part of our day-to-day life telcos are being measured based on the kind of customer experience that they can provide. From April 2020 temporary closing of sales, and service centers and rising expectations became the leading cause for telecommunications companies to start considering customer experience as a critical contender when it comes to increasing revenue and maintaining brand loyalty.

The dynamic energy created by the consumers in the telecommunications industry requires them to provide the best/highest level of digital interaction across every channel possible. By doing so the telecommunications industry also creates a situation for itself where revenue can be increased. This comes with its own set of difficulties. Ensuring customer loyalty has become one of the challenges in the telecom industry. The new customer demands and standards are pushing the industry, rightfully so, to ensure the quality of service satisfies each consumer, leading to long-term brand loyalty. In the telecom industry, the need to provide customer satisfaction through appropriate customer experience strategies is greater than ever.

Apart from brand loyalty, the telcos are simultaneously dealing with an increase in customer churn as well. The increase in churn in the telecom industry is an impact of the excessive increase in competition and hyper-consumerization. The industry is focused on retaining and maintaining every customer through suitable investments and ideas. The current industry trend in telecommunications, as has been found, is to work on customer experience management that can reduce churn, increase loyalty and increase revenue at the end of the day.

According to Forrester one in three adult customers only need one bad experience to switch to a different provider. The “customer first” technique is overrun by the constantly changing needs, sentiments and demands of the customers. The telecom industry overview suggests customers must feel like their needs are being addressed and more beyond the service is being provided. Making efforts and investing in customer experience can increase value and drive engagement which is necessary for telecom industry companies and telecommunications industry growth.

Customer Experience (CX) in Telecom Industry

What are the other challenges in the telecommunications industry?

Proactiveness: telecommunications companies are currently trying to find ways in which customer issues can be solved without having to wait for the customer to contact them. Being able to offer immediate remedies, fast responses and detailed information on why a problem occurs gives the company credibility and eradicates miscommunications while ensuring a delightful service.

Omnichannel customer experience: customers are very much in touch with technology and require an interactive engagement. They want to be able to interact with the telecom company on a channel they prefer and even shift between channels without having to repeat themselves. It is very important for companies to be able to approach their customers from every channel that they are communicating with. Telecom companies that can embrace the current telecommunication industry trends through self-service, intelligent automation, and other AI-powered tools will satisfy every customer touchpoint while the others will definitely succumb to it.

Customer-centric approach: understanding expectations at every touchpoint requires around-the-clock support, efficiency easy accessibility to customer service, fast resolutions to problems, and self-service options.  Telecom industry companies that are looking at this telecom industry challenge seriously are developing their digital channels to enhance their customer journey.  They are trying to find what their customers like and providing the apt customer service for it. Top telecom companies are working on customer-focused programs wherein staff support the customer throughout their order journey which helps them increase communication and reduce the chances of any issues that could arise in the process. Current trends in the telecom companies also include the top telecommunications companies finding advanced customer experience platforms that can manage and solve problems before the customer even begins to articulate them. These platforms also prepare operators for the problems that may come their way. This reduces support effort, decreases cost and improves CX. A 2013 survey discussed the customer expectations in the telecom industry:

  • 50 per cent of customers want a user-friendly method to communicate with their provider.
  • 30 per cent of customers want to speak to empathetic and friendly associates.
  • Customers dislike scripts that are repetitive and meaningless said by service agents like “your call is important to us” and “that’s our policy”.

Utilizing AI and other tools: the telecom industry is trying to utilize its enormous data that needs to be tracked and analyzed for customer satisfaction. Customer experience is being used with its dynamic methods of survey, analysis, and metrics to provide optimal customer interactions, customer satisfaction and high-performance service all of which are critical for the telecom industry growth. AI-powered tools also ensure the eradication of repetitive work and lead to zero-defect management this in turn increases service standards and reduces cost. Reduction in human intervention creates an interface that speeds up provisioning and improves CX. Any amount of delay in provisioning cycles can lead to the customer looking at other telecom companies that provide better service in the telecom industry.

Personalized customer experience: agents should be able to access the customer data and track customer journey with a blend of AI-powered tools and human contact to provide a perfect CX. Understanding the customer’s preference and personalizing engagements is beyond beneficial and helps the company connect perfectly with the customer. Balance is necessary to avoid repetitions. A telecom company must be able to provide the right digital tools/information and a smooth transition to an agent to avoid repetitive questions. Customer experience management in the telecom industry ensures the data, surveys and metrics all line up to create a seamless experience for the agents, customers and digital tools.

Customer experience has become the next big battleground for every industry. The telecommunications industry of course is not an exception to it. Customers require fast responses, 24/7 availability, easy access to information, a reduction in waiting time, increased productivity and personalized experiences. All of these challenges in the telecommunications industry can be solved through diligent customer experience management through analysis, data and metrics that can provide a seamless and personal CX – reducing churn and increasing brand loyalty.

Our CX solutions are focused on transforming the total customer experience through surveys, metrics, analytics and auditing by using the CXM framework to combine physical measurements with digital Platformation™ capabilities. We are committed to finding the right customer experience strategy that can lead to a competitive advantage.

Sonata GBW is a global technology company specialising in customer experience CX measurement, platform-based digital transformation, supporting businesses to become connected, open, intelligent and scalable. Global coverage of more than 105 markets with over 27 years of market leadership through extensive measurement capabilities, powerful and intuitive reporting and analytics platforms give us the leverage to improve customer experience. It has presence across USA, Canada, EMEA and APAC regions. If you would like to know more about how we can assist you, please fill out the business enquiry form below.