Costumer communication management for mobile network operators
The telecommunications industry has been undergoing a deep transformation for some time now, which is closely related to user habits that have changed fundamentally in recent years. This leads to new challenges and offers new opportunities for those companies that react and adapt to the changes in time. A good example of this is Customer Communication Management.
The telecom industry’s original business model was simple: build a network and charge customers for your service - mostly phone calls. Back in the day, managing their operation mattered much more to service providers than understanding their clients. But the advances in digital technology and the emergence of the Internet changed all that.
Telecommunication companies face quite a few challenges when it comes to communicating with their customers. Hotline staff must be able to make offers on the spot, adapting existing ones if necessary. Similarly, documents sent to customers should be personalized, and we’re talking about hundreds of thousands or even millions of clients, some of whom prefer emails while others want letters.
How can services that involve dealing with such tremendous volumes of information operate efficiently?
How is process optimization even possible?
Let`s get digital
The answer is: by undergoing a digital transformation. Telcos used to provide the service of making phone calls, but today, fewer and fewer people see that particular service as essential. They want digital services - internet access first and foremost - on their smartphones, tablets and laptops; devices that have not only changed customers’ expectations regarding the service they receive, but have also established new standards in customer communication, such as multi-channel communication.
We still mostly think of apps like Messenger or WhatsApp as ways to keep in touch with friends and family, but they are also channels through which we can communicate with brands and businesses. A growing number of customers don’t make a phone call or write an email anymore if they have the opportunity to use more direct and less time-consuming connectivity alternatives such as instant messaging. By upgrading their ways of communication in order to meet their customers needs, telcos can improve customer experience and increase customer loyalty.
Loyalty, however, is based on trust. Customers share a lot of their private and personal data - photos, addresses, credit card details - with telecom companies and trust that they will be kept confidential and safe. Indeed, this is what telcos promise. Providing the most advanced security to protect customers’ privacy is crucial, and so is transparency. Without a transparency policy in place, no business can expect its clients to trust it with their private data.
Everything personal
Allowing fast and direct communication through various channels around the clock while also keeping data security issues in mind is imperative and contributes to a great customer experience, but only personalization can guarantee complete satisfaction. Telcos need to know and understand their customers’ needs and expectations, which may seem obvious, but it’s not.
Many companies still consider personalization as just a nice addition to their marketing strategy when in fact the strategy should be centered around the goal to meet individual requirements. McKinsey & Company realized years ago how important this is: the global management consultant published an article about putting personalization at the heart of a business back in 2018.
It recommended embedding personalization into the marketing operating model, which should consist of four stages:
- Data foundation: constructing a comprehensive customer profile by collecting data
- Decisioning: using the data available to take action during the customer journey
- Design: creating offers and messages the customer will appreciate
- Distribution: delivering the personalized experiences across channels
Each step follows from the previous one, and the process can and should be repeated continuously - the new insights obtained after the distribution phase are fed into the data foundation, and it starts all over again.
However, personalizing services is an enormous challenge for telecommunication companies that often have millions of customers and, consequently, a massive output of documents and messages to manage. Add to it the fact that tariffs and requirements vary for private and business customers, and it’s clear that tailoring the content of communication to customers and their respective products is a daunting task. And let us not forget that communication between telcos and their customers should take place on the channels that customers prefer.
Also, none of these issues are exclusive to only one stage of the customer journey: the offer creation process, contract renewals and service requests as well as billing are all affected.
CCM systems - a solution for the new challenges
Yes, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but fortunately, there are now applications that can effectively manage this multitude of tasks - they are commonly referred to as customer communications management (CCM) systems. They offer multi-channel output and enable you to centrally manage and approve templates of documents that you have created with the help of building blocks. No matter the number of documents, a CCM platform can manage them easily and in a well-structured way. This also reduces response time in your day-to-day business, which in turn is appreciated by your customers, who expect prompt services.
Without a CCM system, communication with clients in customer-specific channels with personalized content based on customer data is simply impossible. So is tackling all the challenges mentioned above, whether they are related to personnel, technology or operational matters. Implementing one, on the other hand, results in an excellent customer experience - and, consequently, customer satisfaction - which offers the benefits of reduced marketing costs and an overall competitive advantage within the telecommunications industry. The success of future products and services is practically guaranteed: satisfied customers will be looking forward to trying them out as soon as they are available.
