Companies in all sectors are struggling to implement digitization across various functional areas to streamline their business processes. The telecom industry is one of the major industries where improving customer experience is the driving force to implement the digitization program in every business niche for more effective processes and workflows, prominent innovation opportunities, maximum profits, and greater ROI. In this article, we will cover best-in-class digital practices contributing to the growth, opportunities & profitability of fast-growing telecom companies offering the best customer service experience.
3 Best Digital Practices Yeilding Customer Experience in Telecom Industry:
- Standardization of IT infrastructure
- Automation of business processes
- Implementation of Customer Analytics
Standardization of IT infrastructure
In emerging markets, the ever-evolving telecom operators are onboarding millions of subscribers per month. As they obtain more customer information, they need to transmit the information in real-time across applications, hence, they need additional storage followed by computational power. Instead of improving their legacy complex system, the companies should focus on simplification and automation of various backbone IT processes and systems which would give them the ability to automate capacity, server throughput, and more storage. This will allow senior managers to focus on business growth rather than scramble to augment their IT infrastructure.
Automation of Business Processes
Because of their interactions with born-digital online companies such as Amazon and Alibaba, modern-day consumers need speed and convenience in line for the purchase & return process. Digital technologies like m-Commerce have made it easier than ever for customers to engage with brands which made it challenging for the companies to manage & track such huge customer engagement details. The development of omnichannel customer-relationship management (CRM) systems—is not only meant to track customers’ digital footprints but also to reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve brand loyalty. Many telecommunications companies already adopted full digitization to manage processes helping them to connect everything from initial capture and validation of service requests, payment authorizations, and billing to customer communications and cost-effectiveness. A few rapidly developing telecom companies have already adopted m-Commerce to avail all the benefits of digitization which helps & guides its customers to choose the best-personalized tariff which they can easily order and activate the tariff plan. Adoption of these digital technologies has led to a significant decrease in customer churn and the substantial costs of serving customers through call centres.
Implementation of Customer Analytics
As telecom operators are onboarding huge numbers of customers daily, they need a strong robust AI/ML-based analytics system for 360-degree analysis of the customer behaviour enabling marketing, sales, and other customer-centric functions for precise, data-driven decisions that cut down wasting of resources. Here, the BigData Analytics system plays a major role in generating KPI-based reports & analytics with interactive customer dashboards for the business decision-makers.
A recent McKinsey study of 80 telecommunications companies worldwide found that an IT investment in the above areas delivers high profitability to the telecommunication companies.
According to this study, One Asian telecom company, for instance, is using cloud-based analytics to gain insights from the point-of-sale data they collect. This enables them to improve shop-floor layouts and schedule staff more effectively. With this proficiency, the telecom company has been able to attract more customers leading to a significant rise in its market share.
Companies in other industries also witnessed an improved business performance from advanced data analytics. One retail bank, for instance, found through data analysis that first-time homebuyers were more likely to abandon an online mortgage application process midstream than others. Therefore, the bank’s marketing department has partnered with the call centre and IT department to connect applicants with customer-service representatives via live mobile or webchat. Customer service representatives can now initiate a chat conversation with a customer after a certain period of inactivity thereby reducing the rate of abandoned applications.
Take away
Research suggests that selecting the most promising areas for IT investment may help companies realize enhancements in terms of revenue, cost performance, customer satisfaction, and business agility. Digital technologies like IoT, advanced analytics, predictive analytics, etc., are mature enough for successful implementation at an enterprise level. The potential benefits of digital transformation are by now well known, but the implementation of digital strategies is still a cause of concern for most IT executives. By focusing on highly effective digital practices, companies can speed their transformation which will contribute more to customer satisfaction and business performance.
