Driving Customer-Centric Communications Services

In today’s competitive communications market, service providers are battling for customers and wallet share. In response, many are moving from a network-centric to a customer-centric mindset—to improve customer satisfaction, build brand loyalty, and maximise the profitability of each customer.

In this hyper-competitive communication services market, the battle to win and retain customers has reached new levels of intensity. Customer acquisition and retention costs are overheating as consumers take advantage of the myriad offers and deals available from an ever-growing number of service providers.

In a market where price wars rage and many services are undifferentiated, service providers are turning their attention to the ways in which they serve their customers. They are seeking to differentiate themselves by adopting a customer-centric approach as they design their processes and systems, and by delivering true value for the money.

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A customer-centric approach hinges on the broader goal of improving customer satisfaction and reducing customer service costs, resulting in increased profitability and reduced customer churn for the service provider. To realise this ambition, service providers would need to gain insight at the individual-customer level, analyse customer-buying behaviour and make suitable recommendations and offers through multiple customer service channels.

Gaining Customer Insight

Customer data is often fragmented across multiple, disparate systems, limiting your ability to gain one complete, accurate view of the customer. Using tried-and-tested industry solutions for customer data integration, the first step towards creating a customer-centric business is consolidating disparate customer information into one complete view. The service provider can then share that information across all systems and make it available and understandable to all authorised personnel.

Maximising Customer Profitability

The key to growing average revenue per user (ARPU) and average margin per user (AMPU) is to offer the right products or service bundles to the right customers at the right time. The service provider should make relevant, real-time recommendations to customers through multiple channels, including call centres and Websites. He should also cross-sell and up-sell products and services in real time. This will help to improve his success rate over time.

Increasing Billing Accuracy

Accurate billing and effective bill presentment are critical to safeguarding the service provider’s revenue, as well as to promoting customer satisfaction. With an effective billing solution, the service provider can build on a real-time billing and revenue management platform.

Improving Customer Service

The time and effort it takes a call centre to handle a customer query can affect the profitability derived from that customer. CRM solutions can help achieve this goal by improving call centre productivity with quicker, better, and more-efficient customer service. It can also help to build brand loyalty.

Promoting Customer Self-Management

No one is more concerned about the details of the customer’s accounting and billing information than the customer himself. Many service providers have discovered that online customer self-service account management is the most effective and efficient way to deliver higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer empowerment at a lower cost to the service provider.

Conclusion

In today’s fast changing communications landscape, technological advances and consumer habits are pulling service providers in different directions. Not only do service providers need to keep up with the changing technology, they face increasing challenges in predicting and identifying the right services for customers as time-to-market is critical. Service providers need to partner with strategic technology partners to ensure that they can gain insight to customer profitability and the overall health of the business. Service providers can then radically improve time-to-market for new services, build stronger brands, and lower operational costs by managing, realising revenues and maximising the revenue stream for each customer type, service offering, partner relationship, payment method, business model, or geography.

At the end of the day, service innovation is only as good as the ability to bring the service from concept realisation to cash generation, while keeping consumers satisfied and coming back for more.

Bhardwaj is senior director, Communications, Media and Utility Industries, Oracle India.