It's neither new nor revolutionary to think about digitizing customer engagement in the telecommunications industry. The telecom industry is constantly looking for new and efficient ways to engage with customers across every touch point. Consequently, omnichannel customer service is a necessary component to achieve that. When all elements of the customer experience are not coordinated, it is impossible to deliver a consistent level of service or to collect and store specific information regarding the history or preferences of each customer.
The customer journey is trending towards a more automated future, while service providers find themselves trying to catch up. It’s apparent that a digital transformation is needed to provide customers with quality experience and valuable products by upselling and cross selling where applicable.
A Mckinsey report indicates that CX practices that include a strong focus on engagement practices and digital transformation strategies can increase customer satisfaction by 30% and revenue by 50% making a connection between digital transformation and improved customer engagement inseparable.
What is the connection between digital transformation and better customer engagement for telcos?
Technological innovations and enhancement of customer experience are crucial factors that contribute to a company’s growth and success. One major attribute all customers want from businesses they deal with is accessibility to quality customer service. Unlike brick and mortar stores, where processes may involve a lot of paperwork and bottle necks, the purpose of digitization, when done right, is to break down barriers that weakens connection between a business and its customers. Ultimately, the objective of digitizing customer experience is to provide simple, engaging, accessible and real-time solutions to customers needs.
Telecommunications industry is one that experiences a very high rate of customer churn. It isn’t wrong to draw the conclusion that achieving customer satisfaction is a challenge in this industry. The telecom industry itself is very competitive with the top players offering similar services at similar prices. For telcos to survive this wave of global digital era, there is a need to apply digitization to all customer interactions and touchpoints.
Taking advantage of a digital transformation offers companies the opportunity to engage modern buyers and provide seamless customer experience regardless of the channel or location. Research by Gartner indicates that 81% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience, which makes customer experience a top differentiating factor for telecom companies just as much as price of products.
5 ways telecom companies can benefit from implementing digital customer engagement strategies
An important aspect of adopting digital customer experience strategy is being aware of the digital touchpoints you share with your customers across multiple channels and continually improving the experience your customers receive within and between those touch points. Listed below are some benefits digitizing customer experience can provide for the telecom service provider and the customer.
1. Proactive engagement
Advanced digitization provides telecom companies access to a level of insight into their customers that was previously unattainable. Today, telcos are able to monitor their customers’ product usage and offer them proactive advice on ways to get the most value possible for their exact needs. Proactive engagement can take place in a variety of ways - in person or via a smartphone - depending on the preferences of each customer. For, example, a large number of telco customers today value texting as a means of communication and with such ease in communication brings other advantages;
- Telcos can benefit from proper education by providing customers with better information about products and services so that they can make better decisions.
- They can notify customers regarding billing, overage fees, bundle upgrades or other announcements.
- Telcos can proactively collect customer feedback in order to identify existing gaps between the service provider and customers
2. Offering omnichannel engagement
The new generation of digital savvy customers prefer to interact with service providers through various channels at their discretion. Customers want to engage with businesses via live chat, chatbots and text messages, which is gaining a lot of popularity among modern buyers. Digitizing all touchpoints and channels of engagement with the ability to receive consistent, end-to-end support is necessary to keep customers happy and engaged. Furthermore, implementing a digital transformation with a seamless omnichannel strategy will not only enhance customer experience, engagement but also improve customer retention and in turn, the bottom line.
3. Leveraging big data and analytics
Digitization of customer engagement enables service providers to scale up to customer expectations. Having access to huge data means they can monitor a customer’s download speed, feedback scores, and average revenue per user. Leading telecom companies analyze this data related to customer representative interactions, in order to determine whether strategies are working according to plan, and if there are any gaps in expectations. Analyzing customer interactions at various touch points provides a personalized outlook on each customer. The insights can be transformed into actionable steps to avoid churn. Additionally, this information can be utilized to train algorithms to identify high-risk customers who are on the verge of leaving your organization. When such customers have been identified, offering personalized marketing and interactions, potentially through the use of business text messaging, may lead to retention.
4. Hyper-personalization
Millions of dollars is spent yearly by telecom service providers on IVR (interactive voice response) technology. Approximately, 60% of customers bypass IVR and around 83% of all interactions that begin with IVR end with a direct conversation with a live representative. The Research shows that;
- 50% of telecom customers feel lost when interacting with automated services and prefer a user-friendly method of communication with their service provider
- As estimated 35% of customers prefer to speak with an agent who is friendly and empathetic
- The phrase “your call is important to us” puts off a lot of customers
The telco industry stands to gain a lot by introducing AI enabled technology which goes a long way in enhancing customer engagement using authentic personalized interactions. Verizon combines human and artificial intelligence to provide each customer with a personalized experience based on their past interactions via chats, text and phone. Statflo provides similar services to Telco brands by leveraging data derived from a CMS to provide customized customer support.
5. Improve customer retention
Digitized customer engagement enables easier and faster interactions to take place between a brand and its customers. Customers should have ease when trying to access customer support and unfortunately, relying only on customer service calls is no longer sufficient. Employing tools such as text messaging for example, helps customer support keep track of customer issues and inform customers in advance without waiting for them to log into account portals. Providing them with information every step of the way regarding the problems, and how it will be solved provides credibility and trust rather than simply promising a solution.
Conclusion
As telecom companies look for new ways to differentiate themselves in the digital age, those that can provide an excellent customer experience will be those that succeed. Your customers are your most valuable asset as well as your greatest advocates. Telecom companies can cultivate customer engagement by creating digitized and personalized interactions that strengthen relationships and engage with customers in a deeper, more authentic way - turn paying customers into brand advocates.
Take customer engagement to the next level by leveraging the abilities of various digital channels. Book a demo today to find out how.
