Throughout the incredible journey of the telecom OSS/BSS sector over
the last 10 years, VanillaPlus has remained a reliable source of both key
news but also informative, objective and thought-provoking assessments of
the key trends which have shaped our industry. I am looking forward to
VanillaPlus and their more recent Stream journal continuing to play a key
role in providing valuable insights as we enter one of the most exciting
phases of the telecoms OSS/BSS market evolutions.
Kieran Moynihan
Vice President & CTO Telecoms
IBM Tivoli Division
Openet loyalty app allows Tier 1s to enhance customer experience
2008-04-21 10:06:21
April 18, 2008 – Openet, a provider of transactional intelligence for the world’s largest and most diverse service providers, has launched its new Loyalty Programs application. Through the Openet FusionWorks Product Suite™, Openet is enabling service providers to more effectively leverage their existing transactional data to enhance and extend customer relationships.
According to Openet, telecom operators are finally realising that service innovation and convergence are not the only ways to increase revenue and ARPU (average revenue per user). Instead, they are shifting their primary focus from customer acquisition to customer loyalty — innovating creative loyalty and affinity programmes to increase “stickiness” and improve customer satisfaction and brand perception. Innovative loyalty programmes can stimulate service usage and the deployment of new opportunities, however they must be timely, targeted and relevant in order for customers to see and appreciate the value.
“Service provider marketers are racing to keep up with customer expectations for personalised services and enhancements, and well-designed loyalty programmes are a tremendous opportunity to communicate directly with enticing offers that will keep customers coming back,” said Openet CMO, Mike Manzo. “The key is accurate and real-time data on usage, thresholds and style of account to ensure you’re targeting the right offer to the right customer. Leveraging FusionWorks together with our Loyalty Programs application gives marketers the real-time visibility and actionable information to capture and retain customer attention and revenue, now and in the future.”
Some of the enhancements more readily possible with Openet’s Loyalty Programs application include:
•
Awarding points based on usage, tenure or transaction thresholds
• Points
programmes that allow customers to take advantage of service provider and
third-party offerings
• Free initial usage of new or existing services,
such as SMS, video downloads and ringtones. For example, service providers
can offer long-time customers a free month of text messages to coincide
with a user’s birthday month.
Tier
1s are constantly faced with high churn rates for pre-paid, hybrid and contract
subscribers. The ability to segment customer data brings service providers
the chance to identify the right situations where loyalty programmes can
either enhance a relationship or counteract the timing when users might
consider another provider, such as when a pre-paid customer is about to
top off and extend minutes. As service providers focus on extending
customer relationships and revenue for next generation services, capturing
and keeping customer attention is paramount, and targeted loyalty
offerings — such as these enabled by Openet — are
a direct way to positively impact lifetime subscriber value, improve
satisfaction and brand perception, and stimulate new services usage.
Filed under: New Products CRM & Customer Care Network Operators/VNOs Mobile operators/MVNOs Pre-paid/Post-paid