So far in this series, we’ve looked at the ways in which CSPs can improve the subscriber experience by looking at their service assurance and care functions through the lens of the customer.
We’ve seen how this new outlook can provide the key to unlocking the context that CSPs urgently need if they are to optimise the customer experience and remain competitive in today’s increasingly crowded market. In this final post, we’ll see how CSPs can improve omni-channel marketing efforts to move beyond protecting existing market share, to create new revenue opportunities and attract more customers, says Jean-Phillipe Goyet, Senior director of Product Management at Guavus.
Enabling the omni-channel approach
As CSPs start to look at their business through the lens of the customer, they’re in a much stronger position to identify what makes their prospects and subscribers tick. Building a customer experience analytics layer (CXA) that bridges the gaps between operational siloes and servicing functions provides the cornerstone of an effective omni-channel approach that progressively improves the customer lifetime value (CLV).
Listening to your customers across disconnected interactions
One of the biggest challenges CSPs face when implementing such a strategy is the ability to connect inbound and outbound interactions whether those occurred online within the walled garden, outside or offline. CSPs are at a unique vantage point to make those interconnections happen as most of their touch points leave customer-level data traces that can be collected and correlated.
The best illustration is the collection and correlation of a mobile customer, which browse CSP data plan catalogue and close off his session. A CSP who employs standard marketing practice, would optimise the device catalogue based on the current and past browsing sessions while a CSP who is omni-channel ready would be able to go further by connecting this sessions with context across the entire customer journey, starting with past and intra-session data points and also including:
- past and current messages/promotions to customer
- purchase history and device upgrade propensity
- interest and sensitivity to competition
- usage for current device and flan fit analysis
- usage preference for mobile activity (i.e. browsing, streaming, etc.)
- effective quality of service (e.g. QoS) and experience (e.g. NPS)
- recent support inquiries and in-store visits
- expected customer CLV
As the customer experience analytics system listens to all those interactions and collects data points, it needs to leverage that optimal customer context to propose consistent recommendations across channels.
Recommending consistent actions, at the right time
This customer-level context enables CSPs to segment customers based on their potential responses for proposed offers and messages. In order to deliver such capabilities, the CXA system must embed real-time analytical capabilities but also the ability to incorporate rules that align recommendations with CSP business practices (e.g. re-targeting, messaging, etc.).
As the CXA system creates personas to customer context it also identifies the propensity of those personas to succeed in reaching certain goals (e.g. click, conversion, etc and allow CXA engines to quickly associate a customer context to the highest rewarding set of actions.
For marketers, this truly is the Holy Grail; offering vital information that helps them to trigger the right personalised actions at the right time in order to drive more meaningful interactions and increase conversion rates.
So how will this work in practice? Let’s visit “Frank” our customer, who is looking for a data plan on the CSP portal. Instead of displaying random data plans for his first visit, the personalisation engine displays the line up of new Sports Streaming “Add-On” for discounted video and radio streaming.
Why? As per Frank’s customer journey, his context showed that his recent handset upgrade has drastically changed the way he’s consuming streaming data, to the point where he might get overcharged as his existing plan was best fit for traditional business usage.
In addition, Frank’s primary interest outside work is Football (collected or acquired through 3rd parties). Looking at those elements, the CXA can determine that Frank’s particular context is best fit for this new streaming package. It will not only align with his new needs and increase ARPU, it will also prevent a potential bill shock, credits and billing inquiries thus improving the overall CLV. But it doesn’t end there, Frank’s journey can then be further personalised so the CSP stands the best chance of upselling the package.
Whether it’s the ‘recommended deals’ he sees on the self-care portal, an email or text he receives, a promoted Tweet, or the advice he gets during an inbound call for a support request; CSPs can create a truly personalised, omni-channel campaign.
So what can we take away from the customer lens approach? Having the proper context is critical to understanding the true customer experience at every step in the process, starting with better understanding how a particular cell tower impacts their service all the way through to what and when to offer a personalised offering.
The data has always been there, but without critical contextual insights, it will just remain big data. Context is the foundation for improving the customer experience and vital for continued success for CSPs in an increasingly competitive market.
The author of this blog is Jean-Phillipe Goyet, Senior director of Product Management at Guavus.
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