Ask anyone on the street about their last great customer experience. Odds are, their story won’t involve a mobile service provider. In fact, says Comptel’s Niilo Fredrikson, in 2016 all four major U.S. telecom companies held a spot in a list of the worst 15 companies in America ranked by poor customer service.
The results aren’t much better on a global scale. The average Net Promoter Score for the telecommunications industry routinely ranks among the lowest of any industry, and that factors in telcos from every corner of the globe. Operators simply have a reputation for offering poor customer experiences.
According to customers, that reputation is well-earned. In a recent survey of more than 2,000 U.S. and U.K. mobile subscribers, 52% said their carrier treats them like just another nameless customer. Changing that perception could mean big business for telcos in the form of recurring revenue and long-term sales. That same survey found customers who think their carrier values their business are three times more likely to stay loyal to that brand.
How do telcos shift perceptions and improve their stock in the eyes of customers? It starts by improving interactions at each stage in the customer journey.
Operators reach customers on multiple sales transactions, product interactions and service engagements. Each one of these touchpoints is an opportunity to provide a better experience, one that encourages average everyday customers to become advocates for your brand.
Artificial intelligence (AI) could provide the real-time intelligence operators need to maximise each touchpoint, reaching customers with the personal service that fosters long-term loyalty. Here’s how.
Understanding ‘brand evangelists’
For the most part, prospective and current mobile customers follow a similar path. Each one moves from exploration to purchase, then to service usage and service engagement. They interact on various channels: the retail store, website, mobile apps and in conversations with the service team. However, there’s a final step on that journey that only the most devoted customers take – evangelisation.
The happiest customers evangelise on their brand’s behalf. These feel their operator truly knows them, gives them control, engages with them on the channel of their choice, and adapts quickly to their unique circumstances.
So, they stay with that carrier longer, fuelling incremental revenue growth by continuously consuming more services over time. They also endorse brands by sharing the love through social media and word-of-mouth. That makes brand evangelists an engine of growth. So, how do telcos get more of them?
AI creates evangelists
The best evangelists will also be the ones who experience positive and personalised engagements continuously. Artificial intelligence is able to help telcos deliver those experiences consistently.
Customer data is one of telco’s most powerful assets, because it provides insight into each customer’s experience with their operator. AI engines allow operators to process and analyse in-the-moment data on service consumption and customer behaviours, and then recommend and automatically trigger the next-best engagement based on that analysis.
For example, if a customer is making frequent international calls over a two-day period, an AI engine could automatically deliver a short-term international call bundle offer to that customer. Real-time contextual customer engagements can also drive customer attention to unique service packages based entirely on their personal preferences – say, a discounted night-time data bundle for a customer who always plays mobile games between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Beyond upsells, AI could also improve customer service. A subscriber who frequently visits the FAQ page on their operator’s mobile account portal could receive a follow-up message from a live customer support rep, to check if their problem was resolved. Customers who are under-utilising certain services could be prompted to adjust their service terms to something that better suits their needs.
This is how operators transform from reactive to proactive services. Rather than waiting for customers to tell them what they want, operators can act instantly on the insight the data tells them right now.
Are customers ready for this type of interaction? The aforementioned survey found 55% of customers actually want more proactive non-alert communications from their mobile carriers, and 75% said they would want to hear about new plans that might benefit them.
In other words, the opportunity is ripe for personalised customer engagement, and AI can enable it.
The author of this blog is Niilo Fredrikson, executive vice president, Intelligent Data of Comptel
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @ VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus
