The mobile industry has gone through huge transformations in the past few years and much of our daily life is spent tethered to a phone. Consumers spend over four hours a day looking at their smartphones, proving that the mobile is, without doubt, the one technology we simply can’t live without.
Whilst we have become a mobile society and are reaping the benefits of mobile innovations, says Guy Talmi, CMO of PayKey, operators themselves are facing numerous challenges. It is increasingly difficult for operators to set themselves apart from their competitors, with consumers seeking the best deals and operators struggling with retention rates as a result. As such, operators are looking for new ways to differentiate their offerings, and the customer experience is one route that can bring operators a long-term competitive advantage.
Digital only
The rise of the Internet and mobile applications has driven a significant shift in what consumers want from their providers. They desire network providers that only have a presence on digital channels, rather than physical stores, and have customer service through digital channels alone such as social media or mobile apps.
However, according to research by Capgemini Consulting, 64% of customers believe that telcos do not use digital technologies to improve their experience. And with high-spenders (greater than US$75 {€62.63} a month) more willing to switch to a digital-only provider, operators need to address the customer experience head-on. But the question is how?
Research shows that smaller telcos are outperforming traditional incumbents, which is interesting as they have been in operation for a shorter duration. One key differentiator includes adopting a digital-only operating model, which seems to be paying off in terms of customer experience and satisfaction as these challengers are more agile and adaptable to what consumers want. However, older network service providers are taking longer to adjust due to their existing business and customer service models.
Four objectives
Telcos must focus on achieving four key objectives as they build out their hybrid customer service channels. There must be customer or persona recognition, orchestration, continuous adaptation and protection of the customer. Analyst house Ovum wrote that “orchestration is particularly important if telcos are to avoid customer journey fragmentation. Telcos need to avoid creating or using silos and must find ways to overcome any existing silos. This includes multiple communication channels such as physical stores, call centres, and web-based chats.”
There also needs to be a commitment from the CxO level down, to place the customer at the centre of their services. This includes making sure they have a good understanding of how their customers wish to interact with them. Consumer behaviour research shows that users prefer to use mobile phones to interact with their provider for both products and services, and customer support.
Operators’advantage
This means that telcos need to have an “always-on” approach to their customer service. Furthermore, social and messaging applications are rapidly becoming the most used applications, hence the best interface to achieve this. Enabling customers to access services – credit top-up and transfer, balance check, and notifications – instantly from within any mobile application, means operators have an advantage over their competitors. It will also mean they can maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction, retaining those high-spenders.
By implementing a keyboard extension integrated to the mobile app, telcos can close this gap. Transforming the smartphone keyboard into a new channel for services, information, and communication can enable telcos to drive customer engagement, can create a new channel for sales and promotions, and offer a first-of-its-kind frictionless, cross-channel user experience.
Telcos also need to be mindful that in-app channels cannot compromise security. Any solution needs to not only easily integrate on the API level – it needs to retain the operator’s authentication method to remain secure.
Telcos need to act quickly
To reap the benefits of this digital-only transition, telcos need to act quickly. There is a direct competitive threat posed by internet and technology players especially in terms of the benchmarks set for service quality. A digital telco will need to redefine the digital experience, focusing on real-time and mobile-first interactions.
They also need to change from transactional to personalised relationships and put more emphasis on consumer community and social media-based engagement. One way to do this is to leverage mobile applications such as WhatsApp, and enable communication between operators and their customers using one click of a button.
This approach is working for digital-only telcos, securing an average revenue growth of 33% (over 2012 – 2014) according to Capgemini. This is compared with lower performing telcos, suffering a revenue decline of -7% over the same period.
The disrupters have shown that delivering the right customer experience doesn’t have to be costly – in fact, the benefits can far exceed the investment. Bain & Company estimated companies that excel in customer experience grow revenues 4 – 8% above their market. In this case, improving user experience and revenues is potentially one click away.
The author of this blog is Guy Talmi, CMO of PayKey
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