Sometimes communications service providers (CSPs) are accused of lacking care when it comes to their customers. Mobile providers especially seem to fare badly in polls of which sectors have the worst customer service. But I don’t believe that it’s lack of care that causes telco customer churn, it’s a lack of customer understanding, says Dr Dorian Selz, the chief executive of Squirro.

CSPs have invested heavily in customer relationship management (CRM) systems, but most CRM systems are unable to manage unstructured data – social media comments, contact centre call transcripts and so forth. And this is where the really insightful stuff is contained. What customers think, why they are unhappy and what would put a smile back on their face and prevent them from taking their business elsewhere?

So, how can telcos address this lack of customer understanding, and what role can artificial intelligence play?

An industry awash with data
It’s been estimated that around half of UK consumers have had a poor experience with their mobile phone operator, with one in 10 leaving their operator as a result. Common complaints include: incorrectly targeted information; little or no information; a ‘one size fits all’ approach; privacy breaches to name just a few.

Yet few sectors hold as much data on their customers as telecoms – social updates, user generated content, emails, customer service records and much more. This big data means there is lots of information on a customer’s intent, preferences and any potential issues, and to extract this insight, CSPs have invested heavily in CRM systems.

But most CRM systems work only with structured data, yet around 86% of enterprise data is unstructured. The issue is clear – CSPs are attempting to understand their customers based on a tiny fraction of the relevant information.

Using artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that has seen great return on investment (ROI) from the early adopters using it, but it’s still on the verge of making the full leap to mainstream use. One of the applications it can help with is empowering CRM systems, accessing and unlocking the unstructured data that is so important to successful customer relationships in telecommunications.

This is the data that really enables a telco to understand its customers. By deploying AI CSPs can collect data from multiple sources and in multiple formats, extracting fresh and insightful meaning from it and helping to deliver a complete view of each customer.

This knowledge and understanding of customers means that CSPs can anticipate issues or needs. By identifying trending issues and anomalies around an individual customer or group of customers, a telco can address these before they become an issue. It also means that new opportunities can be identified on a regular and more accurate basis – personalised offers, tailored to that customer’s individual preferences and offered at the most appropriate time is a powerful of fostering loyalty.

Customer churn continues to be a significant problem for CSPs, and most CRM platforms are unable to manage the really insightful data that could help address this, such as call centre transcripts and social media updates. Yet only through the availability of all this relevant information does CRM become truly compelling and provide a telco with the customer insight required to thrive in such a customer-centric environment and combat churn. But achieving this is a major challenge and requires AI to enhance an organisation’s current CRM system.