Communications service providers (CSPs) can unlock growth opportunities by addressing gaps in delivery, and ensuring levels of customer service don’t decline after the initial sale and set-up phase, according to research. Business technology journalist, Antony Savvas takes a look at success, and failure, in the arena.
Enterprises
The “Every Move Counts: Enterprise Lessons and Growth Opportunities” research was conducted by analyst firm GlobalData at 350 enterprises across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. It reveals that 38% of enterprises say CSPs have failed to deliver on their contracted service at least three times over the past year.
However, it also finds 43% of enterprises are “satisfied” with how CSPs understand and meet their communications needs, outperforming other ecosystem players, says GlobalData. CSPs are least likely to be dropped from an enterprise’s partner ecosystem as a result.
The findings also indicate the trust and value placed in CSPs by enterprises can be leveraged to increase revenues outside core communications services, for example through the provision of digital/e-commerce services, and network-based, value-added services, such as cyber security and managed IoT (Internet of Things).
The research identified five distinct stages of the enterprise customer service lifecycle:
- Service exploration
- Contracting
- Provisioning and implementation
- Service performance
- Ongoing maintenance and support
Provisioning and implementation, including service orchestration, user/system set-up and integration with existing infrastructure, was found to be the most crucial, with 35% of enterprises saying this stage has the greatest impact on their buying experience.
“Enterprises, however, attached importance to all five stages, underlining the need to take a holistic approach to service delivery and provide an excellent end-to-end enterprise customer experience,” says GlobalData.
A total of 59% of enterprises state incorrect service delivery will prompt them to switch provider, making this the main reason for churn, followed by late service delivery (52%).
The study was completed on behalf of Amdocs, the provider of software and services to CSPs. “Too often, CSPs aren’t meeting enterprises’ expectations around customer experience,” says Gil Rosen, chief marketing officer at Amdocs. “Executing across all five stages of the enterprise customer lifecycle and ensuring an exceptional end-to-end journey will open the door to growth, enabling CSPs to drive new revenues, grow market share and build lasting relationships with enterprise customers.”
Consumers
An example of IoT provider failure has just been seen in the US. Last week, the US Federal Trade Commission charged Amazon home security camera company Ring with compromising its customers’ privacy. Ring was allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers’ private videos, and was failing to implement basic privacy and security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers’ accounts, cameras and videos.
“Ring’s disregard for privacy and security exposed consumers to spying and harassment,” says Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC’s order makes clear that putting profit over privacy doesn’t pay.”
California-based Ring LLC, sells internet-connected, video-enabled home security cameras, doorbells, and related accessories and services. “The company has marketed its products as offering greater home security and providing its users with peace of mind,” says the FTC. “For example, in promoting its indoor security cameras, which can be placed in individual rooms, Ring touts the ability of purchasers to ‘See your home. Away from home’, alongside a picture of a Ring camera monitoring a child’s bedroom.”
The FTC says Ring deceived its customers by failing to restrict employees’ and contractors’ access to its customers’ videos, using customer videos to train algorithms, among other purposes, without consent, and failing to implement security safeguards.
One Ring employee, over several months, viewed thousands of video recordings belonging to female users of Ring cameras that covered intimate spaces in their homes, such as their bathrooms or bedrooms. The employee wasn’t stopped until another employee discovered the misconduct.
And even after Ring imposed restrictions on who could access customers’ videos, the company wasn’t able to determine how many other employees inappropriately accessed private videos, because Ring failed to implement basic measures to monitor and detect employees’ video access.
“Hundreds of Ring employees, and third-party contractors in Ukraine had unfettered access to live streams and stored videos,” says the FTC.
Failed security
Ring also failed to properly deploy multi-factor authentication on customer accounts, with its “sloppy implementation” hampering effectiveness, the FTC says.
As a result, hackers continued to exploit account vulnerabilities to access stored videos, live video streams, and account profiles of around 55,000 US customers. Bad actors not only viewed customers’ videos, but also used Ring cameras’ two-way functionality to harass, threaten, and insult consumers, including elderly individuals and children whose rooms were monitored by Ring cameras. For example, hackers taunted several children with racist slurs, sexually propositioned individuals, and threatened a family with physical harm if they didn’t pay a ransom.
In addition to an FTC-mandated privacy and security programme, the regulator is demanding that Ring pay out US$5.8 million (€4.97 million), which will be used for consumer refunds. Considering the evidence, Amazon executives will no doubt be relieved at the relatively light penalties for a business unit of one of the biggest companies in the world.
For its last reported quarterly results, Amazon generated a net income of $3.2 billion (€2.99 billion).
Good news
While customer experience can undoubtedly be varied in communications, one Polish effort sees companies getting their act together to serve key market segments.
The first Open RAN 5G private network for industry 4.0 in Poland has been officially launched in Kraków. The network has been co-developed by tech incubator IS-Wireless, Benetel and T-Mobile.
The radio access network has been provided by IS-Wireless, a Polish 5G vendor, whilst the core has been delivered by T-Mobile and the remote radio units from Benetel. IS-Wireless says it is looking to “impact the global 5G market”.
“We are already involved in more implementations, bringing forth the industry 4.0 revolution, by providing our solutions to customers looking to transform their organisations in Poland and abroad,” says Rafał Sanecki, head of marketing at IS-Wireless.
The author is Antony Savvas, a global freelance business technology journalist.
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