Competition for today’s communications service subscriber is intense. The field of service providers has expanded greatly, with many offering a range of voice, data and video services. In vying for customers, service providers are trying to out-do one another through a variety of innovative service and pricing options. They include:

• Wireless & wireline service bundles
• Cable and Internet protocol television (IPTV)
• Digital video recording (DVR)
• Creative pricing and service packages
• Sophisticated hand-held devices

Consumers, therefore, have more choice among service providers and options, and they’re more demanding as a result. For service providers, this requires a new approach to managing the customer experience.

To better understand today’s communication services subscriber and what incumbent service providers (telephone companies) must do to meet their needs, we spoke with Joy King, marketing director of Communications and Media Solutions at HP.

Answer: There’s been a big shift over the years in how technology is designed and delivered to consumers. As personal computers and mobiles phones became more widespread and simple to use, consumer preference played a bigger part in their design and functionality. This democratisation of technology, so to speak, has empowered consumers and given them more control over the evolution of technology products and services.

Secondly, competition among service providers intensified. Deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the 1980s coupled with new communications standards, such as TCPIP, opened the market to start-ups and new market entrants like Virgin, Google and Yahoo!, which flooded the market with new and innovative services.

Answer: Most importantly, they want a simple and intuitive experience every time they interact with their service provider. For instance, they want the ability to use a new service or device immediately, without studying a manual. They want easy access to their account and billing information quickly and conveniently, whether that’s through a web portal that’s easy to navigate, or telephone support that’s personalised and efficient.

Answer: This is where it gets interesting. Back when the telecommunications industry was regulated, service providers had little incentive to innovate. That’s because government regulators evaluated them on service availability and reliability metrics, such as service quality, voice clarity and whether they offered a dial tone 99.999 percent of the time. So that’s where they focused all their efforts. Naturally, these became the measures of quality customers came to expect.

These days, however, customers expect much more. They want exceptional network reliability, plus all the value added services – a sophisticated handset with access to the latest applications (think iPhone and its App Store), consolidated billing that bundles voice, data and any additional services, and a customer service organisation that has all their account information at their fingertips.

Answer: Service providers must realise that their communications service isn’t the only element defining the customer experience. It now includes every customer interaction throughout the service lifecycle, from the point at which a customer enrols in a plan (service creation), to the activation of that plan (service fulfilment), to the delivery of the plan (service assurance) and the ongoing support of that plan (service management). Service providers need to fundamentally and noticeably transform the customer experience.

Answer: You’re right; it is complicated and it isn’t something you can accomplish overnight. They must first recognise the problem. The next step is a thorough mapping of their internal processes to understand how they help or hinder the customer – this is usually achieved most effectively with the help of outside experts.

Secondly, they must look outside their industry to learn how other companies have adopted a customer-centric approach. Highly competitive industries like retail and financial services have done this really well.

Answer: Yes, it is a lot easier said than done. For most incumbent service providers, transforming the customer experience requires four foundational elements:

• The first is infrastructure transformation. A standards-based network architecture, built with IT standards-based technology costs less to maintain and makes it easier to create and deploy new services.
• Secondly, service providers must commit to and measure operational excellence from a customer-centric point of view throughout their organisation.
• Third, they need the ability to harness real-time customer insight. There’s a wealth of valuable data available on subscriber behaviour, from network transactions to billing choices and specific usage patterns. The challenge is to integrate this information and act upon it.
• Lastly, service innovation must be a core component of every service provider’s strategy. Today’s communications service subscribers want rich, multi-media enabled, personalised communications services. If you don’t provide it, someone else will.
  

For a closer look at how service providers can deliver rich, end-to-end customer experiences, read the related white paper.

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