Johannesburg, 20 Mar 2014
We expect our service providers to intimately know us. To provide us with services that are immediate, social, adhere to our multi-persona lifestyles, provide real-time interactions and be available anytime, anywhere. Our rising demands and high expectations are leading to a control evolution. We not only want, but expect to have control of our experiences across channels, networks, services and devices, says Rafi Kretchmer, director of cross-portfolio marketing, Amdocs.
To meet these challenges, service providers are making the customer experience a priority initiative. Specifically, service providers are looking at ways to provide end-users with more flexibility, more variety and improved personalisation.
But to achieve this and differentiate from the competition, service providers must first have a comprehensive customer view. A view that is only possible through tighter integration of their business support systems (BSS), operational support systems (OSS) and network control and optimisation domains.
Social channels fast becoming "trusted advisors"
Social networks are no longer just channels to share and respond to the personal aspects of our daily lives. Thanks to crowd sourcing, sharing and personalised feeds, integrated social channels are fast becoming the single most "trusted advisor" for many consumers. As such, we are increasingly treating social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter as extended, unofficial support channels and we allow these sites' content to influence our attitudes and choices.
Although most service providers have Facebook and Twitter accounts, few have fully integrated them with their conventional assisted and unassisted support and care channels. Full integration enables service providers to provide a comprehensive and consistent customer experience by connecting the customer's information that resides within their BSS with the customer's social identity.
Consumers expect immediate gratification
Consumers expect that their communications be real time and have little to no patience for any type of failure. For service providers, this does not come without a cost. Deployment of advanced network technologies enable service providers to accommodate consumer demands by intelligently offloading or onloading consumers to or from their cellular or wi-fi networks.
Most service providers want to provide the best connection to their subscribers. But without an intelligent and comprehensive understanding of their customers' personal profile, usage and consumption patterns, location or network status in that location and real-time network insights, they are in jeopardy of offloading highly valuable customers onto heavily congested wi-fi networks.
Make experiences personal
Keeping customers merely satisfied is no longer enough. End users expect each and every interaction to be personal and meet their lifestyle expectations. Treating customers as individuals requires service providers to incorporate personalisation as part of their big data strategy, adapt to their multiple personas, proactively respond to issues and use the wealth of information at their disposal to offer relevant and personalised experiences.
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