Valentine’s Day is only around the corner and romance is in the air. So (tenuous link alert!) we have been thinking about how we can spread a little love and happiness, and see the relationships between operators and their subscribers blossom and thrive.
We appreciate it can sometimes be a bit of a one way street for operators – subscribers are bored, looking elsewhere for service, and will jump ship as soon as a new provider comes along… with a better package. But if operators do something to win back their affections, then this can just be written off a rough patch instead of a permanent split.
The key to reviving customer relationships is better insight – understanding who your customer is, how they use your service, in what ways they engage with you, etc. This is not new thinking. Nor is it any sort of revelation that, in order to generate that meaningful customer insight, you need a single view of your customers.
However, for a multitude of reasons, the Single Customer View – or SCV – is something that the majority of operators have struggled with implementing. Thanks to legacy IT, as well as entrenched organizational structure and processes, omni-channel has largely remained a buzz word, not a business model. Most operators have moved from a single channel to a multi-channel offering but this has added a great deal of complexity in the process, which is actually degrading the customer experience.
Customers are way ahead of that in terms of their expectations. They want a “seamless” experience where they can engage with the brand across any channel, at any time, switching the dialogue from one channel to another without any fuss. With more channels coming on stream all the time, and customers expecting a more rich quality service from those channels (e.g. social as a service channels, not just a one-way marketing stream), delivering a joined-up “omni-channel” experience becomes critical to putting the spice back into flagging customer relationships.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, AsiaInfo is focusing on operator/ customer relationships. Acting as Cupid, if you will. We are publishing research next week that outlines the key benefits to implementing next generation CRM, looking specifically at SCV/ omni-channel capabilities, and the positive impact (in cash saving terms) of improving the customer experience.
So the battle to put the magic back into the customer relationship is far from lost. Operators simply need to be able to adapt and change with their customers – and implementing omni-channel is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Veris CRM is a future proof telecom-focused CRM solution that overcomes the shortcomings of existing systems by providing a true omni-channel customer experience from any device and across any interaction channel, including social network services.
Comments