Technology companies and telecom brands have the highest rate of customers who expect better service when shopping, with 66 percent of consumers holding them to a higher standard than many other industries. Telecom companies have a whole ecosystem of partners and complex customer journeys to manage to meet these standards, which is why big names in the telecom industry like Verizon and AT&T are investing more money than ever in customer experience management tools.
An increasing number of organizations are making exceptional customer experience a top priority in their growth plans—and nowhere is the long-term potential quite as evident as it is in the telecom industry. After all, consumers making a purchasing decision with a telecom brand are most often making a long-term commitment. These consumers want to know they have chosen a company that can provide them with a great experience.
But in the past few years, consumer wants and needs for the customer experience have shifted.The rapid evolution of digital adoption means that telecom brands have to adapt if they want to keep up with consumer expectations for great customer experience (CX). But navigating all ofthis can be a complicated challenge for telecom brands, which have to manage complex ecosystems of partners and systems. These expansive ecosystems can make it hard to deliver a cohesive, unified view across the customer journey as a whole.
Having the right customer experience management tools and strategies can make all the difference—as can staying on top of the latest trends. Here’s what’s happening in the world ofcustomer experience telecom trends.
CX in Telecom: Room for Growth and Consumer Connection
Looking at statistics published at the end of 2022, the telecom sector’s retention rate is showing some growing pains and indications of customer churn when it comes to the customer experience. The churn rate for the telecom industry ranks only slightly better than fast-moving retail goods, according to Finances Online, with the fifth-highest churn rate of any industry:
● Cable: 25 percent churn rate
● Financial/credit: 25 percent churn rate
● General retail: 24 percent churn rate
● Online retail: 22 percent churn rate
● Telecommunications: 21 percent churn rate
A sector or organization’s “churn rate” can also be called an attrition rate. It’s the overall percentage of users that leave a service during a set period. It can be a good indicator of customer satisfaction (or lack thereof), especially for subscription-based industries. For the telecom sector, this percentage is especially high considering factors like contracts and lock-in periods.
By one estimate, the telecommunications industry is losing as much as $65 million as a result of churn.
This implies that there’s plenty of room for growth when it comes to the customer experience in telecom. Customer feedback can be an important tool to get an idea of where pain points might be, but it’s no longer enough. There are plenty of customer experience management examples of platforms or solutions that look at just one point in the journey, but most lack a unified view of the customer experience as a whole.
Telecom companies need to see what’s happening in real-time across the entire customer journey if they want to have the power to support customers through a cohesive customer experience. Otherwise, companies put themselves at risk of churn when customers become frustrated and leave; taking their services to other carriers.
So where do CX-focused telecom brands go from here? What are the steps to take in 2023 to grow? What CXM trends are brands getting right to connect with consumers and drive long-term loyalty?
Any kind of CX strategy in the telecom sector is about fostering customer loyalty and building long-lasting relationships. The problem? Most telecom companies have these complicated technology infrastructures that don’t give them a unified view of the entire customer journey —or a way to manage it. Customer experience management for telecom needs this kind of overarching point of view to keep churn low.
Trend #1: Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Solutions
With more digital channels comes more data, and with the right customer experience management solutions, this data can be leveraged to provide intelligent tools to revolutionize the customer experience.
AI solutions like chat bots and interactive voice response (IVR) can empower self-service—and better customer support— in the telecom industry, but also do things like:
● Offer new, more proactive levels of service to delight customers.
● Limit service downtime and address customer outages faster—which results in less customer dissatisfaction.
● Predict issues with data centers and other telecom tools before they happen.
Conversational AI technology in emerging chat bot tools offers a more natural language flow and more human-like responses for a more personalized experience for customers.
More and more telecom customer support teams are employing these kinds of AI-enabled solutions to relieve the strain of overworked employees and unhappy customers with long wait times. In fact, HubSpot reports that 67 percent of people would prefer to use a self-service solution over talking to a support agent. Self-service tools alone can be a game-changer for the telecom industry in a few ways:
● It can save money and lighten the load for customer service teams so they can tackle bigger issues.
● It can help customers resolve issues faster than waiting for a response from customer service.
● It allows customers to get a solution no matter the day or time.
A robust CXM tool can help with the proper implementation of AI-enabled and self-service tools,especially in the telecom industry. It can help select the right opportunities for these kinds of automations to successfully address the most common pain points within each telecom brand’s unique, far-reaching ecosystem.
Trend #2: Omnichannel Support for Telecom Customer Experience Management
Many CX professionals already know that they can provide better support if they have omnichannel capabilities. These functionalities give customers a consistent experience no matter how they engage with a telecom brand and are a perfect opportunity to offer more personalized service and stronger CX.
As CX Today explained, “Omnichannel interactions are everywhere in the customer service space. Customers have grown accustomed to being able to manage their services and access support through a range of different channels.”
An omnichannel approach requires a great deal of data aggregation, and having the right CXM software solutions in place to enable omnichannel support means customers can have a more consistent experience from end to end.
Omnichannel support means telecom support representatives can guide and help customers seamlessly from one channel to another within a single interaction. This allows representatives to provide continued support, and not have to gather information multiple times or ask customers to recap their issues when dealing with new customer service agents.
Agents get access to the most updated information so they can provide better, more individualized support. And customers can switch channels, get the help they need, and not have a customer service interaction become a source of frustration.
Omnichannel capabilities mean customer service interactions can actually improve, rather than detract from the overall customer experience.
Trend #3: Making the Most of Massive Amounts of Data
Customer service in telecom is all about harnessing the power of your data. Telecom brands today end up with mountains of data—and now these organizations are finding a way to put this data to work. Especially in this industry, brands collect all kinds of insights every day from interactions with clients and the work of their internal teams.
Having the right solutions in place can help refine the customer experience to deliver better experiences overall, as well as more personalized support. Again, AI can help drive data analysis, but a strong CXM tool will help collect and synthesize data to provide actionable insights.
How is this happening? It all goes back to the CXM platform. This platform acts as a “single source of truth” that unifies data and centralizes everything for brands and their customers alike.
There are several software solutions that telecom brands can use to analyze data from customer interactions, but a customer experience management tool offers a more customer-centric approach, and often tools like:
● Surveys
● Landing pages
● Customer behavior tracking and insights
Looking Ahead: What These Trends Mean for the Future
Great telecom customer experience management is more critical than ever for retaining customers, reducing churn, and driving loyalty. With such large enterprises to manage, plus the struggle of omnichannel operations, telecom brands must find a way to unify everything and manage the customer experience from one source—and that comes from selecting a CXM tool that can bring everything together.
Using CXM software in the telecom industry only elevates the customer experience mindset we see in 2023 and beyond. It makes it not only possible, but also effective and simple, with automation tools to unify workflows, collaborate between teams, and analyze data into actionable insights.
Customer experience management in telecom is very specific. It requires a view of the entire enterprise to create a strong customer experience. At OvationCXM, we know that 94 percent of consumers share that they are “very likely” to do business with a company that delivers an exceptional CX. Our CX management platform is here to make that happen.
We know that in the telecom industry, your customers want you to act fast. That’s why OvationCXM is the only solution of its kind to help address CX issues in real time. Through our journey orchestration and automation tools, you can get out ahead of the competition with improved visibility, communication, and collaboration, view your customers’ entire interactions with your brand at a glance, and delight your customers. Ready to learn more? Request a demo today!
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