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In the early 1990s, deregulation forever changed the competitive landscape in the worldwide telecommunications industry. Increased competition, not only from traditional carriers and telcos but also from cable companies and mobile services providers was the first dramatic change of the new deregulated era. More recently, non-traditional players, such as Internet companies (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft), voice-over-IP and IPTV providers, and even media companies entered the fray, leaving consumers with a confusing array of choices in the communications services market. Even with the spate of consolidations in the traditional carrier space, the market influence and competitive threats posed by the new, non-traditional players are as strong as ever.
In addition to increased competition and consolidation, convergence has shifted the ground underneath even the most agile communication service provider (CSP). As more services and customer-facing interfaces are delivered through new and emerging technologies, such as DSL, VDSL, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 3G/4G, FMC etc. you face new challenges learning how to manage the new IP-based paradigm and ensure quality of service.
The Rise of the Multi-Play Reality
With the lines between providers and their offerings blurring, customers have found it increasingly easy to switch from one company to another — with little downside. This increased customer churn has led to falling ARPUs and slowing growth despite the advent of many new services.
To reverse this downward trend, reduce customer churn, and increase service stickiness, CSPs have turned to the bundling of multiple services into a single customer offering. These so-called “triple-play” and “quad-play” bundles feature a lower overall cost than the aggregate cost of each individual service as well as a single, consolidated bill for all services in the bundle. While this makes it more expensive and less convenient for customers to switch providers, it also makes it more costly for providers.
Service Stickiness Helps Retain Customers
While consumers note price and convenience as major factors for bundle take-up they also rank poor customer service as one of the primary reasons for switching providers.1 In the same study, consumers also noted that good customer service was a primary reason for staying with an existing provider. What does all this mean? It means that if you provide exceptional customer service you will not only be well-positioned to attract new customers, but also to retain existing ones.
The retention of existing customers is crucial for you, because revenue growth increasingly depends on retaining customers rather than just winning new subscribers. Adding new services and capabilities to existing service bundles can increase both ARPUs and stickiness but losing these subscribers now implies a much bigger revenue impact. However, delivering exceptional customer service is no easy feat, particularly in today’s “multi-play”, bundled service reality.
But Delivering a Great Customer Experience Is Not Easy
Today’s customers expect a single bill and a single phone number for support, easy-to-use selfservice through multiple channels, fast and accurate problem resolution, and constant delivery of fresh, new content at consistently higher speeds without service quality degradation or interruption — no matter how many or what type of services they receive. But you face significant hurdles in meeting these expectations.
NO SINGLE VIEW OF THE CUSTOMER Multiple, non-integrated systems within your organization do not deliver a “single view of the customer”, making a coordinated sales and support effort difficult, if not impossible.
COMPLEX MULTI-VENDOR NETWORKS REQUIRE MORE MANAGEMENT Increasingly complex customer-premise equipment makes it difficult to diagnose and fix problems quickly. In addition to the fact that no single vendor makes every component of your network, new applications and technologies, such as voice-over-IP, are not as stable as older applications, requiring more hands-on management to ensure a consistent customer experience.
DIGITAL CONTENT HOGS BANDWIDTH The ever-growing popularity of bandwidth-hogging digital content puts increasing pressure on service performance and quality — and it is not just stated bandwidth and connection speeds that determine customer satisfaction. The Internet is a dynamic medium, and what works well one day may not work the next. You must monitor applications in real time to ensure that customer expectations are always being met.
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