By
John Konczal and Michael Hylton of Sterling Commerce, Inc.
Personalization and the demand-driven provider
It’s no secret that the communications market has changed radically in the last 25 years. Instead of POTS (plain old telephone service), we now have the convergence (some would say collision) of multiple product lines, each with their own commercial interests. This is changing the shape of all the business drivers for communications service providers (CSPs).
To compete effectively in the new market realities of converged, enhanced services that go well beyond simple voice and broadband services, CSPs need to think (and operate) like world-class retailers. For many, this means shifting from acting like manufacturers and suppliers of communication services to acting like demand-driven, digital lifestyle enablers. This means going beyond bundling and market segmentation, to providing mass-customization of offers and improving the overall customer experience. For CSPs to capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s market opportunities for both new revenue and cost reduction, they must go through a transformation to become demand-driven retailers. The transformation calls for CSPs to become significantly more responsive, agile, and adaptable to embracing changing consumer demands in order to maximize revenue potential.
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We found that 69% customers we surveyed would be more likely to make a purchase if customization and personalization options were available. |
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fulfillment options to prospects either within an order or through any customer transaction (or interaction). A possible scenario might be when a customer calls into a customer service organization complaining about the slow download time of a very large file only to find out that they are on the limited bandwidth broadband plan. However, the representative is able to offer and sell a high-revenue service upgrade bundle with more bandwidth plus 3 months of free home IT support services by presenting a promotion to the customer based on their longevity with the provider, data download usage history, and number and types of service calls to the call center.
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A key imperative in becoming demand-driven is focusing on customer personalization. Personalization means creating, offering, presenting, and delivering unique and compelling offers and service options based on a prospect’s or customer’s profile and historical attributes, such as purchase history. Personalization, often referred to under the umbrella business objective of customer centricity, can pay CSPs great dividends, especially in increasing revenue per sale and customer lifetime value, and reducing customer churn. At Sterling Commerce, in our own survey of consumer buying preferences, we found that 69% customers we surveyed would be more likely to make a purchase if customization and personalization options were available at time of purchase.
Personalization means CSPs can dynamically access and analyze rich customer data to provide product, packaging, pricing and promotions recommendations, as well as
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…but not without its challenges…
To transform to a demand-driven retailer offering personalized service, a CSP must transform its static customer-facing applications infrastructure to an intelligent applications infrastructure that provides on-demand access to and use of customer data during any customer interaction or transaction. Making applications more “intelligent” enables multiple personalization patterns to emerge across multiple customer and business processes, including new orders, change orders, renewals, service inquiries, and fulfillment processes. What makes a difference with today’s consumers, and moves a CSP into the realm of a demand-driven retailer, is the consistent use of personalization across multiple business processes and customer interaction channels. This is the capability that intelligent applications can deliver.
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