Pipeline Publishing, Volume 4, Issue 3

	This Month's Issue:
	Automation

Beyond OSS: Unlock New Profits with Lifetime Value Optimization

By Jeff Gordon

If service providers were to reveal their innermost thoughts on today’s OSS systems, the response might sound like the refrain of that old cabaret tune – “Is That All There Is?”

OSS has made major strides in automating the complex processes of delivering triple/quad play services quickly, accurately and cost-effectively. But operators now expect automation to do more than just bring customers on-board. They want innovative new ways to keep customers, and as importantly, to keep customers buying new services over an extended period. A new concept called lifetime value optimization is meeting that goal, empowering operators to deliver a superior service experience that drives customer loyalty and long-term profitability.

Lifetime value optimization is an automated approach to the challenges of customer retention and profit maximization. It’s based on a simple premise: In the communications industry, 30 percent of customers drive 70 percent of profits. Thus it makes sense to focus automation on care, retention and selling activities that target high-value customers.

Lifetime value optimization works by integrating with the carrier’s own OSS/BSS and CRM systems to create detailed profiles of each customer. Based on this profile, a centralized policy management engine instantly scans product catalogs and automates the appropriate treatment – all in “real time,” matching the service level expectations of today’s fast-paced triple and quad play environments. Massively scalable, lifetime value optimization can proactively enforce care policies for millions of customers and transactions, across any customer channel.

Another benefit: By helping customer service representatives (CSRs) do their jobs more quickly and effectively, this new approach enhances agent satisfaction and performance, reducing attrition.

What this “rapid response” solution means for operators: The Delta Force of customer care has landed. Operators have the power to instantly deploy tailored care strategies, head off service issues, and unlock new revenue opportunities with valued customers.

Results to date are impressive. Key players in the wireline, wireless and cable sectors are deploying lifetime value optimization solutions to provide a superior service experience that increases customer loyalty – and spending.

Optimizing the Customer Experience

The momentum of lifetime value optimization reflects operators’ needs to respond to rapidly changing market conditions. Growth markets

Operators now expect automation to do more than just bring customers on-board. They want innovative new ways to keep customers.

of 1990s, such as wireless, are now mature and reaching saturation. As markets peak, carriers rightly worry about churn, and need to increase their focus on caring for existing customers.

The key is to treat each customer interaction, across every touch point and channel, as a unique opportunity to deliver the superior service experience. Automation makes it possible to do this millions of times over, tailoring each response to the customer, the event and the context. The upshot: Lifetime value optimization converts every customer interaction into an opportunity to improve satisfaction, increase loyalty, cross-sell and up-sell, and cut operating costs. Examples abound:

A quad play provider can make a special offer on a boxing PPV show to a customer with a history of ordering high-ticket sporting events. If the customer’s spouse recently viewed “Sense and Sensibility,” the provider might alert the couple to a scheduled PPV showing of “Pride and Prejudice.”

A mobile operator can quickly detect that an important customer has gone several days without successfully generating usage on a new high-end phone. Instead of waiting for the customer to call, the system alerts the customer via SMS or email, asks if they are having difficulty, and provides a hot-link to online troubleshooting. Once the customer begins generating usage, the system might send an SMS up-sell offer.

When a pre-paid mobile customer calls in for technical assistance, the system sees that the customer hasn’t logged on to the website’s trouble-shooting section. Instead of automatically connecting the customer to an agent, the system sends a strongly

article page | 1 | 2 | 3 |

© 2006, All information contained herein is the sole property of Pipeline Publishing, LLC. Pipeline Publishing LLC reserves all rights and privileges regarding
the use of this information. Any unauthorized use, such as copying, modifying, or reprinting, will be prosecuted under the fullest extent under the governing law.