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Unlocking the Potential of the IP Platform and Delivering a Differentiated and Intentional Customer Experience
By adopting an integrated customer management approach, a service provider’s resources are aligned around the customer, providing visibility across all services supported by the IP platform and insight into how and when customers use their services as well as their personal preferences. This creates unlimited opportunities to leverage the customer experience to maximize value for both the service provider and the customer, particularly in the areas of personalization, self care and content management.
Subscribers place a lot of weight on personalized content that is tailored to their specific needs and preferences. Having a complete view of a customer across all services and devices allows for a much greater level of personalization and the ability to create a differentiated and intentional user experience. For example, providing a sports fan the ability to access real-time updates of his favorite football players while watching a match on TV, and viewing everything on the same screen. Or a customer watching a cooking program receives on-screen links to web pages featuring related content and program scheduling notices. How a customer pays for services and goods purchased through their IPTV service can also be personalized. For example, providing a customer with an advice of charge for a transaction that reflects any bundling or promotional offers that apply specifically to that individual and the services he subscribes to. Likewise, a service provider can also provide multiple options for customers to pay for goods and services that meet their individual preferences; this includes the options to charge a transaction to their credit card or monthly bill using their TV remote control.
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"...a customer watching a cooking program receives on-screen links to web pages featuring related content and program scheduling notices." |
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customer will
expect his user interface, profile and experience to be exactly the same regardless if he placed the order through his TV, PC, or mobile phone. Similarly, he expects that if he had a problem with the order or the billing of the program, when he contacts customer service the service representative would have complete visibility of his profile and provide consistent support across all touch points. Providing customers with the ability to self manage all aspects of their accounts, not only empowers the customer but also helps the service provider to significantly lower support and call center costs.
The Newest Customer Demand: Content
Content is the latest standard of service by which customers evaluate service providers. In the multi-play environment customers want an unlimited choice of content. As a result, service providers must take on the role of a retail content and entertainment super store where customers can browse, discover and buy any content service they chose on demand. Service providers must rapidly roll-out new content and services (much of it from third-parties) at a dramatically lower cost than they can today.
To do so, involves automating the complex tasks of delivering content services and managing complex business models with any number of partners. To proactively deliver high value content and a differentiated
customer experience, also requires understanding what content consumers are using, how and when. Such insight can only be achieved through an integrated customer management approach.
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By adopting an integrated customer management approach, a service provider is able to leverage the full benefits of self care as a strategic interaction channel. With an integrated customer management approach the provider is able to provide a single, personalized user interface that can be replicated across multiple devices, interaction channels and applications. Such robust self care functionality is critical to the success of the multi-play strategy where the expectation of the customer will be to have anytime, anywhere access. For example a customer who subscribes to an IPTV bundle will expect to be able to use the self care functionality of his mobile phone to order a pay per view TV program and set the program to be recorded while he is at work so that he can view it at a later time that is more convenient
for him. When using his mobile phone to order this service he wants to access all of his account and IPTV service information and have complete visibility of the order process and receive confirmation that the order was successfully placed and billed correctly. This
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To remain competitive and meet growing consumer expectations, service must be able to support the multiplay. Of course, it is not enough to bundle IP services and other digital content services together and present a common bill. To achieve market leadership, service providers must undergo a significant business transformation from network-focused business models to agile, customer-centric business models that facilitate a supermarket of digital, multimedia services and an intentional customer experience at all touch points – true integrated customer management. Only by taking this new approach to their business, can U.S. service providers ensure that their customers can have it their way!
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