“Customer satisfaction has been traditionally difficult to measure on an individual level, and was treated as a macro-level qualitative metric,” according to Zohar. “However, new approaches to satisfaction measurement can provide the granularity needed to understand the individual customer experience. To do so, customer satisfaction must be measured in a timely manner, right after a transaction occurred.”

For instance, the moment a customer finishes speaking with a customer service representative, or leaves a storefront, is the best time to solicit the most accurate, candid feedback on their experience.

“This feedback can also be correlated to the rep that provided the service, allowing the operator to measure individual rep performance by satisfaction,” Zohar adds. “Another emerging method of measuring not only satisfaction, but also loyalty and churn likelihood, is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) metric. This metric measures the customer's willingness to recommend the service provider to others.”

OSS/BSS upgrades matter 

Tecnotree released a whitepaper in July 2013 titled, “Operator perspective on bundling, monetisation and loyalty” which draws the correlation between CSP revenues and customer loyalty. According to its findings, smaller, more frequent OSS/BSS upgrades are key to maintaining a service which builds customer loyalty.

Ongoing support systems investment is yet another hallmark of service providers with the most loyal customers.

Secured billing, personalized services and other traditional OSS/BSS systems have emerged as vital components to customer loyalty. As a result, service providers are taking on smaller, more piecemeal support system enhancements and upgrades to provide an ever-richer, ever-more personal customer experience.

Timo Ahomäki, Chief Technology Officer at Tecnotree commented, "CSPs are demanding more versatility in the telco market to offer more compelling personalized packages. In this economic environment, not to mention the challenge from OTT players means that when a CSP makes a decision, it needs an OSS/BSS provider that can deliver flexibility and versatility, and rapid deployment."

According to Rafi Kretchmer, Head of Portfolio Product Marketing at Amdocs the frequency with which CSPs upgrade OSS/BSS systems is an essential factor.

“With some of the tier 0/1 market leaders we see a tendency to upgrade more frequently and take advantage of new product capabilities as they become available,” Kretchmer says. “This can translate to upgrade every 18 to 24 months. Other service providers who are more conservative or have lower IT budgets to spend on upgrades tend to delay upgrades to a frequency of 3-4 years or in extreme cases even less.”

He adds that within the BSS domain the most frequently upgraded systems include CRM, self-service and commerce functionality, and converged charging systems.

These technology tools can help a CSP increase the perception of service value for their customers which, according to J.D. Powers 2013 Wireless Purchase Experience Study, is a key driver for purchasing. AT&T was ranked highest among full-service carriers and Boost Mobile was rated highest no-contract carrier.