Empowering CX

Technology can make or break CX. Think of a new chatbot or automatic voice recognition (AVR) system. If it is preferred by customers, easy to use, and provides quick access to the particular information customers are seeking, it can improve your customers’ experience.  However, if it’s not a preferred communication channel, isn’t easy to use, or doesn’t provide the information the customer is seeking, it can create negative customer interactions that will dramatically damage the customer experience—particularly if that customer must go through multiple communication channels and levels of escalation and has to reauthenticate every step of the way.

“We’re systematically driving improvements based on customer feedback to make sure we make purchasing as quick and easy as it can be, delivery fast and predictable, and customer support as smooth as possible.” Haynes added. “We regard our people, processes and tools as a core competitive advantage, as much or more than our technology or products.” 

To that end, Telia Carrier consciously puts the customer first. In addition to providing well-trained level 1 and 2 support 24/7, it is intentionally empowering its customer service reps (CSRs). Telia Carrier ensures cross pollination of customer resolution techniques by collocating CSRs of various skills levels and expertise side by side. CSRs take the time to evaluate solutions based on the best and fastest path to resolution, making sure solutions go beyond simply fixing the issue to exceed customer expectations.

“While card replacement may be one way to fix a customer issue, it may take more time when there may be another solution that solves the issue right now,” Andy Haynes told Pipeline. “Our CSRs take pride in finding not just a solution, but the fastest solution for our customers’ specific needs.”

Telia Carrier also empowers CSRs with the right technology and rapid-issue-resolution tools, including a self-learning, AI-based troubleshooting system.  This system allows them to quickly identify the cause of issues customers are experiencing and identify the solutions with the highest probability to solve the underlying issue. 

“We’re passionate about technology but don’t want to force customers to have to use our tools,” Haynes remarked. “We rather develop tools we can use to enable our support staff to spend more time with customers and quickly resolve any issues that might occur along the customer journey.”

But Telia Carrier is taking its time too, to make sure the tool is providing real value and is being used to get CX right. Its AI-troubleshooting tool was implemented and trained for over a year before it was put into production. Telia Carrier is now experimenting with integrating the tool with network data and alarm flows to make identifying and solving customer issues more predictive and proactive. It is also planning to evolve the tool to take and make autonomous actions, so that it can eventually prevent and resolve customers issues nonstop.

Considering Culture

When you think about communications and connectivity providers, I doubt “superior customer service” is the first thing that comes to mind. But the fact is that customers have more choice now than ever before and choosing a provider that embraces the value of its customers is an increasingly important factor in the selection process.

CX seems simple, but it’s hard to get right. It starts with the humility to understand your customers are more important than you, and then building your business, culture, processes, tools and technology around that. Customers want real relationship with people who value them, understand their needs, are responsive, and communicate quickly and clearly.  Companies who embrace that, like Telia Carrier, find that a superior customer experience is the natural outcome. It’s as simple as that.