Die, Billing Errors, Die: The Monster Finally Meets Its Match

By: Praful Saklani

It’s hardly a secret, but it’s certainly something that service providers are increasingly reluctant to talk about. Billing errors have long been the bane of the industry, surviving assaults from technologies ranging from business intelligence to revenue assurance systems. They have persisted despite the disastrous effect of over-billing on customer relationships and brand perception, as well as repeated rounds of penalties from state and federal governments. Over-charging is a serious revenue and reputational issue; underbilling is a profitability and margin issue…

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Drive Digital Services Growth with Flexible Monetization

By: Jean Lawrence

Today’s customers are increasingly digitally minded in the ways they interact with each other and the businesses they patronize. A recent Oracle survey found that 70 percent of consumers are highly engaged with their mobile devices and check mobile apps at least several times per day. While these statistics are not surprising, they illustrate the extent to which digital channels represent a means to reach a massive market share across many aspects of consumers’ personal and professional lives…

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For network slicing, service assurance can’t be an afterthought

By: Ross Cassan

It’s almost become a telecom tradition for operators to push a great new offering into the market, only to eventually struggle with maintaining quality and delivering a great customer experience as the service matures. The stumbling blocks were always going to be there, but because service assurance wasn’t planned from the start, operators kept themselves in the dark. By the time they were able to turn on the light with a proper service assurance strategy, upwards of a year or more may have passed…

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Improving CX through Better Measurement

By: Dr. Charles Patti

For over ten years, The Cable Center (TCC) in Denver, Colorado, has been bringing together top customer experience management (CXM) executives from the cable industry to advance the practice of customer experience (CX). Under the banner of the C5 (Cable Center Customer Centric Consortium), our group meets twice each year—alternating between TCC (Denver) and the headquarters of a C5 member. With the support and oversight of Jana Henthorn, TCC President and CEO, C5 is a forum to share information about their company’s involvement in CXM (also referred to as CEM) and contribute data to CX research projects…

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Improving the Customer Experience with Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Agents

By: Greg Hasse

It’s no secret that the way businesses communicate with their customers can make or break the relationship. As we see a shift in customers’ communication preferences, it is paramount that businesses adapt to provide the experience and service levels that customers have come to expect. Data from a recent study suggests that one third of customers in America will leave a company if they aren’t satisfied or if they have just one poor customer service experience, resulting in lost revenue for the business…

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The New Normal: Enriching CX in the Era of AI-Powered Virtual Agents

By: Charlie Schrier

In 1965, Birmingham Press and Mail opened the first-ever call center, made possible by the invention of the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), which helps to better route calls. Since that time, we’ve seen telephony advancements like 1-800 numbers and IVRs—but perhaps nothing is changing this landscape more than the onset of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the introduction of AI and cloud-enablement, call center and Customer Experience (CX) leaders have now entered a ‘new normal…

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Bridging the Broadband Digital Divide with Satellite

By: Thomas Van den Driessche

As the world undergoes a digital transformation, broadband is the enabler. Today, we are connected in ways that we would never have dreamed of just ten years ago. Broadband has literally changed the way we live and work, taking communications to a completely new level.  Whether fixed or mobile, broadband has had a profound effect on every region of the world that it has touched and is bringing about socioeconomic development that can actually be measured. While Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are changing lives and accelerating positive changes, these services are more easily accessed in towns and cities, where the population density is higher and investment is more readily available…

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A Spotlight on Customer Experience Within the Subscription Economy

By: Rick Kapani

In today’s competitive landscape, customer centricity is at the forefront of successful and thriving businesses. Organizations around the world—regardless of size or industry—are embracing major shifts in business models, strategies and mindset in order to strengthen customers’ perceptions of their brand, better known as customer experience. Customers that receive a positive experience ignite a ripple effect for organizations, creating deeper brand loyalty and attracting new customers through word-of-mouth endorsements, which are profoundly more impactful than any advertising from a company website or other marketing channel…

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Letter from the Editor

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

In the letter from the editor last month, I wrote about how pervasive mobility was—at the end of the day—all about connecting people. This month, our issue theme is "Enriching the Customer Experience," and it's all about serving people. And by people, I mean your customers.Over the years, we've watched Customer Experience Management (CEM) evolve from hype to a collective industry "me too" and ultimately—I'm happy to say—culminate with actual technology that can help. Technology that can help you—and more importantly your precious customers…

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Telecom Industry News

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

This month's telecom industry news included a bumper crop of research updates and ‘world-firsts’ released in advance of Mobile World Congress 2019. Reports on the pace of 5G rollouts, the strength of consumers’ desire for the technology, and key shifts in content consumption were among the headlines this month. The FCC released details on its efforts to combat spam and robocalls and outlined next steps in the ongoing battle, and AT&T and VITAS Healthcare launched a study on the use of virtual and augmented reality in hospice care…

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