Seeing is Believing - Video CEM

By: Calvin Harrison

Customer experience management (CEM) emerged as the top driver of service provider IT investments in 2014, according to Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights report. Senior IT professionals are reporting a long-term shift in spending towards customer-focused processes and systems with the specific goal of improving customer satisfaction. As the market for connected services and applications explodes, service providers are adjusting their approach to customers and engaging partners to meet demand and deliver content.

Communication networks and service providers have crossed a threshold from delivering unique, innovative technology to that of delivering necessary infrastructure. Communications is now an integral part of every business and home and as important as power, buildings and machinery. This changes the relationship between customers and service providers. Quality is the only metric that matters in future service provider operations. The quality of the product, support, devices, applications, activation, billing, website and every other aspect of a user’s experience will contribute to their decision to stay with a provider or churn. Connectivity is only part of the product.

If network access is assumed and connectivity is commoditized, the only differentiator for competing service providers, over-the-top providers, and content providers is customer experience. Lines are blurred between services and applications, but one thing is certain – across all networks and all devices – customers want video.

In order for service providers to ensure a quality customer experience, monetize video services, and optimize existing investments in infrastructure and systems, they need to do a better job of understanding and monitoring the performance of video infrastructure and services.

Video is Visceral

Unlike most connected services and applications, video requires more customer engagement for a longer period of time and as customers become engrossed in a favorite movie or live sporting event, there’s nothing worse than a picture that jumps, stalls, or disappears completely. Maintaining quality of service (QoS) across multiple screens for the duration of live or streaming video programming is more complex than assuring voice or data services.

Customers view video on anything from a two inch smart phone to a 70+ inch flat screen; and because the screens are top quality, expectations are that the video viewing experience will be as well. Across these various screens, service providers must maintain an acceptable level of quality. And yet, what passes for acceptable on a smartphone is entirely different than what customers expect to see on the big screen in their living room. By understanding what device is in use, what network is in use, and what content is being viewed, service levels can be maintained for each individual viewing experience.

For service providers, ensuring a quality customer experience when using video takes specialized tools that measure a multitude of video-specific quality metrics. Using advanced analytics, service providers can understand the unique factors that affect video service delivery and performance. Analytics is a broad capability that can be applied to any business function, process or data source. However, when using analytics to predict video service quality, the very broad and very complex must be focused on tactical processes and actionable outcomes.