Data-led, actionable insights

Telcos have a wealth of data available to them. But swaths of this data go unused. There’s real value not just in the data you collect from customers when they use their devices, but also in the data you could analyze from their interactions with the telco itself.

If you aggregate and compare data from multiple customers across all channels, you start to see trends that give you insight into customer behavior and even into possible faults. Have there been a number of calls about a problem in the same area? Even a small number of complaints could indicate the beginning of a larger-scale issue, such as a problem with a base station or a transmitter.  If you spot trends early on, you can act on them quickly to provide a solution. And if you give access to that insight to your customer service teams, they will be able to take proactive action to inform customers, putting you ahead of the game.

Then imagine adding another layer of data to provide insight into customer behavior from other connected devices, such as smart TVs, smart meters or virtual assistants. These could add to an even more complete view of customers’ behavior, wants and needs that give telcos unprecedented understanding and the ability to tailor products, services and communications.

Providing a personal, contextualized customer experience

All this data means telcos can provide contextual customer service. The service experience can be uniquely personal to the customer.

Context matters. When a customer contacts a service provider, there is history behind that contact. Every previous experience informs how the customer will approach the experience. If the telco agent doesn’t have immediate insight to that history, he or she is on the back foot from the start. Knowing that the customer had a similar problem two months ago will help the agent understand any frustrations and resolve issues quickly. When fully informed, agents can tailor their approach. In addition, if they use insights from customer data, they can make recommendations that are more likely to suit the customer’s personal situation and circumstances.

All that will add up to productive and positive customer experiences. Customers end the interaction not just with an issue resolved, but also knowing that the service provider recognizes who they are and understands their position and history with the business. They feel valued.

Recommending and upselling products and services

The insight created from a deeper understanding of the customer leads to agents being able to recommend the right offers or add-on services to both new and existing customers. The recommendation can be timed and tailored to the individual customer based on a more complete view of his or her behavior.

Of course, an essential part of this is ensuring product catalogs are updated and synchronized across all channels.

Implementing an omnichannel strategy

Once the strategy is agreed on in principle, there are two approaches to implementing an omnichannel strategy in practice. The first is to build a separate layer over the existing architecture—although this can mean maintaining a legacy backend that is divided into silos, making full omnichannel impossible to achieve. It requires less time and effort, however, than building from the ground up, and can bring about efficiencies.

The second is more radical: to build from the ground up, transforming legacy tools and creating a new, fully harmonized, layered architecture separating the frontend and backend layers. The service layer will include product catalog, billing, recommendations, analytics and business processes. All channels access the same data from shared information sources, and the backend is connected to the frontend channels via an API layer.

Whichever approach you choose, the principles of omnichannel remain essential to a business looking to its future. Modern customers have many options when it comes to choosing a CSP.

Omnichannel solutions don’t just make businesses run more efficiently; they bring the business closer to its customers. They facilitate customer journeys that leave customers satisfied no matter what channels they complete them on.