As fixed and mobile penetration rates increase throughout Asia, and developed markets approach saturation, customer service is becoming a key differentiating factor for telecom operators in retaining subscribers. However, operators are facing greatly increasing pressures on their ability to meet customer expectations when it comes to support.
Firstly, telco product offerings have become more sophisticated, increasing the complexity of technical issues that need resolving. Secondly, many operators aim to provide seamless support for multiplatform offerings, but have found the integration of separate fixed and mobile support organizations to be time-consuming and complex (Telstra's integration of these support organizations launched in 2007 and was not scheduled for completion before 2010-12). Finally, customers themselves have become more demanding, expecting always-available support services to be offered over a number of different channels.
Traditional approaches to customer care have focused on striking a balance between investment in resources (usually more call center staff) and the satisfaction of customers using the service. We have worked with companies that have seen customer care budgets increase by 15% over a single year, without any corresponding increase in customer satisfaction relative to competitors. However, we are now observing and advising on a shift to more intelligent support methods that can enrich the customer experience while simultaneously achieving greater cost efficiencies.
In one example, our client shot from being a distant No. 3 to a clear No. 1 in independent quality ratings by implementing new customer care methods, and concurrently reduced costs by 17% in 12-18 months.
As can be seen in the chart on next page, call centers remain the most heavily-used support channel, but consumers are fairly dissatisfied with the interactive voice response (IVR) systems commonly used to filter and automatically resolve customer queries. However, our work with clients suggests that frustrations with IVRs are principally due to poor design features such as confusing menu structures and poor navigation.
Better filtering
An engagement with one operator revealed that less than 15% of incoming calls required contact with a customer care operator. As many as 45% of callers had requests that were arguably better resolved by automated response systems (balance and billing requests, changes to price plans, VAS bundle changes, etc). The challenge for operators is to enable these customers to quickly and painlessly access the appropriate response system.
The first step in developing an IVR that efficiently executes real solutions for subscribers is advanced caller segmentation. Most existing caller segmentation methods are based on static parameters (such as whether the subscriber is a pre-pay or post-pay customer), but the most effective modern systems can predict in real-time the potential issues faced by the individual customer, by referencing recent usage profiles, billing information, open issues with customer care, and other updated records.
For example, a customer with an overdue bill is likely to be calling to settle the balance. Using this information, IVR menus can be adapted to individual callers to quickly present options that are likely to be relevant to the caller. Similarly, callers of particular strategic value or high up-sell potential can be identified and transferred to specialized call center agents. Personalized IVR menus reduce the redundancy of IVR menu trees, increase customer satisfaction and reduce the number of calls that have to be handled by customer service agents.
An even more effective method of reducing call center traffic is to reduce the need for customers to make support calls in the first place. Often sales are made with little regard to customers' post-sale needs: for example, sales agents do not always explain billing or provisioning details to customers, resulting in inbound calls to resolve issues like scheduling of deliveries or tariff changes. Through intelligent mapping of the customer journey from pre-sale to ongoing post-sale needs, operators can reduce the number of issues the customer needs to raise. Similarly, proactive reporting via email or SMS of the status of outstanding support queries can reduce the need for customers to make follow-up calls themselves.
Operators are also reducing reliance on call centers by encouraging greater customer self-care through alternative media platforms, principally online and mobile portals. However, customers expect web-based support services to be as equally comprehensive as telephone channels. Static information such as FAQ pages may still be the most common form of online support, but these pages are usually inadequate to resolve many issues.
To create a more responsive feel to online support, some leading operators have employed human digital assistant technology. Customers with support queries are greeted by an animated human face that responds to questions and prompts actions in a conversational manner, increasing the personal engagement of the customer with the automated support channel.
The resulting increase in the propensity of subscribers to use online support enabled one of our telco clients to save about E10 million per year, based on a 6% reduction in inbound support calls (roughly 300,000 calls per month). The use of such avatars in Asia may be compelling, particularly in markets where visual technologies via mobile devices are popular: Ovum/Genesys' recent survey indicated that 55% of Indian subscribers and 80% of Chinese subscribers view avatar-based support services as valuable.
Make it personal
The efficiency of online support, like telephone IVRs, is directly related to the ability to clearly and quickly present support options tailored to the individual customer. However, only around 40% of support departments in the communications industry currently offer access to personal accounts online.
More advanced operators have introduced personalized support homepages, which incorporate online widgets that display personalized information such as current credit balances, relevant tariff details, cross-promotions, and so on, together with relevant calls to action for the customer. Some systems even enable the customer themselves to choose and edit which widgets appear (in a manner similar to an iGoogle homepage).
Social networking is also increasingly being used to fulfill customer contact needs online. 3 Italy's community site, Le Sai Tutte, was launched in early 2007 as a support platform for its subscribers. Any subscriber can post a question on the site, but only "expert" users from the subscriber community - who are vetted with a set of tests examining technical and commercial knowledge - can respond to queries. Experts are encouraged to register and contribute by a reward system that provides them with airtime credits when positive feedback on their contributions is received from the Le Sai Tutte user community.
The site now has over 100,000 registered users and around 5,000 registered experts. Again, this innovation could become more extensively used in Asian markets with a high user uptake of social networking: for example, of 32 Australia and New Zealand call centers surveyed by Ovum in 2009, a third were already using social networking to interact with customers.
As telcos throughout Asia increasingly move toward converged product offerings, we expect to see increasing numbers of operators differentiate their service through these emerging customer care methods on mobile, fixed and web platforms, particularly given the cost efficiencies that can be achieved as a result.
Max Parry is a senior associate at Value Partners in Hong Kong. The company's telecoms practice has more than 1,000 professionals worldwide.