The telecom market has changed significantly over the past six years, with increasingly competitive markets and changing subscriber expectations and consumption patterns prompting CSPs to evolve their strategies to maintain growth.
As CSPs' traditional business models come under threat, they have to shift gears to focus on new lines of business, improve their operational efficiencies and find innovative ways to monetize their existing assets.
An area of interest that has gained much attention over the past few years has been the use of customer data to improve subscriber experience, retention and lifetime value. As operators shift their business focus from subscriber acquisition to one of subscriber retention and value maximization, the importance of customer data cannot be understated.
However, one of the big challenges that CSPs face is the fact that their data are stored in various departmental, technological and functional silos. This inhibits their ability to gain a unified view of their subscribers for the purpose of improving customer engagement, retention and marketing.
Maximizing subscribers' wallet share does improve a CSP's profitability, but the ability to optimize a subscribers' lifetime value - due to having a unified view of a customer - is expected to expand this profitability further.
Cellcos have been successfully using their customer data for a variety of purposes, most notably churn management and marketing. However, more could be done if there is a unified view of their subscribers.
This approach also ties in strongly with a CSP's aim to provide better customer experience and personalized services to their subscribers to increase loyalty and improve retention. With information coming from a variety of new sources, the CSP is better equipped to provide customized/personalized services to its subscribers and improve profitability.
For example, contact center service agents who have real-time scripted response or cues may adequately respond to service complaints or to up-sell services. Alternatively utilizing network level information combined with insights into subscribers' usage pattern, CSPs could offer their subscribers special promotions and discounts to improve network utilization and yield.