The old adage "the customer is king" has been adopted by many companies the world over. Unfortunately, this is often lip service by senior managers who themselves do not drive a customer-centric culture. Organisations that collect and effectively utilise customer insights and behaviour for an improved customer experience are the ones that will flourish in ever-competing environments.
Effectively acting on intimate customer understanding will go a long way to enhancing the lifetime value of customers.
Within the telecommunications industry, and mobile operators in particular, the move to include customer experience and its management as an effective business strategy is gaining traction. As many African countries become more saturated, additional mobile subscribers are becoming more difficult to attain. This is leading to a strong focus on client retention rather than acquisition, particularly in countries like South Africa, where mobile penetration is over 100%.
A holistic view of customer engagement begins with initial communication. This is often as a result of some marketing activity. Many African operators are well established in their markets, and brand perceptions have already been formed by most consumers.
Hopefully, these have aligned with the operator's brand positioning objectives. The intent of this communication is to lead to a personal contact, which is generally in the form of a purchase via SIM activation, airtime top-up or a peripheral purchase. Once the purchase has been activated, customers use the operator's offerings and will be exposed to quality, coverage and value-added services that will either meet their expectations, or not.
Aside from network quality, the management of customer care issues is the second most important purchase/repurchase factor for mobile users (Ericsson Consumer Labs, June 2012). This has to be managed through shop staff as well as customer call centres and the operator's self-service facility. As can be seen, true customer experience management crosses many customer contact points. With today's social media being so prolific, companies can no longer hide from the effects of their customers' poor experiences. Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms are out of the mobile operator's control and provide the perfect environment for customers to express their displeasure.
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At the heart of an effective customer experience strategy are two basic fundamentals. The first is to collect and analyse relevant customer data. This can be in the form of internal analytics drawn from a multitude of departments, including network planning and operations to customer care and marketing. A consolidation of IT platforms to effectively capture and interrogate the data may be required.
Another primary source of data collection is via external surveys and reviews. The effectiveness of marketing campaigns and promotions in relation to the brand promise and its relevance to customers must be measured.
The second fundamental to effective customer experience management is the use of these insights to adjust company strategy and operations in line with an enhanced customer engagement that will continue to build loyalty.
Carefully constructed and well thought through network and customer measurement metrics is essential to help draw correlations between customer behaviour and company actions. Different customer segments react differently to the same experiences. Some may try to resolve complex issues by themselves, whereas others may put strain on call centres for the most basic self-help issues. Understanding customer segments and pre-empting their response via a positive intervention or pre-emptive move will go a long way to upholding a superior customer experience.
Effectively acting on intimate customer understanding will go a long way to enhancing the lifetime value of customers. This will be achieved through decreased customer churn and improved loyalty, as well as improved average revenue per user through tailored services targeting the correct segments.
By understanding, implementing and being committed to managing a world-class customer experience, operators can initiate and foster an intimate customer relationship where they have brand champions in the marketplace that are also providing them with high margins. At the end of the day, happy customers deliver profits.
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