Reimagining Telco CX, the touchless way
July 7, 2021
July 7, 2021
Cutting-edge technology has become a part of our everyday lives. As technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and cloud become more prevalent, consumers become more sophisticated. They’re digitally savvy, well-informed and open to exploring new ideas and offerings from the companies they do business with.
And as they cast their nets across a wide range of product and service providers, they gravitate toward those that deliver the best CX. In fact, CX has arguably become the single biggest factor driving customer loyalty—and therefore revenue growth—today.
For the vast majority of customers, digital underpins the CX they’re looking for—especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated both consumers’ and companies’ adoption of digital channels.
This is certainly true in the communications and media (C&M) industry. Customers expect the high-quality, digitally driven experiences they encounter in other industries to be matched by their telecommunications providers (Telcos). Small and medium businesses (SMBs), in particular, are increasingly looking for Telcos to provide digital self-service—half of them are open to interacting with Telcos in this way—as well as to help them create an omnichannel approach so they too can deliver a best-in-class experience for their own customers.
Digital natives are raising the CX bar, which has led to new types of competition for Telcos. Yet direct competitors are no longer the only worry. Adjacent competitors like Netflix and YouTube provide intuitive experiences that customers are growing accustomed to—and expect their Telcos to provide. At the same time, Telcos are being measured against perceptual competitors like Instagram or Zomato—completely unrelated businesses that shape customer expectations across the board. The fact is, the expectations of customers—whether a consumer or an SMB—are only becoming more liquid within a rapidly changing business landscape. That’s the only way they will be able to give both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) customers the CX they’ve come to expect.
To survive, Telcos must become far more agile, prioritize delivering a superior experience across the business and embrace technological advances - the only way they will be able to give both B2C and B2B customers the CX they’ve come to expect.
Of course, this is a massive challenge for established Telcos, which still face a wide range of legacy technology-driven impediments to delivering the kind of omnichannel CX customers today expect—and that are crucial for future growth. New foundational technologies are enabling Telcos to take advantage of the data and advanced analytics capabilities that power a seamless experience and interactions across multiple channels—including apps, call centers, retail spaces and beyond—throughout the customer journey.
With the right layer of technologies (such as cloud and virtual assistants that run on AI engines), data and analytics, Telcos can continually innovate their CX and transform themselves into true data-driven organizations. And that’s the reasoning behind Accenture’s five integrated digital solutions for Telcos. These solutions are enabled by Accenture partnerships across the ecosystem for scalability, and feature pre-built software assets and accelerators for faster delivery. Working together, they enable Telcos to transform the specific interrelated aspects of their businesses that are key to creating a CX that attracts customers and keeps them coming back for more:
Focuses on value in the customer service channel, enabling Telcos to correctly identify customers who want to interact digitally while also predicting customers’ intents to ensure their needs are met.
Concentrates on growing sales and revenue by identifying new signals in data that help a company identify opportunities. This solution provides AI-assisted dialogues in the sales channel and also uses AI to match the right sales agent with customers.
Integrates the experience between marketing and sales by understanding the journey a customer is taking through digital channels and how to give them the right message at the right moment.
Enables omnichannel experiences by helping Telcos create a modern architecture, decoupling channels from the complexity of the back-end systems and processes and allowing them to develop a compelling customer experience.
Improves engagement quality and the value generated from customers by centralizing marketing, loyalty and sales initiatives into a unified marketing solution.
There’s no question that customer behaviors and expectations continue to evolve, and Telcos will need to change accordingly to maintain loyalty and, ultimately, to grow. The focus is on delivering truly differentiated CX. By elevating the marketing, sales and service life cycle; investing in digital channels and innovative technologies; and adopting a modern, cloud-based, decoupled architecture, Telcos can clear the bar that’s been set across industries—and possibly set a new bar themselves.
In this fast-paced changing landscape, they’ll want to expand their ecosystems and partner with the right companies to help them along the journey. The right partners, combined with the requisite culture change, will enable Telcos to continue to put experience at the heart of their operations so they can capture—and captivate—today’s liquid customer.
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