Australia’s Telecommunications Industry in Need of a Greater Customer Focus
Pitney Bowes Software highlights the need for customer centricity to be deployed to transform the industry
- Marta Wiacek
- Recognition PR
- Phone: +61 2 9252 2266
- eMail: marta_wiacek@recognition.com.au
Sydney, Australia — December 02, 2011
Pitney Bowes Software , a global leader in customer data, analytics, communication and location intelligence software and services, has announced that the Australian telecommunications industry is in need of a greater focus on customers following an event attended by leading telecommunications representatives, which highlighted the need for a better consumer centricity and improved CEM (Customer Experience Management) processes in order to retain customers who may otherwise churn their services.
Addressed by Paul Budde, Managing Director of BuddeComm and Special Advisor to the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development, as well as David Kennedy, Practice Leader for Ovum’s Asia-Pacific research group, the event highlighted the need for the industry to improve its CEM strategies, processes and solutions in order to retain customers.
Telcos have the highest number of escalated complaints compared to any other industry, a fact Budde views as unacceptable and one that must be addressed.
Budde said, “Within the telecommunications industry there is still a lack in willingness to offer an experience rather than just a service. With new customer acquisitions growing smaller every day, virtually everyone now has a mobile, the emphasis should now be on retaining customers.
“The only way to do this is to offer better service and more than your competitors in terms of experience, and to foster relationships through the use of customer-metrics.”
Kennedy said, “When the pain of staying with a provider exceeds the pain of changing providers, the customer will clearly make a change. In short, it costs more to offer bad service than it does to offer good service.”
Kennedy highlighted his recommendations to the industry by showcasing a case study at Verizon Communications Inc, where they improved their customer centricity and experience results by implementing a smart first call resolution. This identifies a customer through caller ID and transfers them to the right department, eliminating the need for the customer to progress through a complicated options menu to eventually speak with the right individual or department. This “auto-routing” is as result of the customer’s interaction with the Verizon portal prior to placing a call with the contact centre.
In addition, Verizon has also incorporated improved customer self-serve capabilities so that where possible, the customer has the ability to go online to address any issues they may have or even interact with a customer care agent online in real time via a live-site for a quicker resolution.
Further to redeveloping its online portal, which resulted in 45 per cent less calls to the call centre, Verizon incorporated internal desktop software to assist with Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
The outlined CEM solutions used by Verizon are available through Pitney Bowes Software, which offers telecommunication companies a variety of solutions to enhance the experience of the customer including carrying out analytically driven segmentation and predictive modelling to identify targeted market segments.
Jonathan Wright, Pitney Bowes Software Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific, said, “Pitney Bowes Software’s solutions for the telecommunications industry provide the carrier with improved return on investment (ROI) on marketing campaigns, which is particularly important when launching new products or extending the network footprint.”
In his address, Kennedy also focused on the need for ‘data cleansing’ by Telcos, which frequently hold redundant data that is out of date or duplicate.
Kennedy said, “By cleansing this data, a Telco is able to better focus on actual, rather than non-existent or past customers, making its CEM processes less cluttered and increasing its ability to get proper analytical data.”
Once an accurate picture can be obtained of its customer base, a Telco is in a better position to sift through its customers and focus more heavily on those that are of greater value to its business, which goes hand in hand with the industry’s understanding that 80 per cent of profits come from 20 per cent of customers.
Advanced analytics and predictive modelling for reducing churn and associated treatment strategies for segmented customer bases, as well as determining Best Next Offer (BNO) scenarios for effective cross and up-selling to existing customers, also arose as pertinent to the industry going forward.
Wright also said, “The first 90 days is the most critical period in solidifying the relationship with a customer and this will become an even more competitive time frame when customers have a bigger choice in the National Broadband Network (NBN) environment.”
The on-boarding solutions available from Pitney Bowes Software are able to assist Telcos in accurately on-boarding customers with enhanced location intelligence and comprehensive Enterprise Data Management (EDM).
The customer’s experience can be further enhanced with bi-directional e-account management and e-care, which was highlighted as a key deficiency in the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA’s) “Reconnecting the Customer” draft report that aimed to help Telcos improve on customer care and spend, or ‘bill shock’ management, with thresholds and alerting in real or near-to-real-time.
About Pitney Bowes Software
Pitney Bowes Software (PBS) was formerly Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI).
Pitney Bowes Software provides multichannel solutions that optimise data to create relevant dialogue between organisations and their customers. These solutions enable lifetime customer relationships by integrating data management, location intelligence, sophisticated predictive analytics, rules-based decision making and cross-channel customer interaction management to increase the value of every customer communication while also delivering operational efficiencies.
Pitney Bowes Software is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), a customer communications management technology leader. For more information, please visit www.pbinsight.com.au.