Will Griffith, Vice President and General Manager APJ at Tealium, says telcos have a plethora of customer data sitting in their databases but they need to optimise it and have customer experience at the heart of their infrastructure.
2020 has been a tough year for industries globally, but it has also forced them to become more resourceful under pressure. We’ve seen distilleries turn their talents to hand sanitiser manufacturing, clothing stores have rolled out safe-but-chic face masks and our fast-food haunts became the go-to for groceries – but it doesn’t stop there.
According to a recent report by Mckinsey & Company, rates of digital adoption are years ahead of where they were when previous surveys were conducted – and even more in developed Asia than in other regions – with respondents three times more likely now than before the crisis to say that at least 80% of their customer interactions are digital in nature.
Telcos are quickly becoming the gold standard in digital customer interactions and the recent shift in our consumer behavior has prompted further innovation within the industry across Asia.
Adapting for the future
If there is one thing businesses have learnt from 2020 it’s the mantra ‘adapt or die’. Adjustments to business models can be costly, they can require specialist expertise and, ultimately, they take full buy-in from employees.
Before the pandemic hit, 5-10% of telcos’ sales would come from digital channels. Now, the figure sits closer to 20-25% and it’s likely here to stay.
Unlike many regions around the world, every country in South East Asia went into full lockdown at some point in 2020. This meant that telcos with e-stores and apps benefited greatly from the custom of those in lockdown – particularly when telecommunication and Internet access hit utility status.
Telcos with e-stores in their infancy or apps in the pipeline simply sped the process up to cater to the demand and those still working on a traditional dealer-distributer model had no option but to digitize.
Telcos are already data savvy. They have a plethora of customer data just sitting in their databases to pull from, but now they need to optimize it. In a saturated market like telecommunications, it’s more about poaching customers from competitors than attracting new users all together and the next generation of telco will harness the power of data to gain market share.
Omni-channel or no channel at all
Data is no use to anyone unless it is activated properly. These days, that means it needs to be optimized across different channels or not at all. The good news is that omni-channel management can be implemented step-by-step.
Firstly, businesses must-have the customer experience at the heart of their infrastructure to ensure that all subsequent components of the omni-channel development fit together and ultimately form a coherent strategy.
The strategy must also be informed by all departments of the organization, rather than limited to the expertise of marketing and IT only. A wealth of knowledge and experience can be gained by tapping into sales, finance and even stakeholders.
Together all functions of the organization can pool expertise to identify the interaction points of different customer types and enable a seamless omni-channel customer journey. Once you have set the foundations, it becomes a simple matter of tailoring and stacking your strategy to your bespoke business needs. Then and only then, will you be able to optimize and activate your data to its full potential.
Stitching the gap
The first step to understanding the customer is through harnessing first-party operational data. Telcos have plenty of it, but as customers move further away from calls and SMS and more towards browsing, there comes the need to use third-party data to draw a complete picture of the customer.
If a telco sees a customer consistently going over their data allowance at the same time every month, they need to stitch the data together to understand why. Let’s say through the optimization of third-party data, a telco can see that this customer is an avid gamer and through understanding the pattern of behavioral data can offer the customer a bespoke gamer data allowance as an add-on to their existing package.
Not only does this offering benefit the bottom line of the telco through intelligent organic growth, it also makes the customer feel valued, which could lead to long-term loyalty to the company.
The telecommunications industry still has a long way to go in terms of delivering seamless customer journeys – but it’s off to a promising start. By tackling this problem in steps, the industry is already paving the way for a stackable, scalable model that will have the capacity to grow in line with customer demand and that is adaptable to embrace and activate new forms of data.
Once telcos perfect these complex backend processes, the front end will be more seamless for the customer than ever before and the next generation of telco will be gold standard for companies across the globe.
