The telecom industry is extremely competitive. Telecoms have faced more and more challenges as the decline of landlines and growth of over-the-top services has left them struggling to differentiate their services.
Customer Experience (CX) is now one of the most important drivers of customer loyalty and this is becoming critical for telcos as the typical US churn rate stands at about 31%. This means that telecoms lose a third of their customers each year – all these customers must be replaced just to stand still.
It is much more expensive to attract new customers than to just retain them by delivering great CX. Some analysts suggest the figure is at least 500% – others suggest even more, such as the Harvard Business Review suggesting 25x.
So, the aim of any executive managing customer experience in a telecom should be to drive greater customer loyalty and retention, helping the business to grow more easily without the stress of constantly just replacing churned customers. All this can now be planned with a highly digital approach that embraces AI.
McKinsey has even published research suggesting that the key to scaling telecom personalization – and therefore dramatically improving CX – is to use AI in all customer service interactions. The McKinsey research suggests that it should be possible to reduce churn by at least 30% when taking this approach.
After all, what are the most common complaints that customers have about telecoms? There are many, but the most significant are:
- Billing: the customer doesn’t understand why their bill has changed, a new plan has been started, or rogue charges are appearing on their bill that they don’t believe should be there.
- Customer Service: the time it takes to get help, the quality of the service when someone is helping, and the time it takes to resolve a problem. Why do I need to keep calling about the same problem?
- Product: are calls dropping or is data not available when expected?
We need to leave the product issues to the engineers, but the customer service managers are responsible for the top two buckets of complaints – so what can you do?
The application of digital technologies – including AI – and a Gig CX approach using a platform can be a game changer. During unplanned service disruption, Gig CX facilitates access to a large pool of skilled freelance customer service agents that work from home and choose their own hours – so they can flexibly boost the core team whenever needed and amplify your scalability multifold. They are not replacing your core team, just augmenting the team when needed.
Moreover, using AI-driven tools can really spice up the customer experience by offering predictive insights and automating those mundane tasks nobody wants to do. This evolves the role of your human agents to tackle the more complex issues and emotionally charged conversations, ensuring customers feel truly valued and understood. Let’s see how AI-powered digital solutions can add value at every step of the telecom customer journey.
First up, customer engagement. With the power of AI and advanced analytics, you can offer personalized recommendations, deals, and data plans that are perfectly tailored to your customers’ usage patterns. That’s the kind of proactive service they want. AI can even predict issues before they happen. By analyzing customer behavior and network performance, you can resolve potential service issues before customers even realize there’s a problem or notify them proactively. That’s a surefire way to keep customers happy and reduce churn. That leads us to smarter and data-backed upselling and cross-selling strategies. With insights on customers’ patterns and preferences on your fingertips, you can create win-win long-term relationships – where customers get more value, and you see revenue growth.
Another must-have solution is 24/7 AI-powered self-service. Chatbots and virtual assistants are always on hand to help customers solve issues on their own, whenever they need it. Say goodbye to waiting on hold! And with generative AI, the chatbot interactions are more personalized and humanized so it should be an obvious choice in telecom digital experience ecosystem. Last but not the least is leveraging AI-powered advanced analytics to map real-time customer feedback and pinpoint recurring pain points and opportunities for improvement.
The results? AI-powered customer experience operations could enable telecoms to reduce churn by up to 30%, improve CSAT scores significantly and create revenue opportunities, with some telecoms reporting a 15% boost in ARPU. All this with more efficient operations, enhanced agent productivity, and 20-25% overall cost optimization.
At Movate, we combine these elements into tailored solutions that have delivered tangible results for our telecom clients – improved retention rates, unmatched scalability and flexibility, reduced costs, and enhanced CSAT scores. By bringing digital and workforce innovation through our dedicated AI solutions for telecoms and extensive on-demand experts’ network across 60+ countries, we empower telecoms to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.
For more information on Movate and our services to the telecom industry please click here.
About the author
Siddharth Victor, Senior Vice President at Movate, leads Sales and Solutions for Customer Experience Management and Enterprise Support Services. With 17 years at Movate, he is an expert in business transformation, client acquisition, and innovative solution design. His strategic vision and forward-thinking approach have led to the creation of innovative differentiators that set Movate apart in a competitive market. Starting as a tech support engineer, Siddharth’s journey reflects his entrepreneurial spirit, customer focus, and passion for leveraging technology to drive impactful results.