The customer service experience is important in building and maintaining a consumer’s brand loyalty because it ensures the stability of a business. In what way should Telecom companies enhance it?
In decades past, telecommunication companies were more focused on building the widest infrastructure and then charge the users per service used. They even charged a premium for long distance calls. As long as the networks they built were working, money kept rolling in. This made executives spend more time monitoring and improving the hardware they built rather than looking into the experience of their customers while using their service.
In recent years, we’ve seen the evolution in telecommunication. Right now, it is not about the ability to call one person using a telephone; rather, we can now make a call through teleconferencing. These things mean a lot to consumers, and on the next section, we’ll look into the transition of consumers from using a rotary phone to tapping on their mobile devices and more.
The Telecommunication Odyssey: From Rotary to Push-Button to Touch-Screen
Pretty funny, right? But this only shows how far the telecom odyssey has reached.
According to a recent Forbes article on customer experience from the telecommunication industry’s point of view, “Within the industry, telecom operators are referred to as Communications Service Providers or CSPs. They already serve up a mix of voice and data. By 2020, when an estimated 80% of all worldwide Internet traffic consists of video, they’ll provide that as well: the video for entertainment, education, home security, and e-health.”
As mentioned earlier, the ability to use video on devices played a key role in evolving the industry. In a recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey, customer satisfaction for telecommunications is up 1.2 percent, thanks to the addition of video streaming and video-on-demand services.
The survey only shows that there is a huge demand for network capacity to stream videos. Because of the internet, more and more people will look into which telecommunication company can deliver the best high definition stream of the latest (and final) season of Game of Thrones or which telco won’t lag when playing an online game using a PC or a game console.
Because of this, customers have developed an insatiable hunger for data volume, transfer speed, and eventually after-sales support.
“I can get no satisfaction.”
This line from a Rolling Stones’ classic of the golden era of rock and roll perfectly depicts a typical customer. Consumers will not contact customer support champions if they are satisfied with the product they purchased or the service they received. From the telecommunication industry standpoint, it is all about the company’s ability to deliver the demands of customers — voice, data, mobile, and more.
We know what they want. What we should do now if they don’t receive what is advertised?
We have all been there before — we have all became customers. We know how frustrating one can feel if our issue is not resolved. And now that we are on the other side of the fence, should we let our customers experience the same frustration we had before?
Telecommunications companies have a tough job when it comes to customer service. Nearly every home and business have a phone or an Internet connection, and according to statistics, it is projected that the number of mobile users worldwide will rise to 2.7 billion by this year.
That is a lot of calls!
So, managing millions of accounts for phone and Internet services is a major challenge, and despite best efforts, systems can bog down or stop working altogether.
As an example, a multinational telecom company used an innovative technology solution to inspect its cell sites and transmission lines for signs of trouble: aerial drones. This allowed technicians to identify and apply a fix faster than before — repairing and maintaining service to its customers.
That’s more of like a preventive measure, but what if a problem came unexpectedly?
The first thing that customers do in times like these is to call the customer service hotline.
When a customer reaches out for assistance, telecom companies have a plethora of response options. Taking advantage of the latest and innovative technologies and customer service strategies has the potential to revolutionize how these large companies handle customer sales, complaints, and inquiries.
Your customers expect service that is both exceptional and consistent.
To help you provide the optimum level of support, here are some tips on customer service best practices for any business:
Select the “right” people, and treat them well
When we say right people, it does not necessarily mean the applicants must have great things to mention on their curriculum vitae. While the applicant’s abilities are crucial, soft skills are just as important as those learned in school or in training. In a LinkedIn Learning blog post, they have listed the top five soft skills that top companies look for in their applicants:
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Creativity
Those who think outside of the box can come up with solutions — both conventional and unconventional — to simple and complex problems of their customer.
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Persuasion
If the person on the other line isn’t convinced that you can help in solving their problem, then why bother placing a call in the first place, which may probably signal them cutting their subscription to your company’s services.
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Collaboration
You do not hold all the answers in the world, so it won’t hurt to ask help from your team leader or fellow teammates.
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Adaptability
There’s no universal “cookie-cutter” solution or “canned” spiel to all customer complaints. If you are able to “roll with the punches,” then you’ll be fine.
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Time management
Though it is important to be friendly, customers call because they seek answers. If you can provide the answer they seek in a short amount of time they’re with you, the better.
With that said, companies must bear in mind that your agents are your brand’s diplomats. Through them, you form and maintain relationships with the customers that keep your business afloat. This is an absolutely vital position that should not be taken lightly and not one that should be entrusted to just anyone. Be extra careful while hiring to make sure that the service champions you bring on board are up to the task.
First impressions last
This is true; you will never get redemption after making a first impression. This has become even truer as customers have become more connected. Clients can easily start doing business with someone else after just one negative experience — often with nothing more than a few taps on the touch screen. When new customers are introduced, give your agents the support and the incentive to astound them. A customer relationship will likely remain strong if it starts off strong.
Now, this begs the question — how can telcos support their client relation heroes?
Telecommunication companies and communication-based businesses such as Customer Support Philippines provide support to their agents to ensure that they provide effective customer service. The succeeding section discusses some examples that promote a strong relationship with clients:
Online self-support
When people run into technical problems these days, their first response is to pick up their phone — but not to make a call; rather, to search for ways on the net to solve the issue. All without having to speak to a customer service representative.
Telecommunications companies have taken this feedback from consumers seriously. Their many offerings include a range of articles and troubleshooting programs to assist. A good example of this is a company website that provides customers a variety of info, how-to, and troubleshooting documents for its products and services. From this FAQ webpage, users can type their issue into a search bar or click through a menu of categories to find the information they need. Everything — from step-by-step instructions to in-depth user guides — is available on the site and presented in a simple color-coded format.
Additionally, many companies are taking advantage of interactive mobile apps where customers can do their business directly through their smartphone. Mobile apps also allow for proactive customer interaction through push notifications, informing customers of what they care the most about their subscribed service almost instantaneously.
Empowering clients to manage their accounts and solve issues on their own saves time and frustration not only to them but to the company as well.
Improved Response Systems
More and more people prefer using online customer service. Many telecommunication companies are investing in web-based solutions for sales and customer support. Email, social media, and live chat are just some of the options that can help improve response times while offering better data tracking than voice phone calls. Aside from improved response times and better tracking data, these solutions can help ease the inbound calls received by the contact center.
Callback features
A 2012 Velaro study, found out that 60 percent of consumers say that they won’t wait for more than a minute before they hang up the phone. As the Internet keeps customer service evolving, call centers still play an important role in customer experience. When it comes to support over the phone customers want to talk to a live person with a shorter time spent on hold.
However, to cut down on call center costs, some businesses choose to employ fewer agents, which can create longer wait times. To offset this, companies provide a callback service, wherein customers can choose a time window convenient for them to receive a call from an agent. There’s even a cloud callback service that companies can look into.
Streamlining customer service systems
Customers prefer to have their problem solved in the first interaction rather than being transferred around to other departments. Given the mergers and acquisition histories of many telecom companies, many businesses have created a more optimized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to ensure smoother customer support.
Now that we have established a strong connection with our clients, what’s next?
Be where the customers are
This is where empathy comes to play. Remember that our clients will not reach out to us for chitchat.
They call you because they need your help.
Today’s clients have more than a few channels they can use to contact you, and you need to be available on all of them. From conventional telephone to mobile device, to social media, to live web chat, to online forums, and beyond, a multi-channel customer service center will show your clients that you care enough not to dictate how they communicate. Reliable CRM can make the same data available across every channel, which can help facilitate this practice.
So they reach out because they expect that you will have the answer.
We should correctly manage customer expectations
Customers tend to expect the world but promising it to them may not be the best way to go. When that happens, you are making promises on behalf of the company. Remember, you are the company’s ambassador to the eyes (and ears) of our client. Can you bear the responsibility of the fact that your business may not be able to deliver the promise that you told the client?
Our word is our bond.
Instead of giving false hopes, tell your customers exactly what they can expect from you, and then work hard to exceed those expectations. By doing so, you won’t have to become anxious about thinking of a damage control brought by unfulfilled promises.
You have empathized with the client and you made sure that the company kept its word. Eventually, you will find patterns when dealing with client concerns. Would it be better if we come up with “ready-made” solutions each time certain concerns come up the queue?
This is just taking the easy route.
We owe to our clients the business they have with the company. It is through their subscriptions that we make our livelihood. To help us improve our work and exceed expectations, remember these three things:
Constantly collect data, personalize your approach, and maintain your focus
The best support is informed support. As agents interact with clients, they can gather important customer information simply by asking the right questions. This not only helps us to establish a productive dialogue between your business and your clients, but it also gives you an opportunity to receive and implement valuable feedback. Also, as the client needs changes constantly, the right questions will help you better adapt to serve them. Likewise, using a CRM for data capture and analysis can help you come up with a customer experience that is personalized to every client. In other words, you just have to “roll with the punches” using the data available to you.
To reach the optimum level of effective customer service, you need to review the data you gathered from time to time. CRM tools have helped many businesses personalize their customer interactions. In addition to gathering and analyzing data, CRM makes it easy for us to track the preferences and histories of every client, and to access and collaborate on that data from multiple devices. This empowers businesses to turn traditional ‘customer service’ into a one-to-one customer journey.
In a Salesforce study, 69 percent of consumers and 82 percent of business decision-makers say personalized customer care has a major or moderate impact on their loyalty to companies. Likewise, more than half of the consumers say that they will switch brands if they feel that the company didn’t make an effort to personalize communication. Let the thought sink in for a moment.
Now, it’s easy to say that customers are the heart of the business, but how well are you living it? There should be well-defined customer service standards established for your company. Always keep your clients informed and involved in their own customer journey. Again, provide your agents the right tools that enable them to provide superior service, and reward them when they do so. After all, your customers are the heart of your business, and staying focused on them — the client — is the best practice of all.
So what’s the bottom line?
If you’ve reached reading up to this point, congratulations! This proves that you’re more than willing to take that first step in achieving the most effective customer service practice for your telecom company.
As previously discussed, there are three key elements that make up effective customer service — attitude, tools, and people. You can hire the best customer service representative, but that doesn’t ensure effective customer service because your company lacks the right tools and your people lack the right attitude towards work. Keep these three in mind and make sure that all gears are properly maintained.
No system is perfect unless you maintain it perfectly. Be determined to keep on learning. Be receptive in engaging with your customers. Be ready to help them to the best of your abilities. Time after time.
Redefine the CX of your telecommunication company and expect higher retention ratings. For more information, contact us!
