In this exclusive interview with TechBullion, we are pleased to welcome Rustam, an invited expert and international business leader specialising in digital ecosystem products.
1 Rustam, the legacy telecom retail model had a limitation of having only agent-assisted sales and elaborate plans. With telecommunications becoming digital, how has the customer journey changed?
The change in customer experiences in the telecom sector has been quite significant. The older model which was characterised by off-branch visits and lengthy fragmented processes has been replaced with a largely online model where most customer experience elements have been integrated. Before, customers had a somewhat more tortuous customer journey – they had to commute to physical locations, waited in queues, and ultimately interacted with under articulated telecom offers that were poorly framed by sales agents. This often rigid and manual process has completely been scrapped by online disintermediation where customers can easily do everything by themselves from research and comparison to packaging and service extension. Such a structural change not only saves time and reduces friction, but also enhances the integrity level which evokes trust and loyalty among customers.
In other words, we now go to physical stores only because we choose to, not because we have to. Classic cases would be experiencing the product after completing online research.
This also applies to self-service portals, which now give customers the ability to carry out account changes or resolve basic problems without the need of support. Starting the interaction via a call centre is less common as AI powered chatbots assist customers instantly. Moreover, predictive analysis makes it easier for telcos to recommend cross selling opportunities, for example: data add-ons for frequent travellers or packages tailored for women. As much as possible, ecommerce has replaced the classical commerce in lines of people because modern customers expect pace, ease of use, and customisation that is very easy to use.
2 What are some of the biggest challenges telecom companies face in creating these seamless digital experiences?
There are many pressing issues that telecom companies have to grapple with while trying to create these seamless digital experiences. Firstly, older IT environments represent a major obstacle. Many telecom providers have systems that were hardly envisioned to facilitate real time digital interactions, which means the integration of apps such as AI bots or omnichannel support is laborious.
The second one is data fragmentation, which remains the case even today. As an example, consumer data is often stored in unconnected systems such as billing, customer service, marketing, making it impossible to have a complete picture of any one customer at a particular point in time. It is extremely difficult to offer tailored engagement in that case. For instance, there are chances that while marketing sends a customer promotional messages, the customer has placed a complaint about a service a week earlier, and they are disassociated simply because marketing and customer support data are not interlinked.
Then there’s the issue of cybersecurity. Since telecoms deal with sensitive customer data, any infrastructure weakness could open the telecom to cyber attacks which may lead to customer data leak or loss, and damage the telecoms reputation severely. For that reason, telecommunications need to guarantee solid cybersecurity measures to retain trust that customers have in them. Security and privacy should come as first priority.
Finally, there is the issue of digital literacy. Although many customers enthusiastically adopt and use new technologies, there’s still a relatively large group of people that face difficulties using digital tools or prefer more conventional approaches. And I think telecoms should find a balanced way to provide relevant support to both groups, without losing focus on driving new technologies while indulging customers that find it challenging to incorporate digital tools. This way the digital transformation process will remain dynamic and inclusive.
3 There seems to be an increasing buzz around the ‘metaverse’ and related virtual or augmented reality technologies. What do you think will be their implications for the future of telecom retailing?
The metaverse provides a very innovative opportunity to the telecom retailing space in terms of interaction with the customers. What if a customer is able to go on a virtual tour of a telecommunication outlet without leaving the comforts of his or her room, where he or she could interact with devices, compare plans, or engage with virtual agents? This allows customers to better explore and understand the offer without the need of visiting the store physically.
Furthermore, the telecoms could further expand the metaverse with new models of business such as the organisation of virtual branded events, new product releases in a virtual gala, or even seminars on the possibilities of 5G technologies and devices in the form of metaphors. I think online meetings we all have for the past 3-4 years prepared us for the next step – virtual meetings. For instance, a provider of telecom services could have an interactive, virtual meeting with customers and an expert who will explain new services or products of the company. This strategy adds an additional dimension to customer experience, but more importantly focuses on the emerging class of customers that are increasingly engaging in interactions that are blurring physical and virtual in order to deepen brand and customer allegiance.
4 Interesting! How can AI and Big Data assist telecom companies in improving customer experience given the current retail environment?
Big Data and AI are critical tools for improving customer experience in telecom, most importantly by hyper-personalised approaches and enhanced assistance. Most if not all telecommunication companies can predict based on Big Data what customers want and when with a very high level of relevancy. The minute this is enriched with AI it will become hyper-personalised. Good example would be a telco company that goes beyond current Big Data based tariff personalisation via CRM machine to AI enriched offers which include airtime plan, mobile device with a simple upgrade option in 12-24 months, necessary accessories such as earphones or protection case, and ecosystem services as a package tailored for particular customers with particular needs and use case.
Automated chat processes are also useful in this regard because they provide the first line of help for basic tasks i.e. for checking data balance or updating contact details. As an example in telecommunication companies, Verizon or AT&T use AI in their applications giving customers the ability to address common issues by themselves, and these are resolved quickly without human intervention. To add, AI as well has the capability of powering tools for sentiment analysis so that providers may try to measure customer emotion and respond to it in the course of interaction of chats or phone calls. With AI harnessed well, telecoms will massively enhance customer experience, decrease churn and earn trust.
5 What would you recommend to telecom service providers so as to be in a good position in the changing retail environment?
This is a complex one and the answer would be company-specific, however a high-level approach would be placing the technology that enriches customer experience on the forefront of thinking and decision-making process. This starts with ensuring that the entire organisation adopts a cultural mind-set that embraces technology, expediting upgrade of old systems, repositioning the dynamics of technologies on customer sites, and providing customers with unified and friendly interfaces. Investing in IT systems whether it’s cloud or AI technologies is a prerequisite. Things were changing fast over the course of the past 10 years, and will change even faster going forward, so telcos have no choice but to keep up.
It’s important to keep in mind that with the abundance of AI and Big Data analytics, very soon almost any business will be capable of aggregating customer Big Data and cater unique customer offers based on it. Telcos have a unique opportunity to lead this race.
However, it is essential to preserve human touch in this new world of emerging AI and Big Data driven automated solutions. Human customers should feel this human touch especially when dealing with complex products and services. There must be well trained people to interact with customers and guide them with empathy when AI has done all the pre-work. Reinforcing an omnichannel engagement model – assisting clients in a mixed form of contact with the service provider – is critical.
The ability to evolve fast will define top telecoms in the AI driven world which is closer than we may think. In the AI world which is actually already here.
