Many of the apps that we know and love — Uber, Slack, Amazon — have set a new bar for engaging, dynamic, and personalized digital experiences. To date, mobile operators have been unable to match elevated customer expectations set by these over-the-top digital services. They are encumbered by disjointed legacy IT systems and are losing revenue as a result.
Creating effective digital experiences is not just attainable but a must for mobile operators. As they strive to compete beyond voice, text, and data services, they can win customers through personalized digital experiences that provide the same level of simplicity, control, and transparency as the OTT services currently in the market. Following these three guiding principles will lead operators to deliver the most successful mobile digital experiences:
Provide appeal and actionability
Consumers, especially millennials, have high expectations for how their mobile applications perform. A recent Localytics study found that consumers today desire mobile apps that are more functional and can seamlessly connect online with real-world experiences. In order to meet these expectations, carriers must find solutions that provide rich consumer engagement. This includes developing intriguing graphical interfaces, caching information for fast response times to customer queries, or offering easy on-device transaction options that allows service changes in seconds.
An easy-to-use app is particularly important to the customer experience. When a customer wants to upgrade or add a line, operators must ensure that the transaction is a seamless experience. Gone are the days where it’s acceptable for a text message to link users to an app with a confusing array of choices, which then directs them to a slow-loading mobile web page where they find, and ultimately must call, a customer support number. If a customer wants to upgrade or add a line to their plan, they should be able to do immediately and on-device — all within their mobile app.
Use customer intelligence to transform general promotions into helpful offers
Marketing is becoming hyper-personal and hyper-contextual. It’s time to talk to a segment of one, not the masses.
Even with the wealth of information that mobile operators possess about their customers, they often know less about them than most social networking sites and popular apps. This leads to broad, one-size-fits-all promotions and campaigns that can leave the customer unsatisfied. Sending a roaming offer to someone who’s never been outside of their home area, for example, breaks down trust and any connection that the customer may feel with their service provider. If you’re highly transactional, you need to be highly personal.
Building a personalized experience starts with listening closely to your target demographic. Take millennials — they make up 25 percent of the U.S. population and are estimated to spend $200 billion annually by 2017. Successful carriers will tune into these spending habits and use this information to build out relevant offerings — whether that’s advanced digital offerings, social media capabilities, or more personalized customer experiences.
Put the customer in control
Great digital experiences provide customer-driven customization and full service transparency. Today, most mobile operators have not earned customer trust, which contributes to churn and especially minimizes the ability to upsell beyond standard telco services. A recent Mintel report found that less than a quarter of consumers in North America consider themselves loyal to their wireless carrier. And worse, only 15 percent of consumers say that they trust the information posted on wireless carriers’ websites. Contributing to consumer mistrust is the fact that, for years, consumers have been frustrated by complicated pricing, bill shock, overage charges, and lack of visibility into account activity.
To be successful, mobile operators must embrace the same level of transparency as other trusted brands. The customer managing a family plan must be able to know where their money is going, how much data is left, who is using the data, and then be able to make adjustments to control spending as needed.
Customer control and transparency can be achieved by combining on-device intelligence with 360-degree visibility to all aspects of a customer’s activity and account. With that, mobile operators can not only offer customer-driven self-management capabilities, but even provide proactive notifications that inform and offer solutions and services, thereby increasing customer trust, loyalty, and revenue opportunities.
The bottom line: mobile operators can be disruptive
The impact of OTT services on voice and messaging revenue is clearly felt by mobile operators. I also believe these operators are in a great position to be a major part of the digital services ecosystem. Why? Operators have the network, the smart devices, and — what everybody wants — an existing billing relationship with a large customer base, which provides plenty of opportunities for new partnerships and business models, especially in emerging markets.
Ultimately, these opportunities can be unlocked through rich digital experiences and consumer-friendly transparency, leading to increased customer trust and loyalty.
Editor’s Note: In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this Reader Forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
