Communications service providers (CSPs) deliver an essential service — connectivity. Everyone wants to be able to communicate, but some might argue that all CSPs deliver the same thing, acting as the carrier of voice and data without a broader relationship with the subscriber. For the consumer, choosing a service provider might seem to be simple — a decision based simply on price or perceived quality of service in their region — leading to a race to the bottom among CSPs fighting a war to win subscribers.
But constantly cutting prices to compete with their peers isn’t a viable financial option for CSPs — they have no choice but to keep investing in new technology as the mobile generation continues to inexorably advance beyond 3G and 4G towards 5G and beyond. Also, CSPs must negotiate regulatory hurdles as well as increased competition from OTT providers.
To mitigate the effects of these combined pressures and differentiate, CSPs need to build strong individual relationships with their subscribers. As such, CSPs are transforming into digital service providers with a strong focus on improving their subscribers’ experiences through a true omnichannel approach to customer service — an approach often referenced, but far less often done well, and increasingly demanded by consumers.
Utilizing AI to improve customer engagement is one effective digital transformation strategy. Some large mobile operators have deployed data analytics-powered marketing platforms that deliver new and incremental revenue streams. Powered by AI, these platforms give operators the ability to reduce churn and increase ARPU by offering personalized, revenue-generating services to their subscribers across mobile advertising, messaging and financial services. Integrated directly into the mobile operator’s network, these platforms can analyze conversion rates, subscriber profiles, content usage and network activity to accurately create and place offers that are tailored to each subscriber, maximizing the value of potentially lost revenue.
AI can also enable digital transformation through improved customer service. The key to delivering a truly effective omnichannel strategy is a built-for-purpose platform designed to engage customers by delivering personalized, contextualized and convenient contact and service anytime, anywhere and in the desired format. To achieve real personalization and create better and more intuitive customer service processes, CSPs are increasingly looking to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice-enabled technologies. By employing AI, CSPs can gain deep insight into what is important to their subscribers and use that information to not only deliver relevant information but predict future requirements. Intelligent systems recognize and remember historical patterns, then anticipate and act in advance to meet customer needs.
When it comes to customer service, AI is paramount for delivering personalized engagement across channels at scale. By leveraging advanced conversational interfaces that can recognize human speech and language, CSPs can automatically interpret the meaning of a customer’s spoken word and apply context and reasoning to each interaction to help bring that customer a resolution without needing to engage a human service agent. When customer concerns and inquiries can be handled faster and with automation, the result is not only higher customer satisfaction but also optimized contact center costs and positive revenue return for the business.
This isn’t a brave new world completely run by machines, however. Human interaction is still necessary. While the most intelligent virtual assistants can leverage big data and human input to behave like “live” agents during customer interactions, they have their limits within self-service engagement. The most advanced are integrated systems that can recognize those limits and bring a human agent into the loop to help if needed, seamlessly continuing the conversation or transaction across channels with full knowledge of all relevant context.
CSP transformation is being enabled by intelligent solutions that can increase customer satisfaction, revenue, and acquisition by improving conversation rates and reducing abandoned contact attempts. Opportunities for cross-selling across a variety of channels, including smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, are also increased. And while subscriber satisfaction levels rise, operational costs are reduced through the use of sophisticated self-service options across multiple channels — all working to the benefit of the customer and the service provider.
While customer experience is the number one driver for digital transformation, according to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey, only one in 25 CIOs says that their organization has already deployed AI — athough a further 20 percent claim to be experimenting with the technology or to have short-term plans for it. As a result, Gartner predicts that, by 2022, 40 percent of customer-facing employees and government workers will consult an AI-powered virtual agent daily for decision-making or process-related support.
CSPs must focus on delivering great customer experience in a cost-effective and profitable way by exploiting every opportunity to learn from their subscribers. Engaging users at all touchpoints can deliver a seamless process and gather the data to build individual customer behavior profiles. Using these profiles to create personalized services catalyzes engagement and drives the uptake of new digital services such as on-demand video and music, financial, smart home and connected vehicle applications. This, in turn, enables CSPs to increase loyalty gains and generate new revenue streams.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 82 percent of service providers see digital transformation as an immediate and critical objective — a way to avoid becoming a “dumb pipe” and to compete with Internet and over-the-top (OTT) giants — with customer experience emerging as the number one driver for this transformation. With AI, CSPs can deliver the value-adds to their “basic connectivity” to attract and keep subscribers by delivering excellent customer service and to differentiate themselves from the competition.
