CEM 2.0: High performance customer experience management

In today’s world, customer experience matters more than ever. Managing the customer experience is a operators’ clear path to market differentiation and leadership. According to a Nokia Siemens Networks analysis of one UK operator, raising customer satisfaction to the average European level would cut churn rates by 7%. And that would translate into a cumulative increase in gross profit over four years of more than GBP 200 million.

The Nokia Siemens Networks Acquisition and Retention study backs up this analysis. The latest results show that network and service quality have the greatest influence on customer retention in mature markets.

Since 2009, there has been a doubling in the number of people who cite quality as the reason they stay with their operator. The rise of the smartphone has had a clear influence on people’s expectations for higher quality. In fact, smartphone users are 2.5 times more likely than users of other devices to rate messaging and Internet quality as the reason they stay with their provider. Not surprisingly then, 39% of smartphone users now say they are likely to change their operator.

All of which makes the issue of how to deliver a superior customer experience a top business goal for many operators. To help them achieve this goal, Nokia Siemens Networks has long played a pioneering role in developing solutions for Customer Experience Management (CEM), establishing a # 1 position in Subscriber Data Management (SDM) with over 1.8 billion subscribers and more than 100 customers, as well as 120 customer insight projects.

Now we are taking CEM to the next level of performance, bringing together telco-IT-web capabilities in a turbocharged CEM 2.0.

Adding insight where it counts
Unlike many other approaches, CEM 2.0 draws customer insight data from multiple sources, including the network, service and device performance, real-time subscriber experience and service use. This goldmine of information is critical to identify where, when and how to focus improvements in network and business processes that will reap the highest return at each stage of the customer lifecycle.

To make these improvements requires best-in-class business processes across the operator’s functions, from assurance to charging to fulfillment to campaign management to customer care, and more.

With real insight driving these business processes, operators can make fundamental changes in their operations. As processes become automated, holistic and personalized, operators can act rather than react on the basis of immediate, real-time data from across their organization. Let’s take a closer look at how this works in practice.

Proactive and real time, not reactive and late
By monitoring the performance of the network and services in real time, operators gain valuable insight for a proactive response. By monitoring how services are being used right now, and by following network alarms and network performance in real time, they can immediately pick up any service quality issues that arise.

Suppose there is a problem in the end-user’s device configuration. Maybe they cannot roam or access their content. The network automatically recognizes the inconsistency and raises an alarm. This then triggers the device management system to access configuration data to identify the incorrect setting and then send the right data to the device in real time.

The issue is corrected proactively, sometimes even before the customer realizes there is a problem and calls the operator’s helpline. Or, if the problem cannot be corrected, it is escalated to the trouble ticketing system which automatically feeds a simplified explanation to the customer care team, who can deal with the issue by explaining to the customer that they are already solving the problem.

Automated customer experience
What’s also important to underline is that the action taken to identify and solve the issue or to escalate it to technical support all happens automatically, ensuring high efficiency and speed. Processes are managed and implemented across domains and systems, to create more powerful and more efficient responses, effectively turning silos into a holistic business process.

From the standpoint of customer experience, any problems that arise are solved quickly and effectively with minimal fuss, making an excellent impression with a superior personalized service. The operator achieves this high level of service using deep customer insight to turn generic processes into subscriber-specific attention.

The impact of such an enhanced customer experience is almost immediate on the bottom line, translating into lower churn and higher ARPU, as well as lower operational costs in terms of reduced OPEX and faster time to market.

Thanks to Nokia Siemens Networks’ flexible delivery model, CEM 2.0 can be adopted for any operator business. Implementation can be a turnkey project covering business process design and delivery, as well as Nokia Siemens Networks’ products. It can also comprise a systems integration project involving selected third-party products, and CEM 2.0 is even available in the form of a service.

In short, CEM 2.0 is the industry’s most complete offering across network and IT and the end-to-end customer lifecycle. For operators, it is the key to driving loyalty, efficiency and revenue streams. For subscribers, it is the key to a much more immediate, relevant and personalized customer experience.