The customer journey with a telecom operator has many stages and touchpoints, from customer onboarding, introducing new products and services, supporting customers across channels, and preventing churn. The operator has the opportunity to enhance the experience offered to the customer during many of these touchpoints by utilizing the insights delivered through a Service Operation Center (SOC) and Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution.
Whatever channel the customer uses to contact the operator, the experience must be a smooth one. For some of these issues, the operator will rely on real-time insights to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible or offer a proactive solution, and for this, they need a probe native SOC and CEM solution. To be probe native means that the solution is delivered by a probe vendor who has in-depth knowledge and tight integration with the probe data, enabling the delivery of end-to-end network insights.
Probe native SOC and CEM solutions
The probe native SOC solution provides comprehensive service and customer experience insights for telecom networks by monitoring Key Quality Indicators (KQI’s), and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) calculated based on numerous data sources including service assurance probes, OSS and BSS and correlated via a smart mediation layer. The CEM layer then calculates the Customer Experience Index (CEI) indicating which subscribers have been affected and how they have been affected.
Deploying a probe native SOC and CEM solution offers several advantages to the operator. By utilizing the probes, the operator can perform end-to-end troubleshooting at the individual subscriber level with drill downs to the session or packed level. This helps the operator to prioritize network issues based on the impact to the customer and rapidly troubleshoot the root cause. Operators can then receive actionable insights via interactive dashboards, reports or automated actions (trouble tickets, notifications, etc.) and easily segment the data, deciding which area of the network requires focus.
The operator is able to perform an automated in-depth analysis identifying whether the issue is stemming from a particular network element, device, or location. This information is then delivered to customer service representatives via intuitive and simplified dashboards with recommendations for next best actions. Customer care then has the maximum available information to assist customers during their touchpoints.
Through its monitoring and analysis of the multiple data feeds which includes the probe data, the SOC and CEM solution allows the operator to understand the end-to-end customer network experience throughout their journey, troubleshoot and facilitate usage related issues. It is only with the use of probes that an operator can deliver an end-to-end view of the customer and service experience from the network, and only probe vendors with tight integration and domain knowledge are able to perform multidimensional ad-hoc analytics and troubleshooting on an individual subscriber level with drill down to the call trace or packet level.
Enhancing the customer journey
Taking an overall view of the journey, there are a number of touchpoints the operator can enhance the service delivered. From activation to preventing churn, the operator can utilize a combination of probe data alongside multiple other data feeds to gain insights on the customer journey. These touchpoints include usage complaint handling, product experience, retention, and finally churn, including post churn analysis. By looking at various touchpoints through the customer journey and using a probe native SOC and CEM solution which delivers smarter, clearer insights, the operator can use to improve these customer interactions.
Part of the customer journey is how the user experiences the product, and this can mean both the device and the network. A probe native SOC and CEM solution takes a closed-loop approach to monitor the network and measuring the customer’s KPI’s and KQI’s at a constant. This means issues on the network are identified automatically before the customer is even aware of a problem. The network insights are generated from combined data feeds, including probe data and correlated via a smart mediation layer resulting in automatic alerting and event-driven flow. The insights are clearly displayed on an interactive dashboard and reports deliver end-to-end network insights. This information allows the operator to identify the root cause faster and deploy effective drill downs where necessary creating a more efficient network and higher customer satisfaction. These enhancements are more effective with a probe native smart SOC and CEM solution.
When a complaint is made, the operator must handle this touchpoint as quickly and efficiently as possible, resolving the issue on the first call or escalating to the appropriate person. The customer service representative needs as much information as possible to understand customer problem, provide a solution where possible, or suggest an alternative approach. Probe native data combined with OSS and BSS feeds will give the relevant metrics in one unified view. This will help to ensure the customers remain satisfied even when there is cause for complaint.
If a customer remains dissatisfied, they may decide to end their customer journey and churn. Before this, operators have the opportunity to try and retain the customer. When it comes to retention, cost and customer satisfaction are the two biggest factors. Operators can use the customer’s KPI’s to determine what it is that is causing them to churn and offer a special discount or a package that is more suited to their needs. KPI’s will help the operator to know which area of their package they are dissatisfied with, and how appealing their offer is likely to be to the customer. A probe native SOC and CEM solution will also enhance the churn and post churn analysis. Using the KPIs and KQIs the solution will be able to identify trends and highlight which customers are likely to churn. The operator can then target those potential customers proactively with improved packages. Using cutting edge technology such as machine learning and heuristic modeling the solution will also be able to identify where mistakes are being made when it comes to the customer journey and in particular during the retention and churn touchpoints. By understanding the gaps in their service, operators can fix and improve where they are going wrong and deliver an enhanced experience to the customer. This will help in retaining existing customers while growing their overall customer base.
Conclusion
Many SOC and CEM solutions can deliver KPI’s and KQI’s on the customer, but only probe native solutions can provide the most accurate view on perceived customer experience and maximize customer satisfaction at touchpoints in the customer journey. RADCOM’s SOC and CEM solution takes the multidimensional ad-hoc probe data and smartly correlates with multiple other data feeds to deliver rich, actionable insights to the operator in order to enhance the customer experience throughout their entire journey.
