Improving Telco Customer Experience One Customer At A Time

Great discussion with Ari Vänttinen, CMO, of Comptel a leading international provider of data management for telecommunications firms. Comptel is beginning an initiative to help telcos use the data they have to improve the customer experience (CX) for their end user customers.

Why does Comptel, a leader in delivering digital and communication services, care about CX?

We’re been integrating data for telcos for 30 years and we’re managing 20 percent of the world’s mobile data. Data is the new business fuel and we want to ensure our customers are getting the most out of this fuel by creating more value with the data and improving how telcos treat their customers. Telcos and digital service providers are beginning to pay attention to CX but they’re not sure what actions to take. We want to help them see the possibilities.

How does Comptel define CX?

We think CX is all interactions with the customer which typically fall into three categories: 1) the engagement experience. Every time someone is engaging with their mobile device or their telco is a “zero moment of truth” (ZMOT). With consumers interacting with their mobile devices from dusk to dawn, there are hundreds of ZMOTs every day. 2) Delivery experience. How is the customer receiving their devices and their service – is it seamless and pain free or is it a hassle? 3) The user experience (UX). Is the digital experience across channels seamless? We want our clients to take a holistic view of CX and this requires a change in corporate philosophy of putting customers, and CX, first.

A lot of companies talk CX but few deliver. How will your solutions fix this?

We will provide the tools, the software, and the solutions for our clients. As well as painting the picture of the importance for our clients to earn the hearts and minds of their customers. This will be driven by data and by the integration of different data sources. We will help our clients define the right moments and urges customer-facing personnel to take positive action on behalf of the customer. Stop marketing and pay attention to adding value to digital moments and the customer experience. Big data and real-time analytics enable the segmentation of one. We want to help our clients realize the opportunity.

How does providing a good CX align with Comptel’s mission, mission and values?

We believe life is a compilation of digital moments and we’re committed to perfecting them. We’re trying to help the industry improve CX to compete with Google and Netflix who are setting the standards and driving end user expectations. We want to improve the customer journey of engagement, buying, delivery, and service. We also want to help our clients understand digital lifecycle management by helping operation manage, and accelerate, the digital lifecycle. Telcos can take six months to do what Goggle does in a few days. We want to help our clients become more agile.

Once you’ve implemented this in telcos, do you envision expanding into other verticals?

The telco space is quite large; however, they’re essentially IT companies using the same tools everyone else is using so we may look at other markets like energy, insurance, media. There are opportunities to improve CX everywhere and going forward we believe CX will be a competitive differentiator.

Is CX a separate revenue stream for Comptel or a value-add for clients further differentiating you from your competition?

We’ve had the solutions and the tools for some time. We’re working to help our customers see the value of hyper-personalized engagement with customers, sales, delivery, and support. We want to help our clients serve their clients better and to be there at the ZMOT when you’re needed. Provide meaning, relevant, valuable content and information for clients to make their lives simpler and easier and you’ll have a customer for life.

Why should developers and engineers care about this initiative?

 Telcos are putting more and more pressure on their IT departments. The developers and engineers need the tools and better ways to serve their business partners in the future. Coming from the technical side of the business, we understand the importance of having the right tools necessary to provide a superior CX.


• What have I failed to ask you that you think is important with regards to your CX initiative?    
  
  The devil is in the details. CX is overused and has many different points of view. We need to get people actually taking steps to improve CX rather than just talking about it. The customer needs to see the results of the telcos efforts. We need to institute cultural change throughout the organization and help tear down the barriers that are slowing the adoption of CX best practices. Clients talk about how they are customer-centric, yet the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the only KPI being used to measure CX. We need to help our clients be more meaningful, relevant, and valuable by providing the right digital moment at the right time.