As a customer, have you ever had as many choices in anything as you do when first selecting a cell plan? They woo you with variable number of lines, favorite friend deals, family plans, weekend and night minutes, all so you can customize your service to your life. After this initial honeymoon period of personalized attention, they lock you into a two-year relationship that leaves both parties unsatisfied. Why, and what can we learn from this?
Why doesn’t Telecom provide customized service?
Many companies do this, but Telecom companies are the worst offenders. Few companies spend as much time and energy acquiring customers, and still try less to keep them once they have them. There isn’t any competition anymore because you are locked in for two years. The sad thing is they have all this usage data from whom we call, what we read, where we go, what we eat when we’re there, and what time we wake up, without leveraging the data. Crime fighters, marketers, and other leading industries use usage data, but not Telecom and probably not you.
How to Begin Leveraging Usage Data
Personalized goods and services are more tempting than one-size-fits-all solutions, from custom-made jewelry and shirts to online content. Having someone take the time to understand “me” and provide a richer experience, benefits both the consumer and the business — a win-win for everybody. Once we receive the personalized dream package, what happens next? Businesses should at least ask the customer if they are completely satisfied. There’s no such thing as a personalized package that’s not personal enough.
One undeniable metric of success is usage. If my wife wears her custom-made ring all the time, it means she was happy with the transaction. The same kind of usage metric can and should be used for all forms of packaging, even software. The dream Telecom package, made up of all my preferred bells-and-whistles, is probably not a good match if I don’t end up using it. A big part of managing customer experience should be measuring and monitoring how customers use what they pay for and analyzing why they do it. If the personalized package is faulty or underutilized, this should be picked-up and acted upon as soon as possible.
Much has been written about reaping the benefits of good CEM and satisfaction. The old model of sending out a survey and wishing for the best is outdated and overrated. Instead, organizations are looking for a real-time, constant view of usage and delivery of service. Personalized fulfillment and packaging goes hand-in-hand with real-time interaction monitoring. Being able to anticipate and act on any service delivery problems before they happen is all part of CEM validation. If businesses want advocates of their brand rather than just customers, this focus on servicing customers needs to happen.
For more on how valuable servicing customers and good CEM is in other industries, check out this webinar:
How Insurers Can Build More Profitable Customer Relationships
