Bob Seger's classic hit, "I Feel Like a Number" aptly describes how many wireless subscribers feel about their relationships with their carriers. In these days of personalized ringtones, designer phone bags and portability, it's apparent that consumers want a more personal relationship with their wireless providers. More often than not, however, you'll hear people say, "My phone company doesn't have the slightest notion of who I am."
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Chris Stone
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The ramifications of those laments can be seen in the 2006 findings of the Rockefeller Foundation indicating that "68% of customer churn is caused by valuable customers who feel neglected." Obviously, that feeling of neglect leads to a negative churn of events for wireless carriers.
With the advent of CRM in the 1990s, personalization was all the rage. Although it was an exciting concept, it was extremely difficult to execute. However, technology has since caught up with the concept, and now companies that want to personalize their relationships with their customers and slash churn rates can do so to the mutual benefit of providers and subscribers.
IMPROVING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
One way cutting-edge wireless telecoms have reduced churn is to implement an Enterprise Document Presentment (EDP) system. The idea behind EDP is pretty basic, but the results can be downright eye-popping. In short, EDP enables the automated creation and presentment of enterprise documents in any format via any channel to customers, suppliers and business partners. It does this by enabling organizations to retrieve information from a variety of systems - ERP, CRM, SCM, legacy, etc. - and then create, present and distribute clear and compelling customer documents. An EDP solution can do all of that because it can integrate with virtually all enterprise applications due to its ability to support most all communication protocols and data formats.
EDP's complementary capabilities actually expand the usefulness of the existing infrastructure; in some cases, it can even extending the lifespan of legacy systems that are otherwise unequipped to meet current requirements.
The result: EDP can significantly improve the communication and relationship between carrier and customer by speaking to the consumer in a persuasive and personal manner that leads to improved customer satisfaction, retention and revenue growth.
EDP allows wireless carriers to access and leverage the valuable information they have on their customers; regardless of where the data resides. By connecting to multiple, disparate backend systems, telecommunications organizations can extract customer-specific information they have on their customers to deliver bills in a personalized, compelling format. In addition, EDP solutions allow consumers to control how they interact with their providers, whether via traditional post, e-mail with PDF attachments, or even an SMS message indicating a bill is available for viewing on an online portal.
GETTING PERSONAL
EDP technology also provides the flexibility to design easy-to-understand bills. Graphic representation of service usage, personalized up-sell messages and brand-reinforcing designs are now possible in days or weeks - versus weeks and months - as previously required in hard-coded output environments. By putting control of the look and feel of the document into the hands of the marketing department instead of IT, organizations have found that customer relationships take on a personal feel.
It is now possible to define business rules that drive marketing messages based on the data in your systems. End of subscription term approaching? Send a message with a new phone graphic. Interested in converting bills to e-delivery? Provide a cash incentive whose value is based on demographic data for a greater acceptance rate.
EDP actually allows organizations to provide access to an exact facsimile of customer bills in real time to answer questions in much less time. By doing so, the customer service representative also can reinforce specific marketing messages or offers while they have the subscriber on the phone.
THE PROOF IS IN THE NUMBERS
One telecommunications company found that targeted marketing messages on the bill - in this case an up-sell offer of a higher level of broadband service at an introductory rate lower than the current bill - increased the take rate of that service 300% over any other marketing channel, and at no incremental cost. Another organization saw its churn rate decrease from 25% to 5% annually simply by presenting a clearer bill with personalized information embedded.
A recent Gartner study for Pitney Bowes indicated the following proof points:
- Benchmarks indicate that it is 40% to 200% more expensive for an organization to respond to a customer by way of a live agent over the telephone compared with placing the answers to questions over a self-service channel.
- Contact center representatives have reduced the time they spend searching for information by 50% to 60%. (The reps see what customer sees)
- More than 75% of Web self-service queries are not escalated to an agent in the call center. (Clearer communications equals less calls)
Integrating an EDP solution into your business operations can provide a significant ROI in as little as three months. By providing the recipient with personalized, relevant documents and delivering them in the manner that best suits them, your customers will no longer feel "just like a number."
Stone is president and CEO of Streamserve