A Tale of a Successful Proactive Customer Experience for Telecom

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

This classic Dickens opening could be used to describe the state of customer loyalty in the media and telecommunications industries just about anywhere in the world today. Even in these best of times with flourishing technology like multi-room accessible DVRs, streaming downloads, vast on-demand libraries and a gazillion channels to choose from, the lowest satisfaction scores for customer service year after year are typically found in this industry. Why? Because customers have high expectations from their telecom brands, and as switching to another provider gets easier, building and maintaining loyalty through customer experience is more important than ever. Here is a tale of a company who chose some bold, but simple uses of proactive communications via a mobile device to build customer loyalty, improve customer experiences, and drive $7 million in additional revenue.

Here’s an example: Genesys customer OnProcess Technology developed a solution to improve customer experiences for the largest U.S. cable TV operator, including scheduling service installations, upgrading service, back office solutions, post-installation education, escalation management, and activation questions. Their cable client needed help to decrease installation cancellations, inbound calls due to missed appointments, and unnecessary truck rolls, while improving processes and customer retention. By simply adding SMS notification reminders from Genesys to the installation process, the cable client realized a 7.2% improvement of installation experiences over those that did not receive an SMS message, an 8.1% improvement of rescheduled visits over those that did not receive an SMS message, and a 2.6% reduction in day-of-job failures. As a result, the cable client realized savings of over $100,000 in truck roll expenses.

In addition, what makes this campaign successful and gains loyalty with customers is the use of free-to-end-user (FTEU) SMS messaging. FTEU messaging (some call it “toll free text”) has been around for more than a decade, but it is severely underutilized in the B2C community. Just like businesses alleviated the cost of a voice call through 800 numbers, they can do the same in text by using FTEU messaging. There are a number of benefits businesses will enjoy by implementing an FTEU plan, including:

• Consumers are more open to opt-in to a FTEU program because there is no cost associated with it; whether they receive texts or reply to them.
• Companies can differentiate themselves from competitors by bringing a new solution to your customers that is a compelling FREE service.  With FTEU text messaging, you can say the messaging is FREE without having to include an additional pricing disclosure.
• FTEU text messaging works for many types of customer communications such as; marketing, account information, FAQs, delivery of promotions and coupons, appointment reminders, and rewards/loyalty information.

Get ready for the best of times with proactive customer experiences! Register today for our webinar on January 22 at 2pm ET to Improve Your Brand Loyalty in 2014 with Proactive Customer Experience Management.