Today, telcos (telecom organizations) across the world have customer experience (CX) programs that vary in size, complexity, and depth. These programs are usually supported by top management to continue to deliver flawless differentiated experiences. Despite the recent increase in investment towards these programs, Telco NPS continues to lag behind other sectors and these programs struggle to realize their full intended value.

In this article series, we learn from the example of global telcos who are building the right capabilities and unlocking full value from their CX transformation. We also provide our recommendations on the actions telcos must take to delight their customers and maintain a competitive advantage.

3 Dimensions of a successful CX

Dimension 1: Mindset

A relentless focus on the customer and for the customer.

A. Search for the honest and unbiased customer voice

The unbiased, unfiltered voices of customers that don’t choose you anymore are key to revealing what you need to change. Real quotes always have a greater impact than a distilled suite of reports and graphs.

B. Be willing to re-think and challenge the business model

Establishing the rightful place of metrics such as NPS or transactional NPS. We see too much emphasis on this metric alone which can lead you down a path where you fail to recognize critical journeys that drive your business forward.

C. Capture continuous feedback from customers and employees

Cultivate the desire for your people to read, react, comment, and incorporate this insight. The richness of feedback must get acted upon and not end up in a digital transformation ‘black hole’.

Dimension 2: Skillset

The clarity of where the value resides, supported by a disciplined holistic roadmap

A. Clear aspiration and prioritization

Identify your top improvements, with specific metrics to achieve clarity of the outcomes across business processes, data, and systems

B. Speed of decision-making

Travel through the fastest path from insight to value. This is the mind-set that all CX programs need to adopt so that the speed of decision making becomes a higher priority. This will require a new view on authority, selecting decision-makers, and defining how decisions are made within guard rails.  It requires ruthless prioritization with a sense of urgency.

C. Finding and retaining Talent

Defining new customer experiences with speed and iteration requires new talent to apply service blueprinting, services design, and lean UX. New skills will require learning pathways to be defined and we recommend coaching to accelerate this.

Dimension 3: Toolset

Enable capabilities in a targeted manner that link and maximizes value realization

A. Embrace emerging technology: Cloud, Data, AI & Analytics

Prototype and experiment with emerging technologies to capture digital behavior and the voice of your customers. Leverage AI and analytics to be able to perform the execution of the CX program in an efficient manner that is not a ‘one-off’, but a constant activity.

B. Agile business operating models

Use this opportunity to bring in new ways of working to deliver value iteratively. 

This requires a re-think of the business operating model to identify how it can be more agile.  

C. Metrics, governance and performance management

Measuring the impact of your CX program reveals if it is delivering a positive ROI. 

The KPIs that define your CX program should include what matters most to your customers as well as your C-suite for success.

We see a rising number of organizations struggling to maximize the value of their CX programs. Telcos face immense challenges from soaring customer expectations to growing competition from outside traditional areas battling against the share of the customer wallet.  Therefore, a holistic and disciplined approach to maturing the in-house CX capability is required.

In our subsequent articles, we will deep dive into each of the three recommendations by discussing practical learnings and approaches. We will also share how some of our clients are realizing the rewards of exceptional customer experience. 

Co-authored by:

• Alastair Birt, Senior Principal (Europe)
• Jack Wasserman, Principal (North America)
• Sunil Kumar Mehta, Principal (North America)
• Vivek Vivek, Associate Partner (North America)
• Dheeraj Marcus, Senior Principal (APAC)