By Keren Halpern, Head of Product Marketing • September 8, 2021
5G does not come free. Communication service providers (CSPs) must find a pathway with this technology investment to better attract and engage customers, current and prospective, to drive more revenue and achieve the required return on investment goals set by management.
We cannot make 5G a repeat of 4G with volume offerings on data, text, voice being the primary source of revenue. The ROI does not work, and the technology offers much more. For example, CSPs can design plans that meet specific user segment experience requirements in real time by offering plans that differentiate based on latency, capacity, throughput, speed, and even device type.
With 5G and cloud technology, CSPs have a “window of opportunity” to significantly improve and broaden their customers’ experience regarding how they connect, consume, and buy services. Done well, this will strengthen relationships and loyalty and bring new revenue monetization opportunities and models to market.
To succeed, CSPs must embrace the mantra that delivering next-level customer experience is the new currency. Per a recently published Ericsson consumer survey, “among early 5G adopters, 50% are willing to pay 32% more for 5G services.” Customers are willing to pay a premium for a service only if they perceive real value — compelling enough to “WOW” them. Therefore, it is time for CSPs to search for services that will exhilarate customers. Consider these examples:
As 5G presents a wide range of possibilities, the highest priority must be on effectively and efficiently harnessing the potential capabilities of the technology into innovative and personalized service offerings for the consumer at a high velocity. The new customer engagement model will be built on being agile, responsive, and reliable to deliver a frictionless and personalized customer experience at various touchpoints of the customers’ journey.
However, existing legacy systems pose challenges to CSPs on their paths to the new customer engagement model. As a result, CSPs must shift to new product-driven monetization capabilities that allow them to quickly configure their BSS without necessitating the expertise of an IT team. The objective is to empower marketing teams — with minimal steps and product-specific expertise needed — to optimize rate plans in real time based on usage and experience analytics, rollout promotions, and deliver on their customer’s desire for a WOW experience.
In light of the rising expectations of today’s digital customers and the many choices they have in terms of competition, it is imperative that CSPs deliver superior and personalized digital customer experiences at each touchpoint of their lifecycle. This extends from onboarding and instant provisioning of compelling offers to delivering enhanced self service and support to resolve queries, subscription renewals, billing actions, and more.
These include customer lifecycle CX examples such as:
In the end, we return to the fact that 5G is not free, and the service levels and offerings must be far better than 4G. Otherwise, the ROI objective will not be achieved. The conversation about better customer experience has been around for every G. However, with 5G, innovation driven by cloud-native capabilities, and machine learning-driven automation, CSPs have a real opportunity to find a true pathway to revolutionize their customer engagement and deliver the next level of hyper-personalized customer experience, which is the new currency of 5G monetization.
Have feedback or questions for the author? Contact Keren Halpern, Head of Product Marketing, Optiva
Discover more! Read → Redefining Telecom BSS Automation, Rollout, Delivery — Join the Revolution.