Proclamations Don't Make Improved Customer Experience

As hard as they try and as much as they talk about the customer experience being a priority, telecom service providers are not exactly leaders at moving the needle on delivering such a concept. According to a survey by Forrester Research, they rank toward the bottom of a list dominated by retailers, hotels and even banks.

That their service is so technology-based – and new technology at that – surely has something to do with this result. However, much more goes into the customer experience than the success or failure of a new mobile application or a dropped call. There’s also the ordering and fulfillment process, correct billing, courteous and knowledgeable service reps — all things on which telecom should be able to compete despite the complexity of their offering. So why don’t they?

William Band, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research set himself to finding out. In a recent survey of more than 100 operators worldwide called “Delivering the Right Customer Experience,” the firm sought to answer three basic questions that might shed light on why operators are having such a tough time managing their customers. The questions were:

1. What are operators’ most important customer management goals?
2. What capabilities are included in an operator’s definition of customer management?
3. How strong are operators’ current customer management capabilities?