Many service providers especially telecom players seem to
have the fantastic ability to drown customers with offers that they will never
use or have a record of declining. These very service providers are the ones
who also have reams of data about their customers, data most of us would think
should help them make the right offer to us. But we are often faced by the same
static messaging which has ruined many an experience of our service provider
for us. The problem does not lie with the amount of data they have, it also
isn’t the fault of the lack of desire to give the customer a good deal. It all
seems to lie in the much hidden and embarrassing fact that a lot of our service
providers do have a lot of data but very little knowledge.
Companies have many storage hubs today. The Contact Center,
Point of Sales, customer feedback and many more depending on the company and
the various customer programs they have in place. The amount of data available
here will be enough to piece together a decent customer outreach strategy. Yet
service providers in most cases such as one of our friendly neighborhood
telecom providers make the fundamental mistake of not making these hubs speak
to each other. Due to this a lot of customer data gets lost in translation as
its not being mined to get the relevant data points which can be used to market
the right offers to the customers or at least – close to the right one. The key,
one should believe lies in converting this data to knowledge which should be
shared across relevant departments. A customer complaint may be voiced over a
simple transaction related call into the Contact Center, but is that being sent
over to the guys at Customer Service? A customer refuses an offer for an
upgrade on her current calling plan at an authorized center. Is that then
transferred to the Contact Center so that the customer is not pestered about it
again?
The opportunities to use customer data are many and can
prove to be both profitable for the company and improve customer service. Service
providers will be more focused and relevant in their approach to the customer
which only involves a better use of resources already available to them.
Getting over the embarrassment of having customers come down upon the service
provider with all their fury for every unnecessary offer made to the customer
can be very easily avoided. And what better then turning that embarrassment
into a meaningful opportunity for both?