Thousands of consumers are cutting the cord—switching from cable or satellite TV to streaming services. For the first time, streaming has outpaced cable. In July of 2022, streaming accounted for 34.8% of television viewing. Top cable providers had a net loss of about 825,000 video subscribers in 1Q 2022.
Why are so many customers making the switch? While price and the convenience of on-demand viewing may be primary reasons, streaming services’ superior customer experience plays a huge role. To compete with streaming services, communication service providers (CSPs) need to improve customer experience (CX) by enhancing their digital communication across on and offline channels.
Consumers Expect a Simple, Streamlined Digital Experience
Streaming services are simplified offerings designed and built to provide completely digital interactions. The user experience is convenient and streamlined, with one simplified flow through the online journey from selecting the streaming platform to using and paying for it.
Choosing and using streaming services are easy. There’s one fixed monthly fee, so customers know exactly what they’re paying. Setting up the platform is quick, requiring just a few clicks on the streaming device. Customers can start watching their favorite show immediately after subscribing.
Delivering digital experiences that compare to these streaming services can be challenging for CSPs. The customer journey from research to acquisition and payment is more complicated. The choice of internet connection speed depends on user activity (e.g., gaming or streaming). Bundled pricing makes it difficult to compare rates for individual services across companies.
Setting up new cable/internet service requires waiting for an installer to arrive between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Billing statements are more complicated, often varying from month to month and prices typically increase after the introductory period.
To compete with streaming services and retain customers, communication service providers must personalize online and offline interactions and create a seamless customer journey.
How do you do that?
CSPs need to provide customers with seamless, interactive experiences from acquisition to retention, keeping them responsive to messages and connected to your brand. They expect messages and offers to reflect the services they have, which channels they use, their relationship with the brand and more.
Accordingly, customer notifications should:
- Communicate with customers over their preferred channel, and follow up with them when they switch to another channel.
- Be personalized, proactive and predictive.
- Consider and be tailored to the customer’s context.
- Give customers multiple options to engage with the brand.
Legacy systems and data siloes make it difficult to deliver personalized notifications. When customer data is stored in different systems across your business, creating a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute customer profile can be difficult—if not impossible.
How Can You Get Over This Hurdle?
You need to pair real-time data collection with real-time behavior signals to send contextually relevant notifications in the right time on the right channel. For example, when a customer’s discounted introductory rate is about to expire (raising the monthly bill), you need to determine optimal upsell/cross-sell packages to offer based on the customer’s profile. If the customer frequently watches sporting events, you might offer a sports package. Then send that proactive, personalized offer via the customer’s preferred channel (e.g., email or SMS). If the customer doesn’t accept the offer, flag that customer as a potential churn risk, activating the customer retention journey automation.
To do this, you need a notification platform that:
- Gathers customer data across your enterprise, giving you a complete, real-time view of customers’ needs and activity.
- Makes decisions in real time, using business rules and logic to automatically send the right messages to each customer at the right time, over the right channel.
How Do You Take CX Improvements a Step Further?
You start by evaluating your organizations CX maturity and identifying opportunities for improvement that will deliver the best telco experiences and the quickest wins for your investment.
CSG Xponent Ignite was developed specifically for Telecommunications organizations. Xponent Ignite takes prebuilt journeys that we’re built from first-hand customer successes in the industry. It’s built with a pre-configured integrations to quickly tap into your existing tech stack, to quickly get your business delivering extraordinary customer experiences in months not years.
Let us show you how quick and easy it will be to get started, and how much of an impact Xponent Ignite will have on your customer experiences and the revenue growth that these personalized experiences will drive.
