says Karl
Whitelock, Frost & Sullivan, Stratecast
The telecom industry is on
the periphery of entering a huge transitional period. Four years ago it was all
about the user device evolution, better network technology and converging network
technology, be it fixed line or mobile. Now in addition to those, as we see
some parts of the world move from 2.5G to 3G and others to 4G, a whole new
digital world is opening up – social media.
Although social media is
already very much intertwined in our lives, we still don’t really know its full
capability. Today, social media isn’t just driving the communications business,
but due to its growing popularity amongst consumers and the capability for
businesses to engage with their customers on a level that was not possible
before, it’s driving business in every industry. Operators must pay attention
to the fact that social media will give businesses the opportunity to reach out
and actually connect with their audience. No stuffy corporate policies, real
one-to-one relationships, putting their business directly in the customer’s
shoes.
This trend means that operators
must evolve and adapt more than ever before. In the past operators provided a
very different experience depending on the customers’ tariff service. For
example, contract customers would experience rich customer support, provided completely
by the operator, whereas Pay-As-You-Go customers were typically left with
little or no operator support. Now, operators are moving into a hybrid
environment.
This transition is taking operators
closer to their customer, allowing them to fully understand their needs and how
their services can meet them. The traditional ways for gaining insight such as
lengthy customer calls has often led to having frustrated customers who feel
that they are not any closer to the service they want to receive or phoned up
about. What many users are now doing is asking friends in the social
environment. By using social networking and forums, users are able to get the
answer to their question within seconds and without having to engage with the
operator. What this means to service providers, as it means to businesses in
all other industries, is they must start paying attention to the social media
evolution.
If service
providers are able to pay attention to the basic needs of the customer, if they
can put themselves in the customers’ position and ask “what is it I want?”,
they will be closer to the end user. When looking at areas such as mobile
billing, operators must provide real-time billing, billing that engages with
the user, billing that informs the user when they are nearing their data plan
limit and billing that improves the concept of “bill shock”.
Any business, no matter what
the industry, can no longer afford not to leverage social media when looking to
engage with its customers and must make it a central part of its business
strategy; however, the success of such strategies rest heavily on social media
being leveraged in the right way, by having a presence that is both engaging
and engaged.
