According to a KPMG report, communications service providers are among the lowest-performing sectors when it comes to customer service. Yet going forward, customer experience will be even more critical: “In a saturated market customer loyalty is critical. Outstanding customer experiences are the only way to secure loyalty and advocacy.”

Improving customer experience is a key for strategic growth in today’s competitive environment, but in order to do that, you probably have to look beyond your competition—not just within the telco space but across industries.

Your customers now expect more from you

Salesforce research shows that 62% of customers say their experience with one industry affects their expectations in other industries. In the real world, the percentage is probably even higher. Think about it: If you have a great experience exchanging clothes that don’t fit on Amazon or upgrading your plan on Netflix, you’ll be even more annoyed if your telco makes a mistake in billing you or keeps sending you offers for irrelevant plans—or if you have to call three times to get through to someone who can answer your question.

In the same Salesforce survey, 85% of business consumers and 79% of home consumers said that the experience a company provides is as important as its products/services.

Looking specifically at the telco space, consumer expectations today include, at a minimum:

• Quality: Consistently helpful, transparent interactions, whether they’re talking to sales, service, support, or accounts.
• Hyper-personalization: Insightful service based on customer data from previous interactions, meaning customers no longer have to repeat themselves and empowering agents to be more proactive.
• Effortless experience: Agents who anticipate customer needs, based on trends and intent analysis, streamlining the entire interaction from end to end.

This is definitely a high bar. But with the right digital experience solutions, it’s well within your reach to meet and even exceed these expectations.

Let’s look at 3 best practices that will allow you to start thinking strategically when it comes to upping your customer satisfaction game.

1. Think strategically with omnichannel communications

Today, it’s more important than ever to reach customers where they are, on whatever devices they prefer, and especially via social media.

By building multiple communication channels, you can be where your customers are and allow the user to drive the experience, choosing how and when to engage (call, chat, or KB self-serve) through a familiar, friendly interface. Providing alternative channels also allows for continuity of customer care with minimal customer time and effort. For instance, once the consumer has described their question, they shouldn’t have to repeat themselves if their inquiry is forwarded or escalated.

Tools for CX success

• AI-based knowledge management system combined with 360° customer data from previous interactions to provide rapid responses to customers and agents
• Customer self-service areas accessible through social media, websites, and apps
• Effective virtual support tools that go beyond bots to deliver smart, effective solutions

2. Build relationships with secure, streamlined journeys

Sure, everybody’s talking about breaking down silos. But actually doing it is a whole lot harder. And that really is what it takes to convince customers that you’re on their side.

Every engagement option you offer, from a call center to a chat bot to a self-service help center, must be attractive, consistently branded, and offer a high-quality personalized experience. You need to offer unified, continuous, secure processes for onboarding, price plan changes, and more, letting customers complete transactions and updates quickly and securely.

Tools for CX success

• Digital completion tools to ensure rapid, seamless onboarding and payment
• Integrated capabilities for identity verification, digital signing, and more

3. Deliver flawless personalization with analytics and intelligence

Most companies aren’t fully leveraging what could be their greatest asset when it comes to customer experience. They’re capturing only a fraction of the potential value from data that’s already at their fingertips.

It’s not enough just to roll out a solution and sit back. By incorporating analytics and AI to constantly hone and adapt the user’s experience, you’ll know concretely what’s working and what isn’t, so you can build continuous improvement into your organization.

Analytics unlocks the door to hyper-personalization, creating custom content that goes far beyond knowing the customer’s name and phone number. It lets you access and analyze their call data, service history, and more—answering their questions, anticipating their needs, and solving problems before they happen.

Beyond this, you can also embed their feedback into solutions designed just for them, reaching out with relevant offers in ways that build relationships and loyalty.

Tools for CX success

• Solutions that provide automation and AI to cut human agent costs and eliminate expensive service calls
• Analytics tools that scan voice calls for customer mood, tone, and intent, mining valuable data and providing deep business insights for improvement

Amdocs helps you stand out from the crowd

Customer experience isn’t just an afterthought to deal with complaints. It’s relevant throughout the entire consumer lifecycle—and with the right solutions in place, you can transform customer experience into a major driver of value, retention, and loyalty.

And with new competition from outside players moving into this already crowded sector, superficial upgrades to your customer experience offering may not be enough. Most telcos are already moving in this direction—some faster than others.

The Amdocs Augmented Experience Center has been designed with deep knowledge of the challenges modern communications providers face today. Amdocs can help you embrace these best practices as quickly and efficiently as possible, letting you differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd. We invite you to join our webinar—live or on-demand—to discover the rich set of customer experience solutions