Babysitting new customers for improving Operational Efficiencies
With ever evolving telecommunications technology space and increasing customer demands, challenges have increased multifold for a Communications Service Provider to ensure delivery of effective and efficient "convergent" services. Pricing wars have forced CSPs to introduce complex price plans with cross product discounting, unified bills, complex invoice formats etc that at times leave customers bewildered. Further, based on customer classifications by geography, market segments etc; it might happen that various services requested by the customer are handled by different internal departments whose applications may not necessarily be inter-connected with each other. All these internal processes and systems complexities keep the cost of operations high for CSPs and any deviations in these, impacts badly their performance parameters.
Now in this complex situation, if customers are not handled properly, there are high chances that they may get distracted at any point. It is observed that call volumes handled by call centers, queries resolved by billing department tend to explode whenever there are new promotions/plans launched in the market or when certain changes are done, that impact the invoice of customer. When customers are new, they usually take their own time to understand and follow/accept these situations. These new customers can be anyone who has been acquired recently OR an existing customer who has opted for some new service that resulted in change in his plans or usability of service. Every new customer has certain service requirements and expectations from CSPs and if for any reasons these are not met, he expects prompt response from the CSP. In case this does not happen, the customer's expectations fails and chaos starts. This situation may result in explosion of following activities and thereby impacting badly the Operational Efficiency:
- Total number of calls received in call centers from customers
- Number of queries resolved (clarifications, processing credits etc) by billing executives
- Handling change in existing plan or services, that may require involvement of multiple departments
- Tracking of follow-ups and updating customer on the issue status until it is resolved.
- Sending revised invoices, letters, handling customer dissatisfaction, churns etc.
The situation changes drastically when some proactive measures are taken by the CSPs to handle these conditions. In case of issues, the most important point is "Who initiates the call". If calls, contacts are initiated by customers, they become complaints, grievances resulting in above chaos. BUT if these are initiated by CSPs, they become caring, supportive and assertive calls. Proactive efforts by CSPs at identified stages with an intention to explain or guide customers creates a high impact as the customer would be more aware and can discuss any issues upfront with the Customer Care Representative. It is a known fact that being fair with the customers helps in maintaining long lasting relationship with them and more so if this starts from the inception stage of customer acquisition, possibility of churn due to issues arising later is minimized in the customer lifecycle. Further if the CSP ensures that the customer is well educated with situation, processes, plans and benefits, representation on invoices etc, he will not contact the customer care or will have much lesser issues. This will definitely help in boosting the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and will directly impact Operational Efficiency Index.
This entire process is not as simple as it is stated here for many CSPs. This could be mainly because of the variety of Services offered, market segmentation, segregated departments, non-integrated IT systems (applications) handling different part of fulfillment process etc. Even with these internal challenges, efficient process should be implemented across boundaries so that customer interaction is seamless for the initial days to begin with. Following are some of the steps that can be part of babysitting the new customer:
- Welcome the new customer (Call initiated from Service Provider).
- Understand the requirement and help in filling all documents/formalities needed.
- Monitor key milestones and in case of changes, provide/take regular feedbacks.
- Get confirmation when desired services are activated. Resolve issues if any.
- Update about billing process, approximate amount, billing periods and due dates.
- After first Invoice is dispatched, call for explaining Invoice. Handle any concerns.
- Welcome customer again (after first bill) and assure him for best services Ahead
If possible, it should be emphasized that the customer is handled by a dedicated person during this babysitting period. After these steps are followed, it can be assured that unless there are any changes initiated by either by the Operator or Customer, which impacts either the service or billing, relationship will be smooth for rest of the service period. It is seen that customers do not tend to leave a CSP until they are forced to. And if these customers are won by babysitting at every stage, they will be hard to loose, resulting in building stronger business with LOYAL CUSTOMERS.
