Collaboration, partnerships to push data use

Alok Kumar is the Chief Service Delivery Officer at Aircel.

By Alok Kumar

With India set to embrace the culture of being a true ‘data-savvy’ market in 2017, it is expected to open up several opportunity doors for a telecom service provider to increase its engagement with the customers. Two of the major reasons of our market becoming more data-centric is credited to the entry of a new player in the market and also due to government’s step to demonetise the currency that led to millions enquriing and accepting digital mode of transactions.

With this, a large part of the ecosystem will need a more close knit integration than it was during the voice/sms growth phase(1995-2015). The current surge in data usage and to drive the usage to more than 1GB per user will require handset suppliers; Content &App providers and Telcos to integrate far more into the ‘Customer Education & User Experience’across channels and touchpoints.

Therefore, we clearly see ‘Collaboration & Partnership’ having a big play in pushing the data usage experience to the next level.

• Retail engagement for Data Settings &Configurations on a Smartphone

For a better data experience, the customer needs to move beyond the basic features in a smartphone. Therefore, the retailers need to be trained and be well equipped on key aspects like data configurations & handset setting features, especially in sub-urban and rural markets where usually a customer looks for assistance on similar aspects.

The Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) will have to focus on enhancing engagement with the handset manufacturers to develop a comprehensive and robust training modules for retailers. This will not only drive the ‘customer pull’ towards data usage but will also strengthen the brand-customer relationship.

• Content/ App Developers to drive customer centricity and data usage

Currently, the content providers tend to focus on a ‘push’ based selling & distribution model without forming an understanding of the kind of content a customer would like to consume. This leads to a high level of dissonance and resistance by customers on adoption of such third party content/Appservices.

To begin with, the telcos, app and content developers need to invest heavy on Geo-marketing wherein right from the creation of content to distribution of it is mapped basis the market environment and more importantly the customer needs and wants from data & other telecom services in those markets. We see the ability to provide customized content which is not force pushed but fits wellwith the customer, including a mobile enabled and a multilingual search platform to be the potential game changer and driver in upsurge of data consumption in 2017.

• Demand Drive of Billing & Usage Assurance systems:

To overcome the ‘bill shock’ situations, especially on international roaming or while downloading videos, the operators will have to bring in innovative ‘bucket’ data plans & recharge top-ups options into the market.

To address to customer queries over billing and usage - Proactive Customer Alerts on a real time basis will gain focus. Additionally, customer education via SMS during International Roaming will be deployed. Industry needs to collaborate in order to standardize protocols to come up with more such plans that will help in building confidence in customers to consume more data without any hassle.

• Trouble Shooting Support Ecosystem

In a multifaceted ecosystem like IT & telecom, data usage can be majorly affected by varied factors like handset settings, network configuration issues, cache memory, housekeeping issue of handsets, VAS QOS/APP bugs, etc. henceforth, we are expected to see players and service providers focusing on building a support ecosystem that integrates all services and ensures a customer has one stop solution to all his/ her issues and concerns.

1. Point of Sale& Handset Support Center: Telcos to proactively drive education & training of retailers to ultimately empower them as they handle majority of the customer queries, in-person on a day-to-day basis. The implementation will require collaboration with Handset Manufacturers and/or Suppliers as a concerted effort to be able to really cater to the ‘data savvy’ market that we are headed to.

In the age of increasing smartphone penetration & popularity, a viable customer services strategy is to develop a ‘brand’ neutral handset support centers, capable of offering services of Level 2/3 support on a chargeable basis to consumers. Within these, the customer interfacing should be either a tele call, webchat or via online diagnostic & repair modes.

2. Standardization of Customer Touchpoints numbers/ USSD codes:

With the expansion of service provider network within the telecom ecosystem, the standardization on user access codes, USSD protocols, customer education, etc., will come in light. We foresee a great scope of industry collaboration in catalyzing customer awareness and adoption to different data services via simple and persuasive communication practices.

• Rollout of IOT appliances & systems in key sectors of the economy:

A steady yet a significant market growth is expected with the rollout of IOT equipments and appliances in the year 2017. The adoption of advanced IT solutions like IoT, also drives the demand for customer Education and Support at a different level. For instance: the online alert & diagnostic tools will be deployed by manufacturers, and IOT developers and level 1 support will move to ’self-help’ mode. Level 2/3 support will move to Technical Support Centers within the Telcos that will be seen primarily focusing on network optimization and offering insights on customer behaviors and similar facets.

• Customer Data analytics

Telecom Service Providers can now becoming digitally immersed and are integrating the element of ‘digital’ in end-to-end telecom service offerings. For instance, from choice of recharges to modes of payment to VAS- one would see digital at the center of it all. In line with the digital disruption, the use of customer data analytics will see a huge jump and will upgrade the service offerings & personalization in customer handling and query management. Also, monetization of customer insights through internal products and services and extraction of this value will scale up in the coming year.

• Mobile Banking services

One of the most discussed and key areas that displays potential of an exponential growth and innovations in 2017 is digital payment services. 2017, certainly is about transitioning from ‘Digital India’ being a dream to a reality via demonetization and hyper competitive operating environment.

The author Alok Kumar is the Chief Service Delivery Officer at Aircel. An engineer from IIT Kharagpur, he joined Aircel in 2007 and since then has served various roles such as Head of Customer Service and Quality and as Head of Operations and Customer Support for Aircel’s Enterprise Business before assuming his current role in 2011.)