In a world where customer loyalty hangs by a thread, the telecom industry faces an unprecedented challenge. As per Forrester’s Predictions 2023: Customer Experience survey, a staggering 86% of customers are ready to jump ship due to subpar customer experiences. Moreover, 83% of respondents believe competitors are better poised to provide superior customer service. The post-pandemic landscape has ushered in an era of discerning and demanding customers. Telcos must go to great lengths to retain their clientele.
Enter Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), a game-changer in building robust customer relationships. With its prowess to seamlessly integrate diverse digital channels, facilitating uninterrupted customer journeys and intelligent data sharing, CPaaS is a beacon of hope for telcos. Its growing adoption is a testament to its potential; according to IDC, the global CPaaS market is projected to achieve a remarkable 15.8% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2022 to 2027, propelling its market value from USD 14.3 billion in 2022 to USD 29.7 billion by 2026.
These figures underscore CPaaS as a potent tool to revolutionize the customer experience. In this blog, we’ll unveil four key strategies for telcos to harness the power of CPaaS to transform customer experience.
Provide a single view of the customer
According to the Search Engine Journal, 4.8 billion people use social media. They represent nearly 60% of the global population. And they use six to seven different social networks every month.
For a telecom company, it would be imperative to ensure they have a unified view of every customer across the networks to ensure their conversation can continue when moving from one to another. CPaaS allows the telcos to understand how their customers navigate between the channels and enables the sharing of intelligence without losing the scent of it. Providing a true customer experience means ensuring their journey is not interrupted when they move from, say, SMS to WhatsApp.
Consider an enterprise customer engaging with a telecom company’s service chat initiated from their dedicated Enterprise App. The conversation delves into resolving a complex issue. Now, imagine this customer needs to continue the conversation but prefers the flexibility of social media platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook. With traditional communication systems, the transition might result in a disjointed experience, forcing the customer to reiterate their concerns.
However, by leveraging CPaaS, this transition becomes smooth and context-aware. The CPaaS system maintains the conversation’s context, recognizing the customer’s identity, previous interactions, and the ongoing issue. As the customer seamlessly shifts from the Enterprise App to WhatsApp or Facebook, the telecom company’s service chat remains informed and responsive. This ensures that the customer doesn’t encounter any disruptions or redundancies in the conversation.
Personalise messaging
While studying the effects of digital media on humans, the researcher and professor, Dr. Gloria Mark from the Department of Informatics, University of California, found that the average attention span has increasingly decreased from two and a half minutes in 2004 to only 47 seconds in 2023.
The continuously decreasing attention span has also affected the manner of communication. Now communication is cluttered, and customers continue to constantly switch channels. It takes a mere second to move to a competitor if it looks more convenient. Companies have to adopt strategies to make the customer find instant gratification and stay back. Personalizing their experience ensures the customer feels instantly gratified. Telcos can leverage their customer data and CPaaS to provide organizations with information about customer preferences, behaviors, and purchase history. Equipped with the information, businesses can target and reach out to customers with personalized messages.
Gratify customers with real-time engagements
According to the Forbes article, technological advancements have significantly brought down latency. Now, data can be analyzed, transmitted, and acted on within less than 10 milliseconds. That is real-time today.
Along with personalized messaging, gratifying customers requires companies to act in real-time. Say, troubleshooting an issue or looking up information the customer needs, or even notifying a customer about their plan coming to an end—telcos will need to stay on top of each piece of information and proactively act on any issue or problem to ensure the customer feels cared for. CPaaS with AI capabilities enables telcos to ensure each customer is informed and engaged.
Capitalise on the conversational AI boom
AI has already become a game-changer for many companies. McKinsey’s survey found that AI leaders witnessed a rise in their five-year revenue CAGR, which was 2.1 times more than their peers.
However, the impact of AI extends far beyond automating routine tasks, predicting near-future events, and optimizing workflows. When integrated with CPaaS, AI can delve into the intricacies of customer interactions, providing a dynamic approach to enhancing customer experiences. CPaaS equipped with AI capabilities can analyze sentiments, interpret natural language, and orchestrate conversations that are not just automated but personalized. This marriage of CPaaS and AI introduces smart conversational APIs, giving companies a competitive edge by enabling them to delve into and respond to customers’ behaviors in real time.
Specific Applications of AI-Enabled CPaaS:
Enhanced Customer Interaction: AI-enabled CPaaS transforms customer interactions into intelligent conversations. By analyzing historical data and real-time inputs, it anticipates customer needs, preferences, and pain points. This proactive approach allows telcos to engage customers with relevant information and offers, creating a more personalized and satisfying experience.
Understanding Customer Behavior and Sentiments: Beyond basic automation, AI-driven CPaaS can decipher customer behavior and sentiments. Through sentiment analysis and behavioral pattern recognition, telcos can gain deeper insights into how customers feel about their services. This understanding enables telcos to tailor their communication strategies, address potential issues before they escalate, and foster a more positive customer sentiment.
Real-time Customer Engagement: CPaaS with AI facilitates real-time customer engagement by instantly interpreting and responding to customer inquiries. Whether it’s addressing a query, resolving an issue, or providing personalized recommendations, the system acts swiftly. This not only reduces customer wait times but also creates a responsive and customer-centric environment.
In conclusion, the telecommunications industry stands at a critical juncture where customer loyalty is paramount. Embracing CPaaS with AI capabilities opens avenues for a transformative approach to customer experiences. Beyond providing a unified customer view and personalizing interactions, AI-driven CPaaS allows telcos to deeply understand customer behaviours and sentiments. This comprehensive understanding, coupled with real-time engagement, positions telcos as leaders in delivering customer-centric solutions in a fiercely competitive landscape.
As the telecom industry evolves, the dynamic synergy between CPaaS and AI continues to strengthen customer relationships, mitigate churn, and drive sustainable growth. AI goes beyond routine tasks, predicting events, and optimizing workflows. This blog explores the transformative power of CPaaS and AI, offering strategies to redefine customer experiences.
But the journey doesn’t end here; it’s a prelude to a future where technology and customer satisfaction converge. To delve deeper into the future of AI-powered CPaaS and how it positions telcos at the forefront of the digital race, we invite you to explore our insightful blog: How Telcos Can Tap into AI-Powered CPaaS to Win the Digital Race.
As we gaze into the future of telecommunications, the dynamic synergy between Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) unveils a landscape of endless possibilities. This blog has touched upon the transformative power of CPaaS and AI, offering a glimpse into the strategies that can redefine customer experiences today.
Yet, the journey doesn’t end here; it’s a prelude to an era where technology and customer satisfaction converge in unprecedented ways. To delve deeper into the future of AI-powered CPaaS and how it positions telcos at the forefront of the digital race, we invite you to explore Comviva’s insightful blog: How Telcos Can Tap into AI-Powered CPaaS to Win the Digital Race.
Ngage’s innovative CPaaS, fortified with AI capabilities, stands as a testament to the evolving possibilities in this transformative journey. Discover Comviva Ngage CPaaS for a customer-focused future!
