Top Customer Service Issues and CustomerServ’s Call Center Expertise in the Telecommunications Industry

Telecommunications Industry Tasked to Keep Pace with Ever-Increasing Data Demands 

Since the breakup of AT&T, the telecommunications industry has undergone tremendous change. Over the past few decades, the rapid pace of technological advancements, explosive growth in data traffic and consumers’ increasing demands for digital communication and content have been shaping telecom strategies.

Modern consumers expect their telecommunications providers to offer products and services designed to suit their lifestyles. Competition among telecoms has been fierce; providers have been continuously releasing new products and service bundles in an attempt to retain fickle consumers who are always ready and willing to switch providers for a better quality wireless experience.

The popularity of over-the-top (OTT) services like Google, Facebook, Skype, Netflix, WhatsApp and others for phone calls, messaging and video services has compelled telecom companies to form new partnerships, as well as find ways to add value to OTT services to make the experience more seamless for customers.

Top Customer Service Challenges for Telecommunications Providers

Telecommunications providers are under pressure from customers and stakeholders to invest in new infrastructures to accommodate ever-increasing demands for data traffic, including a 5G network and an IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystem. While companies are focusing their core resources on expanding their networks, they must also find ways to improve service delivery if they hope to engage and retain customers. The following are top service-related challenges for telecommunications providers:

• Streamlining operations and lowering operational costs to offset the cost of building new infrastructures.¹ 
• Generating more revenue through upselling and cross-selling products and services.
• Applying analytics to collect insights about customers’ wants and needs for more innovative product and service bundles, as well as improvements to service delivery.
• Connecting multiple customer touchpoints and providing a seamless experience so that customers get their issues resolved on the first contact. High levels of M&A activity, common to the industry, often result in multiple systems for billing and customer support. Telecom providers will need to simplify and streamline product, customer and content systems to reduce data silos.
• As telecommunications providers deliver more innovative products and service bundles that include partnerships with OTT services and IoT devices, customer service and sales agents will require ongoing training if they are to deliver world-class experiences in this increasingly complex connected environment.
• Retaining a fickle customer base. With more choices plus the low cost of switching, one poor service experience is all it takes for a customer to defect to a competitor.

CustomerServ makes Outsourcing Seamless for Telecommunications Providers

With the bulk of their budgets allocated to building new networks and infrastructures, telecommunications providers have fewer resources available for in-house sales or customer service. CustomerServ has played a leading role in helping telecommunications companies select the right call center and BPO outsourcing vendors to help outsource more effectively and gaining market share more swiftly. A few highlights:

• 7 of the top 10 cable and Pay TV broadcast services in the United States have selected customer service, technical support and sales call center vendors through CustomerServ.
• 2 of the top 3 mobile telecommunications providers have selected their best call center vendors with CustomerServ.
• One of the largest MDU (Multiple Dweling Unit) broadband companies in the USA has selected their exclusive call center outsourcing vendor through CustomerServ.

CustomerServ’s hand-selected telecommunications call center vendors currently handle over 3 million customer contacts monthly for the telecommunications industry for the following services:

• Customer service
• Technical support
• Telesales
• New subscriber acquisition
• Subscriber upgrades
• Bundled packages
• New mover programs
• Pending disconnect saves
• Pay per view
• Retention
• “Dot.com” sales
• Residential and commercial sales and service
• Order processing, order entry and back office
• Experts in wireless, wearable devices, handsets, tablets, device protection, streaming, broadband, video, phone, bundles, etc.

^{1 According to McKinsey & Company, the cost of investing in future network technology alone will result in a 15% to 30% drop in revenue for telecom companies.}