Improving the Telco Customer Journey – Raising Awareness

The pro­gres­sion of steps a cus­tomer goes through when con­sid­er­ing, pur­chas­ing, using, and main­tain­ing loy­al­ty to a prod­uct or ser­vice begins with aware­ness. Yet pro­mot­ing dig­i­tal vis­i­bil­i­ty in the face of com­pet­i­tive pres­sure has tra­di­tion­al­ly been chal­leng­ing for the Tel­co indus­try. Aware­ness is a crit­i­cal piece of the puz­zle, and strate­gies for improv­ing aware­ness can advance the cus­tomer jour­ney life­cy­cle. In part one of a mul­ti­part series, I high­light key chal­lenges and goals of aware­ness, the first of sev­en phas­es that cre­ate the Tel­co cus­tomer jour­ney lifecycle.

Rais­ing Aware­ness – Key Challenges

Stand­ing out in a noisy dig­i­tal space. The con­nect­ed world is noisy and Tel­co com­pa­nies face chal­lenges with stand­ing out and attract­ing rel­e­vant traf­fic to dig­i­tal assets. How do you dif­fer­en­ti­ate your­self from the com­pe­ti­tion? By ensur­ing prospects who are dri­ven to your web­pages receive con­sis­tent and rel­e­vant con­tent that’s based on what they’ve done in the past. Reduce the num­ber of steps in the cus­tomer jour­ney by ensur­ing that when they return to your site, pri­or activ­i­ty is con­sid­ered in con­tent they see. The goal is to make cer­tain cus­tomers are aware of not only the con­tent, but also, the path they take across your site.

Down­ward pres­sure on mar­gins and increased adver­tis­ing costs. Intense com­pe­ti­tion in the mar­ket is forc­ing Tel­co com­pa­nies to adjust pric­ing and cost mod­els. Mobile net­work providers face sig­nif­i­cant pres­sure from cost as reduced mar­gins, high­er ad spend, and hand­set sub­si­dies have made it increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to per­form. Are there impli­ca­tions of end­ing hand­set sub­si­dies? Some US car­ri­ers think so, and many are offer­ing more trans­par­ent pric­ing around plans and devices. With increased flex­i­bil­i­ty in pric­ing, com­pa­nies can pro­vide more choice for the consumer.

With ad spend increas­ing, dri­ving more traf­fic to less expen­sive chan­nels can offer a more per­son­al­ized expe­ri­ence such as the dig­i­tal chan­nel. Shar­ing seg­ments or audi­ences with 2nd or 3rd par­ties can make adver­tis­ing more rel­e­vant by enhanc­ing tar­get­ing. For instance, avoid­ing exist­ing cus­tomers and tar­get­ing new cus­tomers only can decrease ad spend significantly.

Pro­vid­ing a seam­less, per­son­alised cus­tomer expe­ri­ence. Cus­tomer expe­ri­ence is every­thing, and con­sumers browse through mul­ti­ple devices (PC, lap­top, mobile, desk­top, Smart TV, etc.) on a reg­u­lar basis. Ensur­ing the jour­neys are stitched togeth­er seam­less­ly across devices is crit­i­cal for pro­vid­ing insight into the con­tent your cus­tomers browse. And that dri­ves a tru­ly per­son­al­ized expe­ri­ence that few in the indus­try are doing today.

In fact, when mar­keters from Tel­co com­pa­nies were asked to iden­ti­fy the chal­lenges they face most with dig­i­tal sys­tems, 70 per­cent said that cur­rent sys­tems do not deliv­er enough per­son­al­i­sa­tion of dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tions and cus­tomer inter­ac­tions.

The Role of Data

Accord­ing to the same sur­vey, over the next 18–24 months, data-dri­ven mar­ket­ing will be the most impor­tant area of invest­ment for Tel­co. No sur­prise here—in the cus­tomer jour­ney life­cy­cle, data is king. Infor­ma­tion that’s shared via dash­board can inform mod­el­ing, where look-a-like seg­ments (based on behav­ior and shop­ping traits) can help pre­dict next steps or pro­vide con­tent based on loca­tion or type of device, which attracts new prospects that are like­ly to buy.

Using this data effec­tive­ly will help design­ers improve pinch point across your site, engage devel­op­ment teams who cre­ate new func­tion­al­i­ty and show mar­keters which chan­nels dri­ve con­vert­ed traf­fic rather than noise—a key ben­e­fit if you plan to intro­duce attri­bu­tion modeling.

The com­pa­nies that are get­ting it right are able to push new offers to prospects while pro­mot­ing ser­vices and sup­port­ing mes­sages to exist­ing cus­tomers. They’re also able to use third-par­ty infor­ma­tion such as cred­it wor­thi­ness when offer­ing con­tract or pay as you talk offer­ings. Final­ly, with the growth of mobile adver­tis­ing, those who are suc­cess­ful will be able to sell adver­tis­ing at pre­mi­um prices as they will know where the cus­tomers are, what their favorite hob­bies are, the jobs they hold, etc.

If you would like to learn more about rais­ing aware­ness or explore what our cus­tomers are doing, I high­ly rec­om­mend the EMEA Adobe Sum­mit event this May at the ICC ExCel Lon­don, May 10th and 11th. Learn how you can com­bine cre­ativ­i­ty, con­tent and data to cre­ate com­pelling expe­ri­ences for your customers.