One of the most important aspects of running a business is taking care of your customers. This is easier said than done. Just look at some online reviews and it will be obvious that good service isn’t in the bag, so to speak.
Telecom companies tend to get slammed when it comes to customer reviews. There are a few reasons for this. Sometimes people don’t want to have to deal with the telecom company. They believe it should be virtually invisible service in their lives. They take it for granted, which is why any interaction with said company might be perceived as a negative experience by the consumer.
Of course, some companies totally deserve their poor reviews. The consumer-provider relationship isn’t entirely natural, especially when the telecommunications company holds a needed resource—communication—and sometimes does so with a regional monopoly. Regardless of the situation, telecom companies should strive to provide exceptional customer care.
Use Chatbots
It might seem impersonal, but chatbots can be extremely effective in helping people work through issues. The rise of artificial intelligence is making these programs better than ever. It’s now possible for virtual assistants to assist consumers with semi-complex tasks, such as paying a bill or troubleshooting a dilemma. Of course, the option to speak to a human should still exist if the bot cannot resolve the issue. Still, employing this simple AI solution can reduce costs for the company, while also streamlining things for the customer.
Listen to Data Analytics
Your data shouldn’t just be limited to big-time decisions, like where to move your headquarters. Understanding customer wants and needs is one of the best uses of data analytics.
Telecom network analytics lends insights to a host of issues. What are the most common recurring issues being reported by customers? When are people experiencing outages? What’s the average time of resolution? Are there certain seasons where issues before more prevalent? Seeing and understanding these findings through a data analytics platform helps companies get an idea for how to improve their services.
Cross-Channel Integration
Cross-channel integration is a method of simplifying communications for customers. In the past, people needed to input or say identifying information every time they interact with a telecom company. Cross-channel integration continues communications across all relevant platforms—whether it’s email, text, phone, or something else. This saves customers time, which in turn keeps them happy.
Social Media
You might not intuitively think that social media is important for telecom companies. After all, they typically aren’t the most glamorous organizations to follow on Twitter or Instagram.
However, social media can be used for myriad purposes. Many people who interact with the social media of telecom or utility companies are actually doing so for customer service. It’s not okay for your organization to simply ignore social media customer service requests. Even if you don’t want them, you will receive them. One study even found that ignoring these can increase churn by up to 15 percent! That’s poisonous for a company that relies on subscriptions.
Here are a few tips for managing social media customer support:
Only create profiles that you will use and check. It doesn’t make sense for your telecom company to make a Pinterest just for the sake of having one. Stick with profiles that you can have someone monitor, and quickly respond to customer inquiries. This should also include mentions.
Speed is more important on social media than on other platforms. You need to have employees dedicated to searching for and answering support questions as fast as possible.
Have a standardized tone. You will likely need to have several people responding to social media support requests. Make sure they are all doing so in a respectful, tactful way. You don’t need something simple to turn into something complicated.
All companies should strive to provide outstanding customer care. The importance of this effort is amplified for large telecom companies that receive many support requests.
