Around the World

Posted: April 14th, 2011 | Author: OSS Team | Filed under: Around the World | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Microsperience …
The Customer Experience—You Can’t Improve It If You Don’t Know What It Looks Like
Telesperience analyst Teresa Cottam takes a deep look at customer experience in telecoms in her recent blog post.  She explains how there are very different v

iews regarding what it involves, what the most important customer touchpoints are and how we can focus our efforts on improving the experience we offer our customers.  The analyst makes an important point when she states that customer experience is everything we do that touches the customer—not just customer service, CRM, billing, etc.—but the performance of networks by IT, marketing and the business.  Communications service providers (CSPs) have spent a considerable amount of money and effort trying to support and meet their customers’ needs, provide a better experience and even understand what exactly their customers want; so why does disappointment still prevail?  Teresa identifies eight answers to this complex question, but the ones that caught our eye are creating customer service silos and over-focusing on technology.

On the same front, Informa’s Kris Szaniawski attended the Managed Services for Growth Markets conference last week in Dubai, and as he points out, customer experience was certainly a hot topic of discussion.  Many operators are frustrated with the linkage between the measurable indicators and the customer experience—not the indicators themselves.  When it comes to measuring customer experience, should CSPs focus first on a custo

mer satisfaction index, or should they send packets into the network, collect data from OSS, probes and terminals, drive tests or analyse behaviour

in some other way? Or should they try to focus on all of them more or less equally?  And which of these measurements, if any, comes closest to representing the end-user experience?

Vendors, including Comptel, are exploring the relationship between indicators and the customer experience, as it doesn’t need to be elusive anymore.  Operators can fully leverage their data and network assets to deliver an exceptional customer experience upon end-users becoming customers and through their use and upgrade of services.

Connected Planet…
Ovum Analyst Warns LTE Is Overhyped, But Does Anyone Care?
A recent Ovum report by Matt Walker states that LTE is overhyped and that only 11 percent of mobile broadband subscribers are going to be on the 4G network by 2015.  After reading comments from a Light Reading article, which describes the report, BSS/OSS reporter Susana Schwartz says that she disagrees with Ovum’s stance.  Unlike 3G, Susana thinks the situation with 4G is more pressing and will, therefore, push things along more so than in the past.  In addition, competition now spans companies beyond telecom, and the ability to have 4G is no longer a choice, as the cycles from conceiving a service, planning, deploying and going live is very short.  Susana also points out that multi-year cycles could be the death knell for some service providers.  Only time will tell if LTE, like 3G, is overhyped.  Did you read Ovum’s report?  Do you agree or disagree that LTE is overhyped?

FierceTelecom
New Sprint Ad Campaign Hinges On Unlimited Data
North American CSP Sprint Nextel plans to continue to push its unlimited offerings with an advertising campaign centered on its new tagline, “All. Together. Now.” Sprint’s effort is in light of rivals’ actions, which limit users’ data traffic by either metered billing or throttling.  It appears that the CSP plans to use the issue of usage-based pricing to differentiate itself from competitors; for years, Sprint has been pushing its “Simply Everything” plan, which provides unlimited talking, texting and data.  However, Sprint too has suffered from the recent surge in broadband traffic—the carrier tacked on an extra $10.00 per month for its unlimited data plans.  What do you think of Sprint’s continued path of offering unlimited data in today’s smartphone-engrossed world?



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