After World War I, the French built a series of entrenched border fortifications called the Maginot Line. They expected the next war to be a defensive one, like the previous one. At the same time, the U.S. focused on building battleships, expecting the next war to see another clash of oceangoing giants, despite the fact that to many generals it was clear that airpower – or combined sea and airpower – was the future.
As a result, both countries were largely unprepared for the nimble, faster and aggressive tactics of World War II. In the case of France, the Germans went around the technically brilliant but strategically hopeless Maginot Line. The U.S. lost a number of important battles early in the war as it scrambled to build an agile, highly maneuverable air force.
This lack of strategic foresight – and its potential to wreak havoc – still challenges nearly every industry today, where a battle is being fought for sales, customers, market position, etc. Being reactionary can leave you behind the eight ball, yet being presumptuous can lead you down the wrong road. Mobile operators are now facing this predicament; a change is coming and it is imperative they prepare themselves as their customers evolve.
Historically, mobile operators have handled mission critical operations well and have not experienced the dreaded disruption effect. Controlling networks, carrier crossover, contracts with pricy stipulations, and in-person customer service interactions meant that there wasn’t much the mobile operator had to worry about. But in today’s era of the empowered consumer, plus new and innovative service providers, mobile operators need to be more nimble, adapt to change and predict what’s next to stay relevant.
For instance, new players, such as Google and Amazon.com, are threatening to disrupt the existing business model by moving to an online-based, customer service-focused approach. Today’s customers have different needs and disruptors are offering new digital, omni-channel and data-driven threats into the once stable marketplace resulting in greater expectations from customers. Today’s customers want more flexibility and the new emerging players are offering just that. Mobile operators need to follow a five-part, integrated strategy to win in this new world order.
Make physical stores smart
Consumers will continue to want a physical retail experience and person-to-person interaction is still a strong selling point. By incorporating digital experiences – both in-store and through other channels – customers will have a better experience. This concept of the smart physical store includes offloading certain customer activities pre-visit, during visit, or post visit to save customers’ valuable time and create the most personalized in-store experience possible.
Use digital to enhance the online and advisory experience
The online experience needs to be easy to navigate, but also easy to automate service and sales transactions. Carriers are currently offering online services, but the user experience is poor and needs to be dramatically improved and mobile-centric. A better online experience – both for advice and for sales – will ultimately mean happier customers and increased profits.
Turn the care model upside down
The traditional care model has customers waiting in long call queues, slogging through menus and talking to representatives struggling to access their information. The new model will be radically more self-serve, taking its cue from the best online service providers. Operators can complement digital channels by injecting intelligence, “decisioning” and machine learning into their interactive voice response to provide callers with relevant options addressing their issues without needing live care. Additionally, operators can enable out-of-the-box approaches like “open source” care, in which customers solve each other’s problems. While open source won’t resolve every issue, it can be an important part of a wide array of traditional and non-traditional care approaches.
Link channels together in a seamless, coherent experience
Customers must have the ability to start and stop anywhere throughout the buyer’s journey and have their information and processes follow them. Mobile operators need to be prepared with information on the customer before they walk into a store, call customer service, or go online to access their accounts. Technology that enables an omni-channel source of all customer data will help achieve this, as different customer-facing departments will be able to have the most holistic view of the customer on hand at all times.
Bring science to sales and service operations
It can be daunting to operationalize terms like “omni-channel” and “smart stores,” but it’s actually very doable with the right approach. Mobile operators need to bring the same individual, scientific approach that they’ve employed in one-to-one marketing to frontline sales and service operations. This includes varying peak time activities based on real-time traffic; employing outcome-based routing; leveraging structured “gamification”; and developing self-learning feedback loops. A scientific view will help you see what’s working and what isn’t to give the customer the best experience possible.
Answering new questions with old answers is counter intuitive to an evolved customer. Consumers today expect an integrated experience in which information flows seamlessly and mobile operators give them a personalized experience. It is time for mobile operators to address the needs of the customer and maintain their position in a disrupted marketplace. Operators need a forward-thinking, omni-channel strategy if they expect to maintain and strengthen their customer relationships and remain relevant as new disruptors enter the market.
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