Innovating customer experience through contextual marketing
The digital revolution, fast-tracked by the pandemic, has reshaped the customer’s perception about how they want to be served. Telcos can no longer ignore the need to digitally transform to meet digital-first customers’ discerning, shifting expectations.
Product innovation has long been the key focus for telcos to entice new customers, engage the current ones and bring in the additional revenue to keep the growth momentum going. But it has run its course with the democratization of technology, and there is a dire need to shift the focus now to other growth providing areas. The telecommunication industry is not known for its customer-first nature, but as customers become more digital savvy, that notion is changing. In fact, improving the customer experience is one of the top strategic priorities for telecom operators.
As other telco starts offering similar products, product innovation will no longer bring in the required business growth. Customer experience is one area where telcos try to set themselves apart from the competition. It can help them improve the subscriber acquisition, enhance subscriber engagement, reduce the churn and eventually acquire a larger market share.
Innovating customer experience can help telcos gain the upper edge
Customers want to see value in every interaction with the service provider. They expect telecom operators to understand their needs and wants, what they like and serve them as an individual and not as part of a group. Telcos need to increase the perceived value of every interaction with their subscribers that translates into higher ROI for both. Customer experience has been intertwined with every other function across every customer touchpoint. Improving customer experience can help telcos significantly improve brand loyalty, reduce the propensity to switch to a competitor and increase the CLV.
Contextual marketing to deliver the innovation in customer experience
Knowing what your customers want is not enough; knowing the context is crucial. If you are not able to deliver the right offer when they need one, it holds no value later. Therefore, telcos need to create a value exchange in every interaction with their subscribers by shifting from product-centric campaigns to value-based campaigns that are contextual and real-time. A comprehensive campaign management solution with the ability to plan and execute contextual campaigns can help them deliver these value-driven customer interactions.
Many vendors are developing innovative features in their contextual campaign management solutions with real-time data ingestion and analytical capabilities for real-time and contextually relevant interactions. It can enable telecom operators to focus on individuals rather than on a segment with a hyper-personalized approach. And dynamic content optimization can provide fine-tuned offers and promotions that can positively impact customer experience. Rather than just another sale, contextual marketing can make customers feel important and valued, leading to increased trust and stronger brand loyalty.
Replace product-centric campaigns with value-based exchange with customers
The evolving consumer behavior has shifted the telco mindset about engaging with their customers. This has made the role of a marketer more exciting and complex at the same time. Value exchange means designing your offers or promotions as per the needs and wants of the customers. Value exchange campaigns combined with context and run in real-time can deliver the best experience and RoI.
A subscriber with higher data usage and inclination towards sports events can be offered customized data bundles before an upcoming sports event. This contextual interaction or value-based exchange increases your campaign success, leading to a positive customer experience and higher revenue. Your traditional upsell, cross-sell, or acquisition campaigns will always exist, but the value will come from contextually orchestrated relevant interactions to address your customer expectations, and that’s the innovation we are talking about.
“Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”- Peter Drucker
The responsibility lies on the marketer’s shoulder. They are the guiding light in the sea of offers, packages and plans. As customers move towards a more digital experience, marketers need to look for avenues to create a better customer experience. Marketers have multiple tools at their disposal to help them create an experience for their customers that no one can replicate.
Is your campaign management solution helping you innovate your customer experience?
As we mentioned earlier, vendors are building new capabilities in the campaign management solution to help telcos with real-time decision making. A solution that can help you with contextually relevant and real-time interactions with your customers based on in-depth data analysis will go a long way to improve your campaign efficiency and outcomes. Having a 360-degree view at the subscriber level helps you understand their usage pattern, behaviour and plan N=1 or segment of one level campaigns. Many OTT or eCommerce companies use DCO or dynamic creative (or content) optimization to place creative/content based on customers’ historical data and behaviour analysis to prompt viewers to take action. An advanced Campaign management solution enabled with artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities can power marketers to plan and promote offers with higher uptake in real-time.
Learn about mViva Contextual Customer Engagement hub.
