Most telecom operators seeking to digitize their operations will face significant challenges in driving online engagement and steady sales. Studies show, for example, that companies performing in the top quartile sign up 50 times more customers online than those in the bottom quartile, proving that many telecom-customer engagement strategies have significant room for growth.
To remedy this disparity, former MIO Partners, Inc. Senior App Developer Bhavana Chamoli highlights the necessity for telecom teams to establish a strong foundation by following the seven fundamentals of digital telecom-customer engagement. These basic tenets include attraction, conversion, fulfillment, activation, experience, engagement, and renewal. To help companies struggling to drive customers online and keep them there, Bhavana Chamoli outlines the purpose, goal, and methodology required to achieve each of the seven fundamentals.
Attraction
Attraction refers to a company’s ability to successfully reach customers who are currently in the market, interested, and capable of making a purchase. Telecom companies currently struggling with customer engagement must analyze their marketing budget, paying special attention to where their website views originate.
In many cases, failing telecom strategies are vastly overspending on display, video, and social-media advertising—especially considering that very few prospective customers in the industry can or will buy telecom services directly through social media applications. Given the high search traffic pulled directly to telecom company’s webpages, paid searches and affiliate marketing generally prove far more impactful. They also generally boast a lower cost-per-click than the aforementioned marketing methods.
Conversion
In the context of telecom-customer engagement, Bhavana Chamoli defines conversion as successfully moving visitors towards a purchase. One key practice for maximizing conversion includes funneling all campaign-fed traffic to a dedicated landing page rather than merely a website home page. Generally speaking, the less clicks a potential customer must execute to move towards a purchase prompt, the more likely they are to buy. Other best practices may include:
- Offering no more than three preconfigured purchase choices
- Allowing users to specify purchase specifics using interactive tools
- The implementation of countdown clocks in order to encourage action
- Allowing new purchasers an extended period to provide ID documents that may not be readily available at the point of purchase
Fulfillment
Fulfillment is the process of responding and delivering without delay. Statistically speaking, the larger the margin for error or delay in a checkout process, the higher the dropout rate for overall sales. Some companies report losing as much as 50% of their purchases in the very last stages of checkout, often due to hold-ups in catching credit card errors or arduous identification processes.
To minimize these risks, Bhavana Chamoli recommends telecom companies implement prompt purchase rotations and immediate follow-ups. Companies should be prepared to contact new buyers directly after purchases in order to schedule a home visit and complete the installation process (should one be necessary).
Activation
Activation is the practice of successfully encouraging customers to download the application. While a mobile-friendly website is essential, users must still feel strongly incentivized to download the app rather than navigating a webpage. Outside of the obvious benefits, successfully moving more users to application-based engagements lessens the burdens felt by call centers and customer support teams.
To promote activation, Bhavana Chamoli again highlights the importance of prompting users to download the application at every possible point of contact. This not only includes the websites mobile design, but TV ads, call centers, and SMS blasts as well.
Experience
Most essentially, designing a successful app experience involves optimizing the application for simplicity in order to encourage frequent usage. After their initial use, most mobile applications left installed on phones are never again used. Eventually, they are uninstalled to free up storage. Successful app experiences must therefore justify their own necessity. They must be approachable, intuitive, sleek, and secure. According to Bhavana Chamoli, top-performing examples almost always include 24/7 customer support chat capabilities, the display of user balances, and an intuitive search function.
Engagement
A key tenet of engagement is using the application’s notification abilities conservatively. Over-saturation of notifications is the quickest way to push annoyed users away from retention, eventually resulting in deletion. Instead, successful telecom apps must limit notifications to those which users will find genuinely helpful and relevant. Additionally, successful app experiences effectively streamline all communication between the company and the user—SMS notifications and emails, for example, should be used sparingly once the app is downloaded to prevent repetitive interactions and bombardment.
Renewal
Renewal is the process of engaging thoughtfully with current customers in order to inspire brand loyalty and continued purchases. This may be achieved through coupons, special offers, or discounts for renewal of service. On the most basic level, telecom companies must ensure that renewal options offered on the app include each of the options available through customer-service phone lines and brick-and-mortar stores. In other words, they must eliminate the conception that the best conditions and services can be secured only by dealing directly with a representative; instead, promote in-app renewal purchases with app-exclusive offers, price-matching options, and general discounts.
