Consumers in ASEAN are more connected than ever with adoption of both fixed and mobile broadband on the rise. Fueled in part by the pandemic and increased digitisation, the ASEAN region has seen the number of internet users grow by 100M in the past 3 years, to 440M in 2022.
With the increasing availability of fibre-based broadband, and continued changes in how we live and work, the demand for high speed internet connectivity will only increase. This is good news for communication service providers (CSPs) as it means there are new opportunities abound. However, increased competition and an uncertain economy mean that capturing these opportunities will not be easy.
It is a given that a CSP needs to have fast, reliable service, and carriers have been setting capex records in ensuring their fibre and mobile networks deliver a great user experience. But if it is a level playing field as far as the network is concerned, how can operators differentiate themselves from the competition and foster customer loyalty and advocacy? Creating a digital-first, automated experience is becoming an increasingly compelling strategy to drive growth.
Enhance service and productivity through automation
Healthy competition among incumbents and alternative network providers (altnets) means communications customers have greater choice than ever before. It also takes more than price and speed to attract and retain their loyalty.
According to our State of the Connected Customer research, 90% of those surveyed in Singapore and 87% of those surveyed in Thailand say the experience a company provides is as important as its goods or services. At the same time, processes like order management remain a pain point for CSPs and in some developing markets, order fall out rates are as high as 35%.
On top of these challenges, fulfilment teams may spend more than 65% of their time managing manual back office and administrative tasks.
Here is where automation can help. For example, by automating quoting, contracting, and ordering with Communications Cloud, CSPs can offer their subscribers a superior buying and customer service experience, as well as streamline processes and free teams to focus on higher value activities.
Optimise engagement with a seamless and transparent experience
There is tremendous competition in the fibre broadband market as well, with incumbents and challengers battling it out to sign up new customers attracted to ultra high speed broadband connectivity. I recently hosted a webinar on how to enhance the fibre subscriber experience, where Lindsay Rodgers joined as guest speaker to share her perspective on fibre rollout in the UK context to a webinar audience comprising APAC service providers and industry players. Rodgers is Company Director at Mint Digital Consultancy and former Director of Digital Transformation at KCOM, one of the UK’s longest-established communications companies.
Rodgers shared key learnings from KCOM’s transformation which involved using Salesforce to rapidly modernise its technology stack and support subscriber growth. Rodgers also spoke about how to maximise every subscriber engagement, whether online or face-to-face in the field.
“Many service providers pride themselves on being part of their local communities. So while digital channels are important, so is face-to-face contact. You need to ensure the customer experience flows seamlessly across all channels the customer wants to engage,” said Rodgers.
Transparency is also important to subscribers. They want to be kept in the loop of status of their orders, and their service status as well. That’s something KCOM has improved by replacing siloed, legacy systems with Salesforce, which provides a single view of the customer, and all their related services, orders and interactions.
“We increased visibility into orders and how they progressed through to fulfilment. So if something does go wrong, our customer-facing teams have visibility of that without needing to check four or five different systems,” said Rodgers.
Speed time to market with a modern platform
While driven by different objectives, KCOM shared the need to transform quickly. They also both used Salesforce’s out-of-the-box capabilities to deliver fast results.
“One of the benefits of using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform is the ability to leverage all the investment that goes into that platform. So we wanted to keep our solution as out-of-the-box as possible and make sure we could take advantage of future feature releases,” said Rodgers.
KCOM’s vision for a minimum viable product also helped the company stay focused and complete its deployment in five months. The solution included fully digital journeys for B2C and wholesale subscribers and an automated ordering process. The solution also increased KCOM’s business agility, setting it up to deliver new products in days instead of weeks.
Wow your subscribers for more efficient growth
Salesforce can help you to deliver digital first, automated journeys that save time, money, and improve operational efficiencies. We can also help you deliver personalised experiences at every touch point, so you can wow your subscribers and drive efficient growth.
