Great SMB communications experiences drive revenue and increase sales.
See how Salesforce is helping CSPs enhance SMB experiences more efficiently and effectively.
Feb 24, 2023. 6 min read
Today’s telecommunications companies are evolving into more complex, multifaceted business operations. Many are already modernizing their systems to meet the more demanding needs and expectations of B2B and B2C consumers. However, despite these changes, small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) continue to be overlooked. Rigid product offerings, traditional channels, and outdated systems translate to fragmented SMB experiences (and frustrated SMB customers).
SMBs tend to sit between large enterprises and consumers. The systems used by today’s communications service providers (CSPs) were designed for enterprise-oriented customers and lack the ability to deliver the kinds of personalized experiences SMB customers crave. This inability to provide more nuanced journeys that balance the SMB customer’s enterprise-like needs with their desire to be treated more like an individual results in an experience that’s disjointed, cobbled together, and stuck in the past.
“Enterprise tends to be a little bit more involved when it comes to fulfilling services, and then you have the consumer side that tends to be more zero touch. SMBs tend to fall in the middle. They share the same requirements from the consumer in terms of speed, but they also involve complexity that you see in the enterprise side. So that is certainly a gap.”
- David Fan, Communications VP & GM, Salesforce
Most CSPs are aware that the SMB experience leaves much to be desired. The majority are also eager to fix it. SMBs make up 99.9% of U.S. businesses. CSPs understand this is a large customer segment. They know that creating a great SMB experience has the potential to drive business and grow revenue. However, they need guidance on exactly what that experience should look like and how to best create it.
So, what is a great SMB experience?
A great SMB experience is one that is seamlessly connected and consistent across the entire customer journey. Customers, sales reps, and service agents should have complete visibility across every touchpoint. This allows them to easily track order status, follow up on service calls, and upgrade services at the click of a button.
Personalization should also be a priority. Marketing messaging, customer service interactions, and field-service calls should be timely, personally relevant, and delivered on the customers' preferred channel, at their preferred time of day.
Salesforce is partnering with communications service providers to address these needs. Our solutions unite data and teams on a single platform, and then bolster it with powerful analytics and AI. This kind of integration uses automated processes, insights, and recommended next-best actions to help communications service providers meet their SMB customer needs. Salesforce’s tools and solutions allow CSPs to create a blend of both B2B and B2C experiences that drive SMB business growth. They negate the need for SMBs to be shoehorned between consumer and enterprise, and make it possible to provide key capabilities, including:
- SMB-specific product offerings
- Curated customer journeys
- Enhanced digital tools (self-service capabilities and customer portals)
- Seamless omni-channel experiences
Creating efficient processes that revolutionize the SMB experience
SMB customers want personalized attention and services. Traditional systems are unable to provide this type of experience due to siloed data and rigid processes not designed for SMBs. These system constraints result in an inability to understand, anticipate, and cater to SMB needs — and perhaps more importantly, create a subpar SMB experience.
Obtaining proper service (or even information) is a huge hurdle for SMB customers. They don’t get personalized attention, nor do they receive a dedicated sales rep like larger enterprise accounts. This means they often have a difficult time finding the help they need.
When an SMB customer walks into a retail store, employees either aren’t sure what to do or don’t have the capability (or the incentive) to facilitate a warm hand off to a small business seller. Contact center service isn’t much better. SMBs often end up in the consumer pool and rarely, if ever, get connected to a representative with SMB knowledge. The inability to capture these queries and resolve these issues doesn’t just result in frustration on the part of the SMB, it directly correlates to loss of revenue (and possibly customers) on the part of the service provider.
CSPs need to create a new, differentiated experience for their SMB customers. Doing this will enable them to solve these problems, recoup this revenue, and drive growth. This requires that they reimagine the service provider-SMB relationship as one that provides a connected digital journey, rich, personalized experiences, and real-time omni-channel engagement.
Manual processes are killing productivity. They make it hard, if not impossible, for service provider employees to deliver SMB services efficiently or effectively. Sales reps spend more than half their time on tasks like generating quotes/proposals, basic administrative tasks, determining next-best actions, and logging data. This is a waste of employee time and company resources and it frustrates the SMB customer. It forces sales reps to spend time on task work, rather than building valuable SMB customer relationships with the potential to increase revenue and engender lifetime loyalty.
Percentage of processes reported by communications salespeople as “primarily manual”
Determining what action to take on accounts
Managing administrative tasks
Prioritizing leads and opportunities
Generating quotes and proposals
Logging sales data and customer notes
The reliance on manual processes is also killing the customer experience. Lack of automation means processes are fragmented, disconnected, and frustrating. SMB customers have no visibility, cannot track order status, and have a hard time adding or changing services. Furthermore, because front-office applications are reliant on a manual back office, customers are unable to fully utilize self-service channels.
Modernizing systems and implementing automated processes can help solve these issues by transforming the customer experience and streamlining business operations. In-store employees can capture SMB information and facilitate a hand off to an SMB representative at the click of a button. Behind that “button” is an automated process that tracks the exchange. This not only provides a 360-degree view of the interaction, it allows the employee to be compensated for capturing and handing off that customer. This type of incentive enhances lead generation while also giving SMB customers fast, personalized service.
Creating a seamless experience with a single source of truth
Automation works best when it’s built on top of a unified system with a single source of truth. Today, 71% of systems are not integrated. In fact, the majority of SMB operations are built on legacy systems that are inflexible, costly to maintain, and ill-suited for the agile nature of the SMB landscape.
Integrating systems on one new SMB platform creates a single source of truth. It enables data sharing across an organization. This simplifies processes, reduces complexity, and supports the omni-channel experiences people have come to expect. It’s the first step in a communications service provider’s ability to automate other important processes like order management. It also creates a foundation for powerful analytics that provide actionable insights. Together, these capabilities and experiences enhance the SMB experience and form the basis of a long-term customer relationship.
Unifying data in real time for a better SMB marketing journey
More consistent, personalized journeys create happier, more loyal customers. For SMB customers, in particular, a personalized offer could be the deciding factor in making a sale.
Providing personalized experiences requires that providers gain a rich understanding of their SMB consumers. A customer data platform (CDP) can help them do this.
What is a CDP?
A CDP makes it possible for providers to truly get to know their SMB customers. They can then use this deep knowledge to deliver efficient, effective personalized experiences. And they can do it at scale.
How does it work?
A CDP ties all of a company’s data together to provide a unified view of the customer. It does this by reaching across an organization and connecting databases that don’t traditionally share data (marketing clouds, service platforms, ecommerce engines, and more). It also reconciles data for known customers (such as email, phone numbers, or customers signed into your site) with data like anonymous cookies and mobile device IDs to paint a complete picture of the customer journey. And it does this in real time.
What does it look like in action?
Marketing teams can serve the right ads at the right time.
Because marketing, service, and sales data are combined, providers can better segment audiences. This fine-tuning means they’re not wasting marketing budgets on SMB customers who have either already purchased a specific product/service or have expressed that they are not interested. Ads, email campaigns, and other marketing materials are served to the proper audience, making marketing more specific, personal, and cost-effective.
Offers and interactions are more personalized.
A CDP allows providers to connect the actions SMB customers take on their website with the information they already have stored in the customer profile. They can then use the combination of this information to reach out with finely tuned, personalized offers or services. For example, if a customer has been browsing for fiber on the website, the system could use that action to trigger an email with a bundled offer if the customer is an existing mobile subscriber.
Better insights emerge from connected systems.
A CDP connects all systems. This connectivity increases the amount of usable data exponentially, thereby supercharging analytic and AI capabilities. The result is personalized next-best actions that not only enhance the SMB customer experience but also increase revenues.
Reimagining the product catalog
Replacing legacy systems with a unified platform is an opportunity for service providers to reimagine the product catalog. Service providers need to create, manage, and offer specific SMB products and services. By separating commercial and service catalogs, they can fine-tune offers and services in a more agile, efficient way. Enterprise product catalogs create a single source of truth for all commercial and technical product information. Data entered in one system immediately updates in all the other systems. Communications service providers can then rapidly configure and introduce new products and promotions specifically geared toward their SMB clients. This standardization and simplification of product management and order fulfillment has the potential to result in 80% faster time to market, which is good for customers and for business.
Providing in-the-moment experiences
A CDP helps employees across the organization act based on real-time information and in-the-moment customer behavior. The system would know if an SMB customer had been browsing a particular service package on their smartphone while in store. It might also know that SMB customers who already subscribe to one service, frequent the service packages part of the website, and regularly engage with email campaigns are more willing to upgrade their account. Because the system integrates all the information in real time, it can provide a next-best action to business sales and service agents, prompting them to offer the customer an upgrade on the spot.
A CDP also uses in-the-moment information to streamline behind-the-scenes activities. Systems like email-send engines, demand-side platforms, and content management systems use real-time data to refine customer segmentation, execute better targeting and suppression efforts, and create personalized customer experiences.
Automating the quote-to-order process
Unifying systems and implementing a catalog-driven architecture lets telcos customize products and processes for their SMB clients. However, if those orders can’t be fulfilled efficiently, effectively, and transparently, the overall experience will still be subpar.
Order management sits at the center of everything. It powers great customer experiences and is a crucial component to any further digitization efforts. Automating the quote-to-order process creates efficiencies, increases productivity, and reduces costs. In short, it helps telcos do more with less.
Service providers that have automated their quote-to-order process have seen up to 50% faster order completion and improved order accuracy by up to 60%. Automating these processes reduces errors and ensures business operations are running as productively as possible. Fast, efficient workflows give employees comprehensive scripts that make it easy for them to help SMB clients get a quote, place an order, update their package, or service a current package. Information is captured up front and barriers to service are flagged immediately, so no one wastes time or resources trying to fill an impossible order. The end result is a better, more consistent SMB experience, and a more efficient, cost-effective business operation.
Empowering SMB customers with digital tools
Seventy-eighty percent of B2B decision makers prefer remote interactions or digital self-service, and yet many communications service providers only accept enterprise orders over the phone. Or, even worse, they send a service agent out to the site with a pen and paper.
A customer's ability to self-serve directly impacts a communications service provider’s service center operations. When customers can do things on their own, overall call volume goes down, and agents can focus on customers who require more assistance. This creates a more productive, efficient call center.
We know that SMB customers expect seamless omni-channel self- and assisted-service capabilities. An intuitive, feature-rich omni-channel approach not only facilitates self-guided journeys, but also gives SMB customers a window into the progress of their order, and lets them adjust things as needed, anytime, anywhere. This level of transparency helps sales and service teams, as well. Anyone across the organization can tap into the customer journey, spot problems before they occur, or help troubleshoot without the need to do any catch-up or information finding. And, because data is updated in real time, transfers between channels are seamless, consistent, and friction-free.
CSPs who have automated the quote-to-order process have seen up to:
faster order completion
improved order accuracy
Inspiring action with real-time insights
End-to-end analytics allow sales teams, service agents, and front-line employees drive revenue through data-driven decision-making that benefits both the business and the customer. This transforms the CSP-SMB relationship into a strategic partnership. It makes it possible to go beyond the initial sale with relevant cross-sell and upsell opportunities that may have been overlooked. It can also help CSPs mitigate churn by identifying possible “churners'' so action can be taken to get those customers back on track. Fostering deeper, more knowledgeable SMB relationships creates value beyond the services provided and fosters long-term, emotional loyalty.
Real-time, unified data capabilities coupled with automation and AI give communications service providers valuable insights into every aspect of their operations and help them make changes based on specific learnings. They can track metrics on both individual SMB accounts and across larger customer segments, helping them decide whether to install fiber in a particular area, what types of partnership opportunities may be worthwhile, or whether a newly instituted company policy is affecting SMB contracts.
Service providers can also use AI to assess call-center productivity, design better internal processes, or scale business operations as needed, thereby maximizing productivity and reducing costs.
Building a foundation for long-term SMB relationships
The SMB customer is a growing business segment, and a huge source of potential revenue. To capture this important segment, providers must close the gap and create an environment that caters to the specific needs of SMB customers. Salesforce’s tools and solutions help CSPs craft customer-centric journeys that drive SMB business growth efficiently and effectively. Modernizing systems, implementing a CDP, and automating processes allows CSPs to provide better service, create better products, and build better relationships with their SMB clients. Ultimately, this drives revenue, increases productivity, and reduces costs, all while keeping the customer experience front and center.
