In the rapidly evolving enterprise IT industry, the move to self-service and on-demand services coupled with the rise of networking technologies such as software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) has changed how network service providers deliver customer service and support.
Customer experience (CX) is one of, if not the most, competitive differentiators in an increasingly crowded market. Enterprise users are no longer basing their loyalty on price, product or brand alone. In fact, a report by PwC found that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
Network service providers need to shape a new customer experience that goes way beyond the legacy approach to CX. This is all driven by enterprise demands, expectations and end user app experiences. To stay competitive in an industry filled with innovation, automation and transformation, it is vital that service providers refocus their strategies with their customers at the core.
Competing in a crowded market
For service providers, adopting innovative technologies and keeping up with the evolving tech demands of customers can provide a false sense of security. While the tech itself is an important factor of any business in the telecommunications space, it can’t be entirely relied on to retain existing customers and attract new ones.
Competitors can quickly catch up with new technologies and competitive pricing. Service providers need to differentiate themselves wherever possible so they don’t get left behind in an increasingly competitive market. This is why CX is vital for success. However, many service providers struggle to see how they can boost CX in parallel to offer low touch, automated tech like SD-WAN.
Low touch doesn’t mean no touch. While many customers enjoy the speed and convenience of self-service and automation, that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to talk to their service provider at all. At the same time, other customers may prefer to be guided through the entire process with customer service they can trust.
The challenge is for service providers to find the right balance and provide an exceptional CX end-to-end.
Enhancing CX with the right tech and teams
In today’s digital world, networking is critical for the future of almost every industry. According to TeleGeography, the global WAN market was worth $75.9 billion in 2020, and Futuriom predicts that the global SD-WAN tools and software market will record a CAGR OF 34% between 2019 and 2023, reaching $4.6 billion.
Apps anddata are increasingly leaving the premises and migrating from physical to virtual to containers to serverless. It’s vital to simplify this increasingly dynamic and complex networking ecosystem by enabling access to suite of connectivity and network control services to offer an end-to-end customer experience.
Enterprises want more bandwidth, lower cost, flexible control and deep visibility of their WAN services, with enhanced CX at the core. A comprehensive SD-WAN solution can connect multiple enterprise locations while providing access to the world’s leading cloud service providers.
The right provider will offer both public and private connectivity via an MEF-certified Ethernet service or Dedicated Internet Access. SD-WAN combined with the right access service provides dynamic path control, optimisation, full visibility and control to address today’s enterprise WAN needs. They can gain a full end-to-end orchestrated enterprise solution that bundles scalable cloud connectivity, internet and hybrid SD-WAN connectivity.
It’s important that alongside this tech, the provider can offer 24x7 service support and a dedicated team of CX experts to boost every customer’s networking experience, whether than be SD-WAN or a different service.
There are all kinds of steps that service providers can take to improve CX in their offerings, which range from things as simple as sending out customer feedback surveys, to more comprehensive strategies like dedicating an entire team to CX excellence. It’s important that they focus on the entire customer journey from start to finish. It should be as clear and simple as possible from the initial customer attraction and engagement strategies, right through to retaining customers with communications after sale.
Service providers can even use innovative tech to improve CX, such as advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver personalised experiences via quick and simple communications channels such as chatbots. The best approach is the right mixture of people and processes to deliver the best possible CX. Customers still appreciate talking to a ‘real person’ in this digital age, so having a team of experts to answer customer queries 24x7 will always put service providers a step ahead of competitors focusing too heavily on self-service and automation.
Exceeding customer expectations
The service providers that put customers at the core of everything they do will be those that grow with a solid customer base into the future.
They need to meet their customers’ expectations by keeping up with technology trends like SD-WAN and offering automation and self-service, then they need to exceed these expectations with a team of CX experts ready to assist at every customer touchpoint.
Businesses today want to deliver application performance and user experience. They need to be able to connect their applications and data with greater efficiency and control.
By providing reliable networking and removing the complexity from interconnecting office locations, data centres, internet exchanges and clouds with the right mix of CX teams, automation and orchestration, service providers can say ahead of competition with an end-to-end solution for enterprises.
