Automated Customer Experience
Customer Experience (CX) connects all activities visible to external customers, excluding marketing and brand promotion activities.
As you scroll down our page we hope to identify some of the Use Cases you will likely be considering, all of which are also documented on our automation map, and the business case elements we can successfully deliver with you.
Typically, customers will initiate engagement by requesting or purchasing a new product or service, by reporting a fault with their service, by querying an invoice, or by paying the invoice. This is often via a variety of channels, including the telco’s website; a dedicated mobile app; through contacting the Contact Centre (by phone, email, social media, IVR or even by letter) or in store.
Good CX is achieved by presenting the customer a consistent, accurate, and expected view irrespective of the channel, and by enabling the customer to achieve their objective easily and swiftly. It’s important to recognise the difference between systems of engagement – those which the customer directly interfaces – and the internal processes and systems of record used to satisfy the customer’s requests.
Customers have multiple ways to contact and interact with the CSP. Some, including websites and mobile apps, allow customers to self-serve a variety of capabilities, but often there will be a need for a customer to contact the CSP directly, for example, to report a problem, to pay an invoice, to query a bill or to place an order.
The Contact Centre will likely support a variety of channels to facilitate the dialogue with the customer, including IVR, website chatbots, social media, and directly with a customer service agent.
Customers can initiate processes through any of these channels, enabling the telco to separate the customer interaction from the business process.
The contact centre may also initiate proactive communication with the customer, for example as a follow-up on a previously reported problem, in relation to an unpaid bill, or to pre-emptively inform the customer of upcoming service disruption.
A customer may wish to modify or cease their existing services or request new ones. The contact centre may be the only route through which the customer could achieve this, or it may be an option in an omni or multi-channel approach offered by the CSP.
This will invoke the Order Capture activity which is typically the start point for the Service Provisioning process.
The Order Capture phase is critical to the delivery of services. Confirming the relevant information is provided in the correct format, such as site addresses and postcodes or existing contract references or circuit details, will eliminate delays and required rework. 100% order accuracy can be achieved through automated validation of required elements prior to order acceptance.
As part of Service Provisioning for the submitted order, the customer may receive regular status updates. The customer experience is particularly visible when equipment is shipped to or returned by the customer (Stock).
For new equipment there is an expectation that a delivery notification is sent to the customer; there may be shipment tracking notifications; and the customer may need to acknowledge receipt.
Depending upon the type of equipment, the customer may want to inspect or validate its operation before accepting it. When returning equipment – whether because it is faulty or it is no longer required by the customer – the shipment from the customer location to the telco must be arranged.
Again, the telco may need to acknowledge receipt of the equipment and may perform verification checks before acceptance to confirm that it is the expected equipment and in an acceptable condition.
Installation on customer premises is another key customer experience touchpoint. This could be for the physical installation of network terminating equipment (such as a modem), for internal cabling and related CPE (routers, switches) or for an installation, configuration, and demonstration of user equipment (such as TVs, and telephones) forming part of an enhanced customer care offering.
Scheduling appointments, agreeing equipment locations, and clear communications are important customer experience aspects of this activity.
Faults, service issues, and poor service quality complaints may also be reported to the contact centre by the customer. The contact centre can initiate a series of service-specific diagnostics (DAAS) to establish whether or not there is an issue with either the customer’s service, any CPE they have, or the shared network infrastructure; these tests may also be directly available to customers via a contact centre channel, or on the web site or mobile app. In a CORTEX.
implementation this has led to a 95% reduction in agent handling time by 1st line support agents, and has increased engineering availability of over 9,600 hours. If an issue is discovered with the service and cannot be resolved in the initial diagnostics, then a trouble ticket is raised, which starts a set of Service Assurance activities which includes Incident Management.
When dealing with customers the Contact Centre may also offer compensation for faults or poor service quality – this may be voluntary; it may form part of the service terms and conditions agreed with the customer; or it may be imposed as a regulatory requirement.
If financial compensation is required, the contact centre will issue a credit to the customer account via the Billing use case; this will then be reflected in the next bill issued to the customer. If non-monetary compensation is agreed (for example, a free film to view), then the contact centre will create and submit an order via the Order Capture activity.
Customers paying their bill through the contact centre are managed by the Sales Ledger. This will ensure that the customer payment is correctly received, acknowledged, and then allocated to the appropriate internal reporting accounts
Financial transactions, such as the customer paying their bill through the contact centre, are managed by the Sales Ledger use case. This will ensure that the customer payment is correctly received, acknowledged, and then allocated to the appropriate internal reporting accounts. If appropriate, the payment will also be applied to the customer’s financial account for inclusion on the next bill.
Where the contact centre initiates communication with a customer regarding an unpaid bill, this will invoke Sales Ledger activity for managing debts.
This may result in one or more of the following actions – typically there is an escalating sequence of responses that the telco will adopt, requiring a long-running process that may last months before the outstanding debt is cleared:
- reminders of outstanding amounts to be issued to the customer
- late payment charges or interest charges to be added to the customer’s account and to be shown in the next bill
- orders to be generated and submitted to degrade, suspend or cease some or all of the customer’s services
- a payment plan to be agreed with the customer, which is to be reflected in future invoices, and tracked to ensure compliance
- updates to internal or third-party credit control or financial risk tracking systems
- write-off of the debt in the telco’s financial records
- selling of the debt to a debt collection agency
- initiating legal proceedings
By automating the credit control, accounts receivable, and collections functions, a CORTEX customer has experienced a 15% increase in paid bills.