How different solutions can enable communications service providers to optimise their investments, profit from data connectivity and drive greater customer value
The Now Factory’s customer experience solutions have recently been placed under the spotlight in Africa, with its services selected by both Vodafone Ghana and Vodacom South Africa to serve millions of their subscribers.
Oliver Finn, vice-president of marketing at The Now Factory said, “We are seeing a lot of traction with African network operators for the customer experience solutions we offer. Mobile broadband and data services are becoming a primary driver of growth for many network operators in the region.”
As the volume of data traffic grows due to the increased adoption of smart devices, operators require greater insight into how customers use services so they can deliver the best possible customer experience and at the same time drive down costs and increase profitability.
Optimising customer experience
Vodafone Ghana selected The Now Factory’s Mobile Moments customer experience management (CEM) solution to provide in-depth visibility on how their customers used mobile data services, allowing the company to optimise customer experience for its 4.3mn subscribers in real-time as well as reduce operational costs and drive new revenue streams, The Now Factory said.
Finn explained, “A key differentiator for The Now Factory and one of the key reasons Vodafone Ghana selected us is our real-time and multidimensional view of mobile data usage, measuring the cumulative effect of different devices, applications and network locations on the individual customer experience.
“As an example, what level of performance is a customer receiving accessing YouTube on an Android device in a certain location at a certain time? This granular information enables the operator to plan network capacity more effectively in addition to optimising network performance and delivering the best possible customer experience,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vodacom selected the company’s CEM solution for both their 3G and LTE networks to get the most accurate measurement of customer experience for their 31mn subscribers and drive greater costefficiencies across their network, The Now Factory claimed.
“In countries like South Africa and Tanzania, many operators have already turned on their LTE networks while others in Egypt and Kenya plan to do so this year. In choosing our solutions, network operators are looking to both drive down costs and monetise their networks while delivering on the promise of a more enriched customer experience,” Finn said.
This requires the organisation to plan network capacity; monitor and troubleshoot network issues; improve first call resolutions for customer care; and offer more engaging content and offers via marketing.
Mobile e-commerce has taken off in many African countries due to the prevalence of mobile devices. Operators are therefore looking to understand how they can tailor offers more effectively to their customers while looking at new ways to build new business models with third parties.
Serving a range of business models
CEM solutions should however be flexible enough to serve a variety of operations and business models.
“Operators in many… emerging countries are making the strategic decision to put mobile data at the heart of their growth strategy and want to make the necessary technology and operational investments now to leverage the opportunity as it grows, hence the demand for the solutions we offer,” Finn claimed.
There are many variations in the standard and technologies used across different countries in the region; there can also be significant difference among operators in the same country as to what they require, he added.
Finn continued, “As a company we focus very much on the issues facing operators today and deliver the solutions that help them address these quickly and the most cost-effective way possible.
“In terms of filtering, we focus on those regions where mobile data is seen as a priority for growth and where operators are actively making investments to make that happen. There are certainly markets today that are more mature than others in terms of mobile data usage.
“However, we expect the growth opportunity to be huge for mobile data over the coming two to three years as the penetration of smart devices rapidly increases across the entire region. And with that growth, will come greater demand for our solutions,” he concluded.
Taken from Communications Africa Issue 3 2013
