Never underestimate the sting of a paper cut. It’s a tiny adversary with the power to inflict a high level of unexpected pain.
In the CX world, a paper cut is a subtle inconvenience, a minor friction point that can transform a simple task into a time-consuming headache for customers.
Picture this: the plastic seal on your burrito bowl refuses to yield when you pull the tab. You resort to scissors and end up cleaning melted cheese off the blades and your fingers. Meanwhile, your dinner is cooling rapidly. While seemingly trivial, this unnecessary hassle makes you reconsider ever buying this brand again.
Amazon defines paper cuts as “tiny customer experience deficiencies.” Waiting interminably on hold to settle a cable bill, the mysterious disappearance of items in your virtual shopping cart, or the unexpected demand to verify your email just to watch a show on Peacock – these are the small misses that accumulate over time.
Recognizing the potential harm of paper cuts, Amazon organized teams solely committed to eliminating small friction points. For example, Amazon introduced one-click shopping – a panacea to banish paper cuts from the checkout process and elevate the customer journey to a seamless, pain-free experience.
However, most businesses, often focused on the next big thing, dismiss these minor inconveniences as inconsequential, brushing them off as “no big deal.” The grandiose journey they have mapped out on a whiteboard doesn’t account for this granularity of detail. Yet, it’s a costly oversight. Like the proverbial death by a thousand cuts, the cumulative toll of these seemingly minuscule problems erodes customer experience and loyalty, slowly but surely.
One Common Paper Cut: Remembering Passwords
We’ve all been there. Trying to remember which variation of the same password we use; whether it was the one with the capital letters or special symbols or the one we thought we’d never have to use again. According to a NordPass survey, the average user manages about 100 passwords—far too many to remember. A Beyond Identity survey found that more than half of respondents make only one (28%) or two (36%) password attempts before resetting, indicating that some users give up quickly if they can’t guess it right away.
What’s more is the pain of resetting passwords. A global survey conducted by the Entrust Cybersecurity Institute found that 51% of respondents admit to resetting a forgotten password at least once a month, with 15% doing so weekly.
Keeping track of passwords is a real struggle.
Forgotten Passwords: A Significant Barrier to Self-Service—Especially in Telco
Login or password friction poses a significant problem for businesses seeking to enable digital channels for self-service. A survey of U.S. consumers discovered that 47% of respondents abandon purchases—and 61% give up on accessing an online service—because they can’t remember their passwords. This disruption occurs 4.76 times per day, on average. If customers cannot pay their bill online, payment is delayed and they may even consider canceling.
Compared to users of other services, telco customers may be more likely to forget their password due to:
- Less frequent logins. Customers don’t visit self-care sites as regularly as they do social media or banking sites, leading to password recall difficulties.
- Complex password requirements. Telcos often have stricter password requirements due to security concerns.
- Reliance on human support. Given the traditional nature of the industry, many customers are accustomed to seeking help from in-store reps or agents in the contact center instead of looking for problem resolution via digital means.
Now imagine how this small paper cut can be the difference between a customer self-servicing or a customer spending way too long on the phone in the call center. Specifically, think about the experiences around receiving, understanding and paying a monthly bill.
When a customer receives a bill that’s higher than last month, immediate confusion sets in. They first may try to decipher the technical language on the bill itself or figure out the rationale behind changes but will ultimately be forced to call in. This is salt in the wound for customers.
Billing-related calls comprise up to 50% of contact center volume, according to a study conducted on behalf of CSG across 64 global companies. A significant majority (73%) of respondents in telecom customer experience and contact center roles identified bill confusion as the primary reason for billing inquiries.
What if you could proactively reach out to the customer and provide a personalized explanation of the customer’s bill in a digital channel, all without requiring an agent’s help or even a correct login?
No Password? With CSG Bill Explainer, No Problem.
That is why we launched CSG Bill Explainer. This digital tool utilizes generative AI to proactively help customers understand why their bill changed, using straightforward language. Bill Explainer notifies customers about a different bill total and guides them through the digital statement, breaking down changes and the reasons behind them. Customers don’t have to log in to the payment portal to access their personalized summary. Instead, they receive a text or email containing a unique link to their personalized microsite–no password needed. The tool not only reduces bill confusion and contact center calls but also grants a level of instant clarity that encourages immediate payment from the customer.
It’s the little things that go a long way
If you’re ready to address the paper cuts in your bill experience, let’s chat.
