Communication service providers (CSPs) are focusing on the telecom customer journey—for good reasons. Telecom lags behind other industries in customer satisfaction, with both internet service and subscription TV service at the bottom of the rankings by industry.
Customer experience (CX) is essential to prevent customer churn—which is particularly high in telco. The 2022 State of Customer Churn in Telecom report found that customer loyalty to telecom providers is down 22% post-pandemic due to poor customer experience. According to Forrester, even a small improvement in a brand’s customer experience quality can add tens of millions of dollars of revenue by increasing wallet share and reducing customer churn.
Until the past decade, CSPs have had competing priorities like monetization, often hindering investment into customer experience (CX). But now, spurred by greater customer expectations and competition, CSPs are prioritizing CX—and that means paying more attention to customer journeys. Customer journey mapping is critical for CX improvement. Like a road map helps travelers reach their destination, telecommunications customer journey mapping helps telcos achieve their goals (meet consumer expectations, connect better with customers, and boost loyalty and customer lifetime value).
Common Challenges in the Telecommunications Industry
Intense competition. With several large wireless providers in the US, and even more mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), consumers have more choice than ever. 5G networks provide excellent coverage and speed in all markets, making it harder for telco operators to stand out from competitors. CX has become the primary competitive differentiator.
Competition drives the need for deeper engagement with customers. Customers expect interactions with their wireless, internet or cable provider to be as quick, easy and convenient as they are with digital native disruptors such as Netflix or Amazon. Telecom or cable operators that don’t meet consumer expectations are at a disadvantage and risk losing business.
Poor understanding of customer needs and expectations. Telecom providers have vast amounts of customer data such as how customers use their services (i.e., usage data), their interactions with the company, and billing details. However, many CSPs don’t analyze this data to gain insight into customer behavior, preferences and expectations. Without this knowledge, it’s very challenging to meet customer expectations and needs.
Limited digital self-service options. According to a Statista survey, 70% of U.S. consumers expect a customer service response the same day. Digital self-service is an effective strategy to provide information quickly. Yet mobile network operators lag behind other industries in digital transformation. Telcos that fail to offer self-service capabilities may lose customers; 17% of telco customers who churned did so because of a lack of self-service options, a recent survey found.
By mapping telecom customer journeys, CSPs can take steps to overcome these challenges.
What is a Customer Journey?
A customer journey is a series of interactions that a customer has with a brand for any particular task (job to be done) or decision. The customer decides what actions to take at each step in the process, but the business has an opportunity to guide those decisions and behaviors toward the desired outcome. Customer journeys occur during all six stages of the CX lifecycle:
- Discover (research devices, bundles and offers
- Buy (purchase devices and bundles)
- Onboard (receive purchased products, activate services)
- Use and manage (change communication preferences, receive notification of exceeding allowance)
- Support (pay bills, schedule service appointments, receive proactive outage notifications)
- Grow (receive targeted offers, renew and upgrade contract)
What Is Customer Journey Mapping?
Customer journey mapping means creating a visual representation of every step a prospect or customer takes when interacting with your business to accomplish a specific task (job to be done). For example, to pay a bill, a wireless customer may try to log in to the payment portal, reset the password when they can’t remember it, view the bill online, call customer service to ask why this month’s bill is higher than usual, and finally pay the bill.
Outlining the journey steps helps you understand what customers may experience and what they want and need. A telecom customer journey map reveals common friction points and bottlenecks that need to be addressed. For example, if many customers call with questions about their bill, you may decide to implement a self-service digital bill explanation tool to reduce bill confusion and costly contact center calls.
The Benefits of Customer Journey Mapping
Great customer experiences are easy, effective (i.e., produce the desired result) and lead to positive emotions. Telecom companies should use customer journey mapping to improve interactions at every stage of the CX lifecycle. Customer journey mapping helps you:
Better understand and empathize with customers. When you put yourself in your customers’ shoes and know how they interact with your brand, you can anticipate communication gaps, friction points and where they will drop off. This knowledge guides improvement efforts to better meet consumer expectations. For example, preemptively notifying customers of planned maintenance that may impact their wireless service prevents the stress and frustration that would occur if the customer discovered the lack of coverage five minutes before a client call.
Identify unmet needs. Having a comprehensive grasp of customer needs [BL1] across various interactions enables you to spot gaps in the journey, eliminating the need for guesswork. This knowledge allows you to introduce additional touchpoints or enhance existing ones. For example, contacting customers before their contract expires and offering them a tailored plan/bundle based on their usage history prevents them from having to spend hours researching your competitors’ offerings.
Pinpoint blockers. By mapping how customers navigate your website or app, you can anticipate places where customers try to engage but can’t, or where it takes too much effort to complete an action. For example, if customers can’t remember their password for the payment portal, you can use a digital bill explainer tool that links to the payment portal, without requiring login[BL2] .
Visualize emotions, not just actions. Telecommunications customer journeys frequently involve emotions, yet translating these feelings into measurable data is challenging. A meticulously researched customer journey map depicts customers’ emotions (such as frustration, anger or stress) as well as their thoughts and actions. This visualization is crucial for grasping their fundamental needs and enhancing service delivery to reduce negative emotions.
According to Forrester, emotion is a key driver for delivering high levels of CX performance. In 2023, elite brands delivered customer experiences that evoked an average of 29 positive emotions—including feeling happy, valued and appreciated—for each negative emotion. By gaining insights into customer emotions through journey mapping and taking steps to foster positive emotions, you can enhance CX. For example, sending preemptive service outage notifications can reduce frustration and make customers feel valued.
5 Steps to Create a Customer Journey Map
1. Establish clear objectives. Decide what you want to accomplish. Where is your company’s CX falling short? If customers are dissatisfied with your contact center because their problems are not getting resolved in one call, one objective would be to increase first call resolution by implementing a telco-specific agent desktop solution.
2. Create customer personas. Describe fictitious customers who represent the demographics (age, income, occupation, etc.), psychographics (personality, lifestyle, attitudes, etc.) and behavioral characteristics (usage patterns, preferences for services, loyalty, etc.) of your average customer. Keep these personas in mind as you map telecom customer journeys. What emotions and friction points are these personas likely to experience as they interact with your brand? What can you do to make their interactions more convenient and forgettable (in a good way)?
3. Identify consumer touchpoints. Telecom customers engage with your organization through various touchpoints such as online searches, email campaigns, social media and mobile app interactions, in-store visits, phone calls and chatbot conversations. After identifying these touchpoints, consider their impact on customers. Whom do they contact for assistance? How easily can they schedule a service appointment? Is it straightforward for them to pay their bills? The answers to these questions should guide your CX improvement efforts.
4. Outline the key customer journey steps. Identify the sequence of actions that customers take during a particular journey. For example, someone who is approaching the end of their internet contract may research plans from your brand and your competitors. To do that, they may visit websites, browse social media and read online reviews. If they choose a competitor’s plan, they cancel their account.
Customer journey analytics tracks customers’ interactions with your brand, helping you understand what is happening and predict intent. Recognizing that customers are comparing plans allows you to proactively contact them (using customer journey management software) and offer them a tailored plan based on their usage history.
5. Use a premade template. Instead of spending hours mapping telecommunications customer journeys, take advantage of pre-templated journeys. CSG Xponent Ignite, our award-winning customer engagement solution, includes telecom-specific pre-templated journeys such as
- Receive and pay bills
- Receive proactive service outage notifications
- Schedule service appointments
- Receive notification of exceeding allowance
- Renew and upgrade contract (promo roll-off)
Simplify Telecom Customer Journey Mapping With CSG Xponent Ignite
Telecommunications customer journey mapping helps you understand and meet customer needs and expectations, eliminate friction points and improve customer journeys. Xponent Ignite makes it easy to get started with customer journey management and achieve quick wins. The foundation of Xponent Ignite is CSG Xponent, our industry-leading customer journey management solution that combines a customer data platform with journey analytics and journey orchestration to guide customers to the next best action. Our team will help you build a business case, identify the high-value journeys to start with (based on expected ROI), and launch easily using pre-templated customer journeys.
Speak to an expert today to start improving telecom customer journeys.
Learn More About Customer Journey Mapping
Learn how CSG Xponent Ignite can simplify customer journey mapping.
