Customer experience in emerging markets

Details: James Barton; Category: Service Management; 03 January 2012; 6976 views

In this bylined article, Brian Carroll, CEO of Arantech, discusses how Customer Experience Management systems can help operators take advantage of subscriber growth in the emerging market of Africa...

In this bylined article, Brian Carroll, CEO of Arantech, discusses how Customer Experience Management systems can help operators take advantage of subscriber growth in the emerging market of Africa.

Africa is now the fastest growing mobile market in the world. According to the recent GSMA Africa Mobile Observatory 2011 report, Africa’s mobile penetration reached 649 million connections in quarter four of 2011. Furthermore, over the past five years, the number of subscribers across Africa has grown by almost 20 per cent each year and will reach more than 735 million subscribers by the end of 2012.

The rapid adoption of mobile services in Africa provides operators with a huge opportunity to expand their subscriber base in a growing market. However, as more and more operators scramble to make an impact in the region it is now becoming imperative for operators to differentiate their brand in order to compete. Operators in mature markets are turning to automated Customer Experience Management (CEM) to proactively manage their subscribers’ experience in an effort to reduce customer churn. However, operators in Africa are going one step further by harnessing the power of CEM to combat the specific challenges that arise in emerging markets and streamline their business models to take advantage of the growth.

Find and fix solution

Unlike the mature markets in which regular handset upgrades result in a comparatively small number of handset models in use at any one time, Africa is inundated with a huge variety of old and new mobile devices. With a raft of devices on their network operators can experience a multitude of handset issues every day. By implementing automated CEM systems operators have a ‘find and fix’ solution to be able to snuff out potential issues on the network before they impinge on a subscribers’ experience. This gives operators the ability to automatically update devices as well as configure data settings remotely to allow data access when requested.

The efficient operation and maintenance of networks is of huge importance to African businesses due to their heavy reliance on mobile-phone based money transfer services. Any failure could have a dramatic effect on the local economy and this piles immense pressure on the mobile operator to maintain a fully functioning network. The ability to proactively monitor and manage each subscriber’s interaction with mobile banking enables the operator to ensure that any network issues are identified immediately before they become a problem. By leveraging CEM systems operators have visibility over where network failures are occurring and how many subscribers are experiencing issues; dramatically reducing the number of customer complaints into the call centre and improving customer experience.

Improving margins

Despite subscriber growth skyrocketing in Africa the average revenue per user (ARPU) remains low due to the price sensitive nature of the population. The small margins that operators are working to are reflected by the majority of subscribers being on pre-paid contracts. With such low ARPU operators must invest their capital wisely to boost uptake of their services. The CEM system’s ability to track users and analyse which services are being used, on which devices and where makes this intelligent investment possible. This invaluable data allows operators to target key growth areas and spikes in usage to monetise services and increase revenue by profiting from a higher ARPU.

Developing sustainable business models

Traditionally, the vast geographical landscape creates an issue for operators with a sparse population dissipated across the region. It impacts on operator’s strategic business models as it is difficult to know where to target investment in order to provide the best returns. For a lot of Africa, mobile is the only available telecoms infrastructure especially for remote and rural areas. Analytics gathered from CEM systems enable operators to focus infrastructure expenditure in key areas; where the network is under most strain and demand is high. This means operators no longer have to solely rely on subscriber growth to maintain their business and can have real insight into how subscribers are using their network and manage the data intelligently to inform future business models.

Harnessing CEM’s potential

CEM systems in the mature markets are deployed as a key way of differentiating their services in the market place. In emerging markets CEM systems can have a potentially more widespread impact. In Africa, CEM systems can be leveraged to actively monitor a subscriber’s experience on vital services such as mobile banking and manage the raft of devices being used on their network. Furthermore, the visibility it offers across the network enables operators to see who, why and when subscribers are using their services. This allows operators to target high-usage areas in their business models to expand their subscriber base and enhance ARPU. It also points to where capital investment in improving network infrastructure should be made. Overall, CEM can help operators in emerging markets cope and take advantage of subscriber growth by differentiating their brand while maintaining a fully functioning network providing a seamless experience for each subscriber.