Comms service providers must get act together, Oracle claims

Tightening up the chain: Communication service providers must harmonise their approach to customer service, Oracle research claims

Communication service providers (CSPs) are haemorrhaging customers because of a lack of integration between their departments and business systems, according to Oracle-commissioned research.

The vendor tasked research house Vanson Bourne to carry out a study entitled: Fostering Customer Intimacy for Communications Service providers in Europe and the Middle East, which questioned 46 senior customer management executives for various CSPs and 3,750 consumers across Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

According to the results, 65 per cent of respondents admitted that customers are unable to resolve queries by calling just one number. In addition, 80 per cent of CSPs do not have the systems and processes to identify and retain customers reaching the end of their contracts.

Just one-third of CSPs are able to make context-based recommendations to customers both online and in call centres, and also CSPs are failing to capitalise on consumer preference for web-based customer service, the research revealed.

Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Communications, said “With technology and communications at the heart of their businesses, CSPs want to be adept at capitalising on new modes of delivering personalised service. What the research shows, however, is that the industry faces a number of challenges in delivering a seamless and consistent experience across its customer service channels.”

A total of 17 per cent of CSP respondents stated that all teams work from the same system and are directed to follow the same strategies for customer service, retention and recruitment across all channels.

Over a quarter (26 per cent) were in the process of developing systems and processes to fulfill this goal. The remaining half (56 per cent) stated that there was ‘some or little’ integration between customer-facing teams.

“With a lack of co-ordination between departments, providing a consistent brand and customer experience across retail, online and call centre channels is extremely difficult,” added Gorti. “Today’s consumers expect a seamless brand and customer experience irrespective of the channel serving them – whether they browse online before going into a shop or investigate in-store before ordering through a call centre, they expect to be able to pick up where they left off.”

Gordon Rawling, senior marketing director, EMEA, Oracle, said customer expectations have changed.

“Whether we’re talking iPhone applications, Facebook or Twitter, the technologies customers use in their personal lives have changed their expectations about how they want to engage with businesses. They want a service that’s tailored to their lives, preferences and habits. The vital first step in being able to deliver this level of personalised service is to connect the systems and processes across all the channels.”