Is your telecom company leaving money on the table? 75% of customers will spend more with businesses that create strong customer experiences (CX). Your company can have the latest and greatest technology, but it won’t matter if your customers have lackluster interactions with your brand.
Creating the best customer experience possible is critical for standing out from competitors, and it provides unique opportunities to attract new customers. 85% of people will choose a company with better quality customer service, even if they have to deal with other inconveniences (like driving further to one of your stores).
The importance of customer service as a competitive edge can’t be overstated. This blog post highlights the best customer experience examples in telecom and provides key takeaways you can implement for your own business.
Why the customer experience matters for your telecom business
There are plenty of examples of poor customer service on the internet. Most telecom providers don’t set out to provide poor tech support. These businesses face a variety of customer service challenges that can lead to increased friction and customer frustration.
For example, many telecom companies struggle with long call center wait times that delay service resolution and risk increasing customer rage. Unfortunately, customers don’t give second chances to service providers that fail to meet their expectations. In fact, 96% of customers say they’ll stop doing business with a brand after a single bad service experience.
That’s why prioritizing the customer experience is mission-critical to the success of your telecom business. Good CX is critical for businesses to stop losing customers and reduce customer churn. Keeping current customers is much more cost-effective than constantly trying to acquire new ones.
By focusing on creating high-quality customer experiences, you can win customer loyalty and improve customer retention. Current customers who have positive service experiences are more likely to make repeat purchases with your brand, providing valuable opportunities to improve your company’s bottom line.
Three telecom customer experience examples that work
Below are real examples of telecom businesses that have improved the customer experience. With each example, we’ll go over what each company did, why its approach worked, and how you can apply the same approach in your own CX strategy.
How Verizon simplified the tech support experience for customers
There’s a reason Verizon Wireless has received numerous customer service awards. The company has won the prestigious Big Intelligence Award, a Stevie Award for Customer Service Excellence and ranked number one for customer satisfaction for small businesses by J.D. Power.
Verizon Wireless has over 145 million customers and recognized the need to provide them with access to fast and reliable support options for their various devices. In our digital world, company leadership realized customers don’t want to wait in long call queues; they want support at the speed of now.
Verizon decided to upgrade its customer self-service tools to include intuitive, interactive tutorials for easy troubleshooting. The company implemented these tutorials on every support page, ensuring that each one was tailored to the customer’s unique device. As a result, the company’s call deflection rate skyrocketed to 85%. Additionally, Verizon saved millions of dollars per year in its contact centers.
What’s the key takeaway to apply to your own business? In short, use strong self-service options. Customer self-service is vital for improving the customer experience and boosting customer retention. Utilizing automated support tools is crucial for scaling customer support and minimizing friction in the customer journey.
How TELUS combines technology with a human touch
With over eight million subscribers, TELUS is one of the largest telecom service providers in Canada. The company serves nearly one in three Canadians, which means it needs to deliver a streamlined, scalable tech support experience to its many customers.
Like many telecom contact centers, TELUS relied on libraries of physical devices to help agents guide customers through tech support interactions. However, these physical devices were expensive to maintain, and they quickly became outdated. When agents answered a new customer call, they had to get up and find the right device, charge it, and then walk the customer through basic troubleshooting.
All of this made providing fast, reliable tech support difficult for the company. Not to mention, the library of physical devices wasn’t an effective tool stack for scaling customer service. So, how did TELUS address this issue?
The company decided to turn to tech support software that included virtualization, or virtualized tech support. Virtualization provided agents with a digital version of a customer’s physical device. They mimic the same functionality as physical tablets or smartphones.
However, unlike physical devices, virtualized support allows agents to switch between different versions, enabling them to simulate one exactly like that of the customer they’re currently helping. This allowed agents to provide a more personalized customer service experience. Additionally, because these digital devices update dynamically, agents could be confident that they had the most up-to-date information to help customers.
As a result, TELUS saw an 80% increase in agent confidence and 750,000 annual resolutions. Telecom leaders seeking to enhance the customer experience should consider steps to deliver the tailored service interactions that customers desire. After all, with 76% of customers frustrated by a lack of personalized options, companies that offer tailored support can seize an opportunity to differentiate their brand. They should also look for tech support software that updates dynamically, allowing agents to provide faster and more accurate service solutions to customers.
How Twigby empowers agents to deliver agile support for its customers
In 2022, Twigby experienced an influx of new contact center agents in its call center. However, because the company lacked a strong knowledge base, new hires often had to rely on their more experienced coworkers for training and troubleshooting customer service issues.
As a result, the more experienced agents were struggling to juggle both their own cases and those of their new colleagues. Twigby’s leadership decided to prioritize improving contact center agent onboarding by leveraging a combination of virtual devices and interactive tutorials. With 24/7 access to these tools, Twigby built a more comprehensive onboarding program to improve agent retention and performance.
Soon, 100% of Twigby’s customer service team began using the technology to support their customer interactions. These tools significantly reduced agent training times and improved agent satisfaction.
Enhancing agent training was a critical component for improving the tech support experience of Twigby’s customers. Within just seven months, Twigby saw a 15% increase in positive reviews on Google, increasing from an average of 3.9 to 4.5 stars.
So, what are the key takeaways to apply to your own business? First and foremost, employee engagement is critical to the customer experience. Engaged employees are 21% more productive than their unengaged counterparts. They’re also less likely to churn, which reduces business expenses and helps create a cohesive customer experience (if you can keep happy, well-trained agents who can better assist customers).
One critical way to stop your contact center from becoming a revolving door is to prioritize agent onboarding. This helps set up agents for success from day one. A strong onboarding program is key to agent retention and helps agents hit the ground running. Better agent training also allows your more experienced agents to focus on their own case logs versus juggling those of their colleagues, reducing the risk for burnout.
The bottom line? You can’t create good customer experiences without creating positive experiences for your agents. The two go hand-in-hand. If you focus on improving employee engagement, you’ll make a better customer experience, too.
How you can take your CX to the next level
Verizon, TELUS and Twigby showcase some of the best customer experience examples in the telecom industry. Each company recognized that prioritizing the customer experience is crucial to differentiating itself in the increasingly competitive telecom market. After all, a single negative experience can lead customers to churn, which can hurt your bottom line.
Each of these companies implemented key steps you and your team can take to improve the customer experience at your own business. Whether it’s using customer self-service to provide instant support, leveraging a combination of technology with a human touch or prioritizing employee engagement, all of these steps can create a better experience for customers. When you take the time to focus on improving customer service, it can become your competitive advantage, helping you stand out from other brands.
Are you looking to use customer service to stand out from your competition? Our guide for optimizing customer support shows you how to tackle complex support inquiries, create more personalized service experiences and differentiate your brand. It’s your free roadmap to success in providing streamlined, scalable support. Get your free copy today!
