The Top 8 Benefits of Digital Platforms (2023)

The telco world is complex; with the nature of subscriptions, high-priced devices, equipment, installations, and more, there’s no denying it! On top of this, telcos are riddled with outdated legacy systems that disrupt their success and dominate their processes. It’s no wonder the industry is famous for poor customer experiences.

However, telcos have an opportunity to transform themselves from slow, complicated laggards, to connected leaders, by adopting a digital commerce platform.

The benefits of platforms are endless. They help telcos provide a seamless, modern customer experience, while increasing efficiency, saving costs…the list goes on!

To save myself the effort of listing every benefit a commerce platform delivers (and you the effort of reading them all), I’ve curated a list of the top 8 benefits telcos can quickly leverage by implementing the right digital commerce platform. Enjoy!

1. Reduce Environmental Impact

The planet and the state of our environment are top of mind right now, and rightfully so. Many telcos want to offset their carbon footprint. What better way than by finally getting rid of paper in your channels?

Digital contract solutions are a key part of a telco platform. Not only do they reduce paper costs (by over 85%), but they also save millions of pieces of paper, trees, and water. It’s a win-win opportunity.

Green initiatives really capture the attention of today’s environmentally conscious customer base. So go paperless and share your green story far and wide.

2. Reduce Call Centre Volumes

When a customer makes a new purchase, the telco’s goal is to ensure they know everything before they leave (when their first bill is due, what charges they can expect, how to top up, how to seek urgent service, and what to do if they damage their phone).

Fail to do this, and your contact centre will be overrun with calls, which costs a lot of unnecessary time, effort, and money.

Instead, select a digital contract solution that incorporates Walk Out Working steps into the signature flow. This way, crucial information is never forgotten, and compliance can be audited across all lines of business.

And if customers do have an inquiry, contact centre staff can pull up the customers’ contract with just a few clicks, or even re-send it to them, facilitating a speedy resolution.

It’s one simple change that will put you on the path to customer success.

3) Achieve Higher NPS

Brand sentiment is everything in today’s highly competitive telco landscape. Platforms are a telco’s secret weapon when it comes to customer experience. Platforms enable fast, efficient transactions and contain customer-friendly features like digital contract signing, self-service solutions and omnichannel capabilities. Make it easy for your clients to shop with you, and they’re return the favour with their loyalty!

4) Diversify Your Channel Strategy

Brick and mortar locations are expensive. As telcos get more mature, channel strategies need to be modelled to fit the 2020s, and beyond. Channel strategy is not “one size fit all”; telcos must carefully plan where they have a presence, and why, so they can go where their customers are.

That said, there is one strategy that will work in every market: self-service. Telcos need to jump and add self-service technologies to their portfolio.

Vending-enabled kiosk are a great example. Install these kiosks in a high-footfall supermarket, and suddenly you can have a physical presence in an under-served, or cost-prohibitive area for little investment. It just makes sense!

But to do self-service right, these solutions must be part of an overall platform so they can easily communicate with your warehouse, inventory management, and point of sale solutions.

5) Automatically Manage Customer Premises Equipment

Building on the “robot store” theme above, how frustrating is it to manage new, damaged, or defective Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)?

Some customers must make long journeys to your locations, only to find a replacement is not in stock. Or they wait all day for a delivery that doesn’t arrive.

The simple solution is automated self-service kiosks with secure lockers. Replenish half the lockers with new CPE that customers can swap for and use the other half to receive incoming damaged boxes.

Imagine heading to your local supermarket with your broken TV box, and in 3 minutes, securely leaving it in locker 5317 and getting a real time replacement from locker 5402? What an experience!

6) Let Customers Help Themselves

People are surprisingly busy in 2021 (despite the restrictions!). Time is precious, and people don’t want to waste it. I’d rather go hungry than queue for 30 minutes at Starbucks, for example - and I like my food! 😊

Telcos need to make their retail experiences as quick and easy as possible. A platform-connected self-care app will let your customers to do everything they need to, whether they are on the bus or on the beach.

Want an appointment at 12:30 tomorrow so you can visit the telco store below your office on your lunch break? Sure.

Need to add to your plan? Click, click, click, done.

Upgrade your contract and device, and have it delivered to work tomorrow? No problem.

Today’s customers need to be able to do things when and how they want. Make sure you have the connected digital solutions that let them do so.

7) Unite Every Channel

The ability to start something in one channel and complete it in another is something that a lot of telcos have really struggled with. Differing commission liabilities, disparate inventory and poor business processes have left many telcos short in this area.

A platform approach lets you stitch your channels together so you can offer an omnichannel experience. Imagine this scenario. Your customer started a transaction in-store but forgot their ID documents. No problem – simply pause the transaction, and the customer can go home, re-start the sale, upload their ID pictures, checkout online, and arrange for delivery. The secret to success is allowing your customer to transact anywhere they want! A platform approach lets you stitch your channels together so customers can start their transaction in one channel and finish it in another.

With the right platform, telcos can enable nearly 200 omnichannel journeys that span everything from click and collect to “try in-store, buy online”, and everything in between.

Sounds good to me – can your systems do that today?

8) Headcount Efficiency

Certain transactions are a pain for many telcos and place a heavy burden on retail stores.

Changing your address? “OK, I’ll need your proof of ID, and this, and that...just a second, I need to photocopy that…”. A simple change can take 20 minutes before it’s all done.

Sales advisors are expensive. Instead of running around playing administrator, their time could have been better served selling a new quad play plan to a competitor’s customer.

Why not put these transactions on a self-service kiosk? You can scan your passport at most airports nowadays, why not at the telco store? Or at the kiosk in the supermarket? Or using an integrated self-care app?

Invest in a digital platform and watch your queues and poor NPS scores become a thing of the past.

Summary:

It’s 2021. There has never been a better time to make changes, stop letting your legacy infrastructure hold you back.

It really doesn’t matter which billing stack you have, how your CRM works, or who holds the master of your inventory. A platform approach reduces vendor count, and seamlessly integrates into your back-office systems to make all of the above not only possible, but a great experience for all.

We’d be happy to talk it through with you. Contact us today and get started.

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