CRM for MVNOs: Part II

Since MVNOs pride themselves on their superlative understanding of their customer segment compared to traditional operators, Customer Relationship Management becomes a key focus area for them. CRM helps MVNOs manage entire lifecycle of Customers by supporting the following activities.

For an understanding of the business model of MVNOs, importance of the parent brand and customer segments and the changing MVNO Operator relationship, please go through my previous post here.

• Campaigns and Promotions: Since MVNOs normally target the same or similar segments that are targeted by their parent brand; a good point to start for them is to target the customer base from one of their existing lines of business. CRM provides the platform to extract the list, run the campaign, track customer responses and take suitable actions based on the responses.

• Customer Acquisition: Customer acquisition in a saturated telecommunications market is tough, costly and a complex process with multiple points of failure. No provider would want to create a negative impression at the very beginning of the Customer’s Lifecycle. CRM provides smooth on boarding of customers though automated Order Management processes, managing and updating inventories, coordinating with courier/shipping companies for delivery and close looping through Agent or IVR assisted activation and welcome call.

• Complete View of Customer: MVNOs try that much more to create a differentiator by bringing in information from multiple systems and presenting relevant information in a manner that is understandable easily to a BPO Agent or to a Customer availing Self Care.

• Customer Service Management: MVNOs strive to provide 100% resolutions to Customer requests, complaints and queries on the call without passing the buck to a back office team. Apart from higher level of customer satisfaction due to on call resolutions, this creates a suitable opportunity for up sell and cross sell since customers are more willing to listen once their issues are taken care of.

• Analytics & Real Time Decisions: Real time analytics and decisions are triggered by Customer actions. These events re-calculate churn scores of customers on the fly and based on historical patterns of customers with similar profiles, can throw offers at the customer. Customers are prompted for up sell or cross sell or may be offered incentives and customized solutions if identified as churn prone.

CRM for MVNOs: The Way Ahead

• Social CRM: MVNOs are, as mentioned earlier, customer driven companies. They need to be ahead of anyone else in terms of understanding their target segments and need to tune in to the changing tastes of customers through various social networking mediums and communities. The ability to identify micro segments within the broad segment, their unmet needs and specific tastes is what will keep them ahead of traditional operators.

• Cloud based Applications: MVNOs should look at cloud based solutions for their BSS stack. Cloud based BSS solutions are based on a subscription model and reduce setup costs by moving costs to an OPEX model. Cloud based models were not considered suitable for telecom operations earlier because of high transaction volumes, but have now been proven to be scalable and can handle MVNO transaction traffic.

• Integrate with other LOBs: While MVNO’s operate as separate companies within the parent’s brand umbrella and have separate applications and systems, an integrated CRM containing information of Customers across other Line of Business can be done to provide a complete perspective of the Customer’s lifestyle and behavior.