InsightFuel Thoughts on the market from the Amdocs Market Insight & Strategy Team

 

BLOGGER: ERIC DANIS 

Farhad Manjoo, Slate’s technology columnist, chose complexity as the worst trend of 2011: 

In 2011 nearly every gadget or service that I use on a regular basis picked up new features that made it more frustrating to deal with. Everywhere I looked, I saw feature creep, platform wars, competing media standards, and increasingly chaotic user interfaces … But it’s not just that individual products got more difficult to use; in 2011 the entire tech ecosystem descended toward entropy. Devices and services had a harder time playing together, and simply choosing what to use became an occasion for a flowchart. 

 This all-too-common complaint must be heeded by service providers. End users, many of whom are not particularly tech-savvy, are starting to feel like they need a Ph.D. in computer science and a degree in economics just to live in today’s hyperconnected world. 

Consumers are simply overwhelmed by the blizzard of choice facing them in the wake of the explosion of services, devices and price plans, all of which seem to be constantly changing and quite complex. This perceived complexity is an opportunity for service providers to simplify the experience for customers – to make the customer lifecycle easy and personal across its different phases, from finding a service, buying and using it, to receiving the necessary support. 

 Customers keep stating  loud and clear that they want a rich and personalized, yet simple, experience – and they will flock to the providers who offer one. In today’s connected world, some over the top and device players are offering simple experiences. One example is Apple, with its end-to-end, high quality device experience, along with apps, content, music videos, and storage on the iCloud; or Amazon, with a simple way for customers to find what they want and “click-and-buy.” 

Service providers are expected to deliver in the same way. Every interaction needs to be simple, easy to understand and personalized, and customers expect to feel empowered and in control, or they will go elsewhere. 

 Providing such an experience requires a reevaluation of service providers’ assisted and unassisted interactions, along the customer experience lifecycle. This means understanding where customers turn to, and for which purpose – whether it’s informational need, bill clarification or receiving actual support. Service providers must also provide a simple and consistent user experience across channels, as well as remote capabilities, to support and resolve issues directly on the device. 

 This sounds like a lot of effort and it can be really complex to make something seem simple, but it pays off in the end. As the master of simplicity once said: 

Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. 

– Steve Jobs, former chairman and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. 

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In our last blog post in this series, we noted the worldwide interest in transformation programs. Why are so many service providers pulling the trigger? Coleman Parkes Research’s latest white paper, Transformation: Governance, Benefits and How to Get it Right, is based on a global study looking at transformation activity in the telecommunications service provider marketplace. It breaks down the triggers as follows:

Operational

The most common driver to initiate a transformation program is to reduce costs, mentioned by 64 percent of the service providers taking part in the study. But it is by no means the only driver. Nearly half of service providers also see transformation as a key to breaking down barriers within the organization leading to a more streamlined and focused operation.

Service

40 percent of service providers cite the need to reduce the time to market for new services as a key driver for a transformation program and over half say that transformation is needed to improve the overall customer experience. This will also be linked to the need to remain competitive in a rapidly-changing and highly competitive environment, where customer loyalty is critical to ongoing business success.

Technology

What is most interesting among the service providers polled in the survey is that pure technology drivers are rare. The clear conclusion is that companies seek transform activity to provide operational, service and business benefits. Technology is the enabler, not the end goal. Almost two in five service providers cited technological issues as the key driver for embarking on a transformation activity, but this was ranked only 6th out of the key drivers mentioned, surpassed by both operational and service focused issues. Even in immature markets, technology is not seen to be the key driver.

Business

Business drivers for transformation programs are also important. The most common is the need to maximize a strength or opportunity for the organization, followed by the need to meet regulatory requirements. One third of service providers cite competitive pressures as key drivers for a move to transform a process or activity, and one quarter see transformation underpinning the removal of a threat to the business. As always, merger and acquisition will play a part for those companies that have undergone this form of activity. Getting the best from the merged businesses transformation programs will be necessary to streamline the businesses and remove unnecessary duplication.

Previous posts on transformation:

- Why Transform? Don’t Ask the Caterpillar

- But Everyone Else is Doing It!

On RCR Wireless News Reader Forum:

- Everyone loves a champion: The top transformation success factors

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BLOGGER: RUTH WASSERMAN

As a parent, one of the phrases I least enjoy hearing is, “But everyone else is doing it!” While this logic is annoying when heard from kids, keeping up with the industry and competitors can sometimes be a compelling business reason for action.

Why undergo a transformation project?

Coleman Parkes Research’s latest white paper, Transformation: Governance, Benefits and How to Get it Right, details the tremendous, worldwide interest in transformation. (Nearly) everyone is doing it! The white paper is based on a global study looking at transformation activity in the telecommunications service provider marketplace. Senior IT, operations and business executives at over 100 service providers around the globe who are engaged in some form of transformation activity, provided input into this important study concerning their experiences, challenges and the benefits seen from undertaking a transformation program. Care was taken to ensure that a broad cross section of C-level executives from technology and business were interviewed.

It is safe to say that transformation is on the agenda for many major service providers, as the majority of the people contacted did indeed have a program under way or planned. This was especially the case in the more mature markets. Overall, 74 percent of all service providers had either undertaken a transformation program in the last three years, were running a program, or were planning one in the near future.

And with fully two thirds of those undergoing a transformation project having completed more than half of the entire process, transformation has been on the agenda for some time. Furthermore, the majority of companies (69 percent) feel an accelerated need for transformation.

Why? Companies are focusing on transformation activities as a means to reduce costs and the dependence on legacy-based systems; improve business and technological flexibility and get product to market faster and more efficiently. Many service providers fear what will happen if they don’t transform, including spiraling costs (54 percent), failure to meet customer demands (48 percent) and a loss of the competitive edge (45 percent).

Overall, one third of service providers also see transformation as a vitally important and a top priority and a further two in five see it as important. There is clear evidence that transformation is important in developing regions. This is evidenced by the fact that four in ten service providers from Central and Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific (excluding Australia and New Zealand) say that transformation is their top priority, significantly higher than service providers in developed regions. So to stay ahead of the competition and reduce operational costs, service providers need to undertake carefully planned transformation projects.

What is driving so many companies to transform? Stay tuned for the next post on the series to find out…

Edited by Eric Danis

Read the previous post on transformation: Why Transform? Don’t Ask the Caterpillar

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For the past couple of years we have been regarding Google as the biggest potential OTT (or come from behind) threat to the traditional service providers. And deservedly so.  They had in essence become the internet, and were offering popular voice, chat and video content. They were augmenting that with fiber networks and talk of becoming an ISP. They beat the telecom industry to the mobile payment punch with their m-wallet. They had delivered the worlds most popular smartphone/tablet operating system and they even went out and bought a handset manufacturer. Oh, and all those fancy value-added services telecom operators are talking about – enterprise solutions, cloud? Check and Check. Oh, yeah and then there’s TV.

I just reread that last paragraph and though I use the past tense to set up my next point, none of the very popular communications services Google offers are going anywhere. Google is definitely still a force to be reckoned with if you are a service provider desperately seeking to increase customer wallet share to offset falling voice revenue.

That being said, it looks like another internet giant has been positioning itself as a telecom player in recent weeks. Facebook. In the past few weeks we have seen Facebook partner and integrate with Skype (voice and video), partner with PayPal (P2P payments) and more and more “Facebook phones” and data plans – offering extra data for Facebook usage – being offered by service providers. Lets look at each of these for a second and see what the impact might be  for Service Providers.

Facebook Skype integration will make OTT voice and video calling even more prevalent than it already is.  Recent statistics say tell us that US citizens spend more time on Facebook (53.5 billion minutes/month) than on the properties of any other web brand. By a lot – more than double – in fact almost triple – the time spent on  Google and YouTube combined. Now, all that time communicating with friends can be time spent calling and video chatting with them via Skype.  Expanding the network of Skype users to all Facebook users will make it easier to speak to more of your friends and family via Skype than ever before.

Mobile payments is going to be a big buzzword for service providers in 2012.  Service Providers are working tirelessly to create the ecosystem for widespread NFC mobile payment uptake and are fighting their way back into the app store and carrier billing spaces.  They’ve already got Google to worry about with their Google Wallet, and now Facebook has crashed the party with their Paypal partnership. Now you might say, well hey this is just a P2P application, and maybe you are right.  But with more brands using Facebook to market and sell their goods and services, why wouldn’t I be able to pay my Facebook “friend” Best Buy for a new movie and maybe even a BluRay player to watch it, on all without ever leaving Facebook?

As for handsets and data plans, Facebook is making inroads there as well with Facebook features hardwired into phones, but it seems that Facebook is actually looking forward to the day when they release their very own phone. Should that bother Service Providers? Not necessarily. Many Service Providers were pleased with Google’s purchase of Motorola’s mobile phone division as it ensured the continued health of Android and it more open garden OS and app store, and the same could be true for a Facebook phone. A Facebook phone might be an even better seller for younger customers, giving them a whole new opening to market to the kids.  What is more interesting is what Facebook say. “Facebook is clearly keen to involve itself in carrier pricing strategies, with Moissinac citing pricing as one of the three pillars of the firm’s mobile strategy” (via @teleomshibberd from Telecoms.com). They want to get into pricing plans!

Now, I don’t see any evidence to indicate that service providers are going to let Facebook drive pricing in any way. In fact some recent Facebook offers are turning our to be simple workarounds in the form of extra data, so Facebook data isn’t in any way differentiated in terms of policy or charging.  But it does indicate Facebook’s willingness to work with Service Providers on combined offers which has great potential for everyone involved.

You see, Facebook may very well learn what Google is learning: you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make them pay to drink.  Google and Facebook have made billions with a very clear business model for consumers – free.  Come and use our products all you want, we’ll make our money from the advertisers that are desperate for your eyeballs.  Only Free is a difficult habit to break (as is all-you-can-eat, but more on that in another post), and it doesn’t lend itself to building trusted charging and payment relationships. The Android market is a good example of that.  Lots of apps and users, very little money changing hands.

Free also lends itself to a customer expectation that you get what you pay for. If you are like me, you are used to surfing to a YouTube video, clicking, then going to make a coffee while it buffers so you can watch it uninterrupted when its ready.  And I have never once thought to complain to Google about it.  Same goes for Skype.  I use it regularly to talk to my folks and there is a whole lot of “What? Huh? Wait your picture is frozen” going on each time, but I have never complained to Skype.  Why?  Cause it’s free!  And you get what you pay for.  But if Google, Facebook and Skype want to get me to pay for any of the services I am used to getting for free, you better believe I will expect a lot better quality for my buck (i.e., Quality of Service).

So, I would say that rather than look at Facebook as another looming threat, Service Providers should take Facebook’s willingness to work together and partner and run with it to create a win/win for all involved.  Facebook can buy quality of service from the carrier, they can revenue share on for-pay services (e.g., Skype Out) and benefit from the service provider’s trusted relationships with their customers for charging and payment.  The Service Providers gain a partner that brings the type of value added services to the mix that enable them to offer a blend of services for their customers and a truly convergent customer experience. Not to mention a whole heap of potential customers.

So is a faceoff with Facebook a scary proposition for Service Providers?  Maybe, but it doesn’t have to be.  Maybe it just takes a spirit of partnership to leverage Facebook’s and Service Providers’ relative strength for everyone’s benefit; Facebook’s, carriers and yours and mine. Unless they bring Jesse Eisenberg. Then it might be a little scary.

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BLOGGER: RUTH WASSERMAN

A caterpillar never thinks about whether he should or shouldn’t transform. Nature takes its course and the world is rewarded with a beautiful butterfly.

Unlike caterpillars, many of today’s service providers are actively considering whether they should transform. Why transform? When planned and executed correctly, transformation generates great business agility and frees service providers to concentrate on their business strategies. The benefits of transformation depend on the transformation trigger, but can include reducing cost, maximizing a strength or opportunity of the organization, improving customer experience and reducing time to market of new products/services.

Significant cost reduction is certainly a motivator, but customer service is a crucial success factor for today’s service providers and reduction in churn is a key performance indicator (KPI). Many service providers cite the need to reduce the time to development of new services and time to market as a key driver for a transformation program.   Today’s service providers are transforming their customer-facing channels to provide customers with a unified, multi-channel experience across the Web, retail store and contact center.

So what form should a successful transformation take? This is one of the central questions behind Coleman Parkes Research’s white paper, Transformation: Governance, Benefits and How to Get it Right. Ensuring that the program has a champion within the organization is crucial. While this is often the same office or individual as the initiator of the transformation program, a clear and active leader throughout the lifecycle of the entire transformation process is important.

Hand-in-hand with this vocal and visible leadership is governance of the entire process. A successful transformation is greatly dependent on how well the governance of the program is enacted. The research has shown that shortcomings in governance are prevalent between leaders and enactors. Since this is a critical aspect of the transformation program, organizations should be seeking help in terms of governance.

Having a defined strategy, roadmap and communication are all essential elements of ensuring good governance and a successful transformation process. To achieve this, service providers are engaging third party expertise at the planning stage to draw upon significant expertise that helps aid their strategy from the beginning. Indeed, the vast majority of service providers currently under-going transformation program believe that their program would benefit from outsourcing at least some of its aspects to third party experts. Engaging third party experts early is part of the recipe for success, but keeping them involved throughout the process seems equally vital.

The causes of failure of transformation include logistical factors and difficulties in delivering the project (such as not understanding the impact on the business and not having enough quality resources) and how the program is communicated across the business. Third party expertise married to in-house resources represents the right blend for success. The extraordinary importance of transformation programs means that failure, or even delay, in full delivery of the program can be costly for service providers. Those who have been there recommend communicating effectively, sticking to the plan and mitigating risks during a transformation project by using third party expertise and consulting.

Edited by Eric Danis

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Recently, Amdocs hit the streets and ran online surveys in Europe and Russia to talk to consumers about the connected world. What would they connect? What do they want to do with mobile devices today, and in the future? How do they expect to communicate in the next five, ten years?  What will make them loyal to their service provider? And how can service providers manage the impact these demands and services have on their BSS and OSS systems? Answers ranged from 24/7 connectivity, 100% network availability and multi-device connectivity to using kinetic controls, mobile devices so small they will be inserted under users’ skin and holograms to bring communication to life.

Here’s what some of them had to say: 

While some of these ideas seem futuristic and may be influenced by films and fiction, consumers see a real, practical role for such innovative applications of communications technology. It is therefore imperative that service providers continue to invest in research and development, and partner with industry leaders to satisfy customers by meeting their expectations for these types of highly sophisticated services.

Willing to pay for more

The survey found that subscribers are willing to pay for an improved customer experience and to consume more digital services. Customers are eager to transition to the next level, where their mobile device will become an integral part of daily life, fully linked with their computers, cars, household devices and finances, for seamless control of all aspects of the modern world.

Mobile subscribers view connectivity and the ability to make mobile payments as two of the most important industry development of the next decade, and they are willing to pay for an improved customer experience. To give just one example, an astounding 90% of Russian subscribers are willing to pay higher premiums to receive the products and services they want. And in the UK, 50% of surveyed consumers in the cited network improvements as their top concern as we move into the connected world.

What all this means for service providers

But providing this “anywhere customer experience” is difficult for service providers who struggle with system silos that have accumulated over the years via mergers and acquisitions (or through internal growth), adding up dozens of BSS and hundreds of OSS scenarios. In addition, there’s the issue of data capacity crunch. With demand for data services increasing exponentially, the subsequent network congestion is making quite an impact on both BSS and OSS, which could affect the quality of the customer experience.

The necessary innovations must be presented in a practical and secure way to maintain customer confidence. The European customers we surveyed are already demanding smarter, more effective networks with full coverage and enhanced customer service levels that match their growing dependence on mobile functionality. This high level of expectation must be managed and met by service providers in order to maximize the enormous opportunities. Service providers who offer the right products and services in a way that meets customer demand will truly differentiate themselves from competitors and maintain market leadership.

What do you think the future holds? How will service providers need to adapt and innovate? Feel free to leave your comments below. If you’d like to find out more about what consumers had to say in Amdocs’ Connected World Survey, visit http://amdocsworld.com/

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According to Wireless Intelligence, the number of subscribers in Africa has passed Europe during the last quarter of 2010. ARPU in both continents declined at the same rate – 3% in Europe and 3.29% in Africa.   

Service providers in Africa are witnessing huge growth in mobile – mobile connections are expected to grow by ~60% in 2010-2014, and mobile broadband adoption is growing faster than the global average, with a 34% subscriber CAGR by 2014[i].

Long term growth is anticipated to come from the boom in mobile data in the Middle East and Africa (63x between 2010-15 according to Cisco!), and this growth is just beginning:

- Mobile web browsing saw growth of over 2000% in some African countries during the last quarter of 2010. In the top 10 African countries, Facebook and Google compete for the number one slot and other popular sites among Africa’s mobile web users include YouTube, Yahoo!, and Wikipedia.

- Africa “likes” Facebook: Facebook penetration in Africa grew over 50% to reach 25 million users across Africa as of Feb 2011..   

- Kenyans are consuming entertainment via their mobile phones – the demand for music, social video like YouTube and maps is high among the Kenyan consumers

As more advanced networks are rolled out, and 2.5G/2.5G+ handset costs continue to decline, mass-market Internet access in Africa will really begin[ii].  This is already happening – Huawei and Google offer an Android smartphone in Kenya – the IDEOS – for for 8,000 Ksh, or about $100 US Dollars. The next step is to come up with relevant content and apps. 

That being said, service providers are struggling with challenges – to match the huge demand for basic and for new services while competing in an environment where ARPU is low to begin with and price wars are driving them down further. 

African service providers have risen to these challenges and in some cases have more advanced services than their European counterparts:

How to improve network utilization and quality?
Dynamic pricing: Discounting voice and SMS in specific cell sites based on network traffic conditions has helped service providers shape network utilization while increasing customer loyalty (since the consumer must be connected to be notified of discounts).

Customer care cannot cope with incoming calls and the introduction of data enabled handsets will compound this problem.
In order to alleviate call center pressure, service providers are reinforcing customer centers, simplifying tariff structures and setting up self service and remote channels.

Price wars are a fact of life in mature markets and even more so in Africa.
”It’s crazy, really crazy. There are offers like getting free calls for 24 hours when you load UGS1000 of airtime. Offnet calls are down to UGS3.00 a second and the interconnect rate is UGS131 a minute. Add to that, the fact that you pay 30% taxes to the Government on revenues. We don’t have enough margin to cover our network costs…” (Phillipe Luxcey, CEO of Orange Uganda)

Service providers have realized or will soon realize that going down this route is not sustainable.  They need to focus on value, providing innovative and “sticky” services:

- Bundling and LTE are in the pipeline: LTE is only 12-18 months away.

- Mobile Money, a huge success in Africa (and more advanced than any where else in the world) is being expanded to include additional services and markets.

- VAS, Content & Apps will be driven by low-cost feature-rich mobile phones.   App stores are beginning to appear on the scene: MTN Group is planning to launch a platform for mobile applications – based on the data growth it is seeing on its networks throughout the Middle East and Africa. Developer communities are also convening – in December 2010 Google launched an online hub for developers across Africa.

- Consumer clouds appearing: South African mobile service provider Cell C is testing “MyTools”, a new mobile cloud service which is the service provider’s version of “Google Voice” allowing the subscribers to manage voicemail like email.

Mobility is bringing about dramatic changes and new possibilities to Africa – connecting people, promoting important areas such as healthcare, education and the economy.  Africa’s service providers are the foundation for this and are leapfrogging successfully into the realities facing service providers in more developed markets. The question is whether they can get past the price war stage to continue growth.

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[i] Pyramid Research. Africa & Middle East Insider: 3G and WiMAX to Drive Broadband Services Growth Through 2014. June 2010.
[ii] Pyramid Research. Africa & Middle East Insider. Mobile Internet Adoption: Content is the Catalyst. Dec. 2009.

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I recently came across a new, impressive mobile VoIP service called Viber.  It was just launched in December and it’s downloadable from the iPhone App store (Android version coming soon).  They appear to be much more user friendly than the traditional players such as Skype.  For instance you don’t have to sign in to Viber, you just check your iPhone contacts to see who is already on Viber, and then make the call directly.  This simplicity has led to 1 million downloads in the first 3 days and 10 million downloads in less than two months since launch.

With new entrants such as Viber, I wonder how it will change the adoption of mobile VoIP.  Gartner predicts that mobile VoIP minutes provided by OTT players in developed markets will grow from 0.3% of mobile voice minutes in 2010 to 10% in 2015¹.   This growth is mainly tied to smartphones, which provide the open OS systems needed for mobile VoIP apps and the ability to take your phone anywhere.   While 10% isn’t necessarily a huge amount, it will squeeze service provider voice revenues, especially as they are already steadily declining. 

So, how should service providers deal with the mobile VoIP threat?  One approach is to block the VoIP traffic or restrict access.  For example, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom initially blocked VoIP applications such as Skype but have since slowly allowed access, now even charging a supplemental fee as in T-Mobile Germany’s case.

On the other hand, we are seeing more and more service providers partnering directly with VoIP players.  The once predominately “closed” Verizon is now partnering with Skype, offering a line of Skype phones and VoIP calling over their 3G network.  Mobilkom Austria’s A1 is partnering with two VoIP providers, Fring and Nimbuzz.  And one of the best examples is 3 UK, who has partnered with Skype since 2006.  Their partnership has been more successful than most could imagine, especially considering 3 UK didn’t charge for data usage at all and the Skype calls were completely free.  In fact, in 2009 CCS Insight Consulting and 3 reported that 3 UK’s Skype users had 45% higher domestic voice revenues, 20% higher margin, 9% churn improvement, and used 17% more minutes than non-Skype users.   Not bad, right?

Partnering may work in the short-to mid term, but is it sustainable? 

Other service providers are focused on launching their own VoIP services to better compete.  For example, based on their acquisition of JAJAH, Telefonica O2 has launched Global O2 Friends, a VoIP service that provides the ability to make international calls by dialing a local number.  We should see more VoIP launches in the near future and we’ll see additional opportunities for service providers once LTE is fully implemented as VoIP will be the standard.

I believe mobile VoIP is inevitable and new players such as Viber will continue to attract customers.  That means that service providers must begin taking steps to control the loss of voice revenue through new pricing and packaging, partnerships with VoIP players and ultimately launching their own VoIP services.  

¹Market Insight: Over-the-Top mVoIP Poses Threat to Traditional CSP Mobile Voice, Charlotte Patrick and Akshay K. Sharma, Gartner, 15 October 2010

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Service providers need to discover the right path for each customer at each fragment of the now broken lifecycle and offer new, personalized experiences. And this experience has to equal, if not exceed, the cool experience customers have come to expect from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Apple. In other words, it has to be simple, real time, contextual, personal, and social.

The key to success lies in successfully integrating over-the-top best practices with the assets unique to service providers: network data, customer data and product data. This creates a whole new scale of experiences that service providers can adopt to attract customers and promote customer loyalty. This is the customer experience scale.

The top scale shows the different types of services that service providers can offer, based on their chosen business strategy, ranging from being an enabler on the one hand, to end-to-end service provider on the other. The bottom scale – the personalization indicator – shows the level of personalization needed to provide these services.

The customer experience scale helps service providers determine where they should invest, according to the types of experience they want to deliver to each of their customers.

For example, service providers adopting an enabler strategy (the left-hand side of the scale) can create an integrated shopping experience for its customers. We know that  different customers prefer to shop via different channels. Some like to surf the Web, others to visit a store and some like to speak to call center agent before deciding on a purchase. In fact, most customers actually leverage multiple channels in a single purchase transaction. Most start exploring products on the Web, but only few are currently completed there.

Service  providers can do a lot more to create an integrated and much more relevant shopping experience for their anywhere customers. They could, for example, unify the sales channels including integration between social media and their online store, just as Facebook and Amazon have teamed up to provide Amazon shoppers with purchase recommendations based on Facebook preferences.

Moving to an example on the other end of the scale, the end-to-end provider strategy, service providers have to be able to enable their customers to consume video anywhere they want, on any device. To do so, they’re going to need to be able to provide personalized offerings and flexible pricing, as well as optimize delivery across devices. Just as importantly, they’re going to want to become the aggregator of choice, providing customers with advanced discovery and recommendations.

And in both strategies, the key to combating customer fragmentation is for the service provider to know where it wants to play on this scale, and then align its services appropriately to provide the customer what they want, how they want it and when they want it.

The last word

Service providers have lost the battle for exclusive ownership of the consumer lifecycle and experience, but they have not lost the war.  By using the customer experience scale, they can regain a major foothold in the lifecycle by combining their assets with a simplified, real-time, contextual and personal experience.

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In the not-so-distant past, service providers used to have full control over the customer experience lifecycle. But now, over-the-top providers, niche app vendors, general retailers and others have all moved in to enhance the customer experience lifecycle.

Today’s consumers benefit from a wide selection of offers and possibilities and are more empowered than ever. They have the freedom to design their own personalized customer experience path.

For example, when buying a mobile phone, instead of just going to their service provider’s local outlet to evaluate phones and plans, today’s customer might first go online to compare phones, check out professional reviews, ask their social network for advice, and then, when they’ve made up their mind, go to a retail store that sells more than just phones to make their purchase.

And not only has the experience path changed, the lifecycle sequence is no longer linear – a customer might start playing a game or use an app for free, and then receive a promotion that will lead to a purchase.

So have service providers lost their hold over the customer experience?  Not necessarily. Look out for my next blog to see how service providers can rise to the challenge.

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