Telecom Social CXP—Who's Serious in 2013?

7/28/2019 Telecom Social CXPWho's Serious in 2013?

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Telesperience

Customer Experience

Benchmark 2013, part

of the BenchmarkingSeries

The evolving

role of social

media in the

telecomscustomer

experienceTeresa Cottam, Chief Strategist


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Telesperience Benchmark: The Evolving Role of Social Media in the Telecoms Customer Experience

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sponsors Message .............................................................................................................................................. 31 The telecoms customer experience................................................................................................................ 42 How important is the customer experience to CSPs? .................................................................................... 53 How CSPs rate the customer experience they provide .................................................................................. 74 What are CSPs top three customer experience goals?.................................................................................. 85 Who is driving social media adoption and usage?.......................................................................................... 96 What are CSPs using social media for?....................................................................................................... 107 Investment patterns......................................................................................................................................138 How CSPs assess social success................................................................................................................ 159 Summary...................................................................................................................................................... 1610 Research Methodology................................................................................................................................. 17


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Sponsors Message

The telecommunications industry is arguably one of the fiercest consumer markets we know. The pace ofinnovation in telecom runs at breakneck speed and will only always accelerate. Providers are left with delivering

services that commoditize practically as soon as they launchlaunch to a particularly critical and demanding

audience, quick to take their SIM cards and go elsewhere if disappointed.

Increasingly, telecom service providers have faced these challenges by turning to the customer experience as a point

of differentiation. And as todays consumers become more and more social, they now look to social media to

deliver the type of differentiated experiences that translate to long-term customer loyalty.

Yet social media remains a new and complex landscape. Many operators still have big question marks around the

social customer experienceeverything from what is it to who should own it to how should we measure

success. The constantly emerging nature of social media challenges all business today to sift through the

cacophony of channels, technologies and use cases to emerge with a sustaining investment strategy that really sings.

In our book, a social media investment strategy that really sings is one that makes a bottom-line difference. As

telecoms look to the social customer experience for competitive advantage, its critical that they develop a better

understanding of exactly how investments in social media can bring them closer to their customer experience

goalsand impact the bottom line.

We set out to benchmark the telecom social customer experience in 2013 in order to better guide todays service

providers toward strategies that make sense. We asked over 40 global telecoms about their social customer

experience goals, investments, strategies, offerings, and results.

We found that delivering exceptional customer experiences in telecom is top of mind and getting more difficult.

Just 5% of telecoms today think their CXP is excellentdown from 8% just two years ago. But we also found that

deeper investments in social lead to more CXP confidence. Telecoms who use social to transform the customer

experience, who invest in on-domain social platforms are more apt to rate their overall CXP as good and less aptrate it average.

In general, we found social media technology adoption in the telecom industry to be strong and growing fast. We

found that those who are serious about socialhave owned social platforms, robust social customer engagement

and enlistment strategies, and involve more of the business in the social customer experienceget serious results.

These more socially mature telecoms enjoy significantly greater reduction in call center volume and support costs.

While there did emerge clear market leaders who are now leveraging the full power of social across the entire

business, we found that the industry has some growing to do. There remains quite a bit of opportunity for social

media investment expansion in certain geographiesparticularly APAC, and certain use casesparticularly social

support.

As the market continues to mature, the detailed findings in this benchmark study should help telecom serviceproviders make better social media investment decisions and better measure their success.

Rob TarkoffCEO - Lithium Technologies


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1 The telecoms customer experience

Competition continues to increase in the telecoms market, while core services are commoditising, meaning that the

customer experience has come to the fore as a means and arguably for some communications service providers

(CSPs) the single, most important means of differentiating their offering and increasing their competitiveness. In

recent years not only has there been a much greater emphasis placed upon optimising the experience thats provided

to telecoms customers, but considerable discussion about the need for CSPs to become less technology-centric

businesses and more customer-centric.

Undoubtedly there is considerable variation in how well individual CSPs are performing in terms of meeting the

needs of their customers, and in how fast they are becoming more customer centric. The re-engineering of telecoms

operators into customer-centric service providers has not always been an easy transition for CSPs to make, and its

one thats being made in the face of vociferous commentary and criticism from both the media and customers,

whose expectations have evolved faster than some CSPs offerings. However, progress is being made globally and

best practice from both within the telecoms industry as well as from outside it can be leveraged to improve

performance.

One major change is the adoption of social technology. When Telesperience measured CSPs performance in 2010with regards to the customer experience they delivered, many CSPs said they were planning on employing social

media and social CRM platforms to create a more personalised and supportive experience for customers. Those

plans have now come to fruition and social media technology is widely deployed within the industry.

The question now is whether CSPs are fully exploiting the capabilities of social technology and embracing the

possibilities it offers for their businesses. Social technology is no longer being used solely for interacting with

customers, but is helping create new ways of doing business and new opportunities for CSPs.

As social technology extends outside the CRM domain, its important to understand how different CSPs are using it

and what they intend to use it for in future. To do this, Telesperience has conducted primary research amongst CSPs

worldwide of different types and sizes. In this report we present the findings of this study, which reveals how CSPs

think theyre performing with regards to the customer experience and their use of social techniques, what theyre

using it for and, importantly, what they plan to use it for. This study acts as an industry benchmark for CSPs,

providing in-depth insight for them to use to judge their own performance against.

Seven key findings include:

The customer experience will grow in importance to CSPs businesses from 8.20/10.00 today to

9.39/10.00 by 2013 (see Figure 1)

Only 5% of CSPs believe they provide an excellent customer experience today (see Figure 4)

Increasing customer loyalty is the number 1 goal for CSPs in 2013 (see Figure 6)

The marketing department is the main driver for social technology adoption in telecoms service providers(see Figure 8)

93% of CSPs are now connecting with their customers through social networks (see Figure 10) 15% of CSPs have brought customer-sourced innovation to market, and 12% have already derived

revenues from their customers suggestions (see Figure 15) 95% of CSPs are either maintaining or increasing their budgets for social media in 2013 (see Figure 17)

Telesperience Customer Experience

Benchmark 2013:The evolving role of social

media in the telecoms customer experienceFebruary 2013


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2 How important is the customer experience to CSPs?

The operators in our study rate the experience they provide to their customers as very important to their business

(8.20/10.00) but believe it will be even more important to their business by 2015 (9.39).

Whats interesting is that when we correlated these findings against how CSPs rated the customer experience in

2010, we discovered that the current importance placed on the customer experience was almost identical to that

placed on it in 2010 (8.30). And likewise, in 2010 operators also thought that the customer experience would

increase in importance by 2013 expecting its importance to the business to be 9.25.

Figure 1 Comparison of how valuable CSPs think the customer experience is to their business (2010 and 2013)

8.30

8.20

9.25

9.39

7.50 8.00 8.50 9.00 9.50

2010: average importance

2013: average importance

2010: expected importance by 2013

2013: expected importance by 2015

Source: Telesperience studies 2010 and 2013

In both studies CSPs were asked to rate the importance of the

customer experience to their current and future business on a scale of 1-10

Comparing the results from these two studies shows that CSPs consistently believe the customer experience will

increase in importance to their future business. The findings also suggest that CSPs are still not fully leveraging the

value of the customer experience to their businesses, because they are not yet realising the increased value they

anticipated in 2010 now expecting this value to be realised around 2015 (that is, in the future). Whats also notable

from Figure 1 is that in 2013 CSPs rate the value of the customer experience to their business marginally lower than

they did in 2010, but they believe its value to their future business will be greater than they anticipated in 2010.

In 2010 and 2013 CSPs rated the importance of the customer experience to their businesses as being

roughly the same (8.30 in 2010 and 8.20 in 2013).

In both studies they believed the customer experience would increase in importance to their business (9.25

in 2010 and 9.39 in 2013).

In 2013 CSPs have not realised the level of importance they anticipated back in 2010 (rating it 8.20 in 2013

as opposed to anticipating in 2010 it would be 9.25 by 2013).

In 2010 CSPs rated the future importance of a great customer experience to their business as 9.25; they

now rate it as being worth 9.39 by 2015.

However, there is considerable regional variation in terms of how CSPs rate the customer experiences importance

to their business both now and in 2015 as shown in Figure 2.

The customer experience is seen as most important to their business by European CSPs who rated it 8.77in 2013 and anticipated it would grow in importance to 9.92 by 2015. This reflects the high level ofcompetition in the European market and thus the requirement to differentiate their offering from that ofrivals.

The customer experience is least important to APAC operators who rated it 7.78 in 2013. However, theyperceive that its importance to their business will grow rapidly in the next few years, and by 2015 rateimportance at 9.11 closing the gap substantially between APAC and other world regions. This reflects thematuration of some of the high-growth APAC markets where exponential growth and an emphasis on

maximising market share is now giving way to the requirement to retain the highest ARPU customers asthe market shifts to an emphasis on revenue maximisation from each subscriber and loyalty.


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North America rates the customer experience as being more important to their business in both 2013 and2015 than Asian CSPs, but does not place as much importance on it as European CSPs do. This reflects ahybrid positioning where there is relatively less competition in large parts of North America than inEurope, but a growing recognition that maintaining ARPUs requires CSPs to focus on customer retentionand loyalty.

As might be expected, all three regions show an increase in the perceived importance of the customer experience to

the CSP business by 2015 (see Figure 3).

Figure 2 How valuable CSPs think the customer experience is to their business (2013), regional breakdown

8.77

8.55

8.20

7.78

Europe

North America

Global

APAC

Source: Telesperience 2013

Figure 3 How valuable CSPs think the customer experience will be to their business by 2015,

regional breakdown

9.92

9.73

9.39

9.11

Europe

North America

Global

APAC



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3 How CSPs rate the customer experience they provide

Despite the importance that CSPs place upon the customer experience (see Figure 1) very few regard themselves as

providing an excellent customer experience in 2013 (5%). In fact, as can be seen in Figure 4, the proportion of

CSPs that regard themselves as providing an excellent customer experience has dropped marginally since

Telesperiences 2010 study (when it was 8%).

Likewise the number of CSPs rating themselves as providing a good customer experience has fallen from 63% in

2010 to 54% in 2013. However, those rating themselves as providing an average experience has risen from 21% in

2010 to 39% in 2013. Fortunately, those now rating themselves as providing a below average experience has fallen

from 8% to 2%. This reveals that the worst performing CSPs believe they are improving, but the number of CSPs

who believe they provide an outstanding customer experience has fallen.

This finding reflects the fact that the customer experience continually evolves and commoditises. There is thus

strong pressure towards a customer experience norm, which means what was once an excellent or good

customer experience will rapidly become an average experience as more companies are able to provide that type

of experience. In order for a CSP to continue to provide an outstanding experience its therefore necessary for them

to continually innovate to remain ahead of their rivals and provide a truly exceptional and differentiating customer

experience.

Given the high value that CSPs place on the future customer experience, the clear message is that they need to

invest now in order to deliver against their goals and realise the expected business value by 2015.

Figure 4 Comparison of how CSPs rate the customer experience they provide (2010 and 2013)

8%

63%

21%

8%

5%

54%

39%

2%

Excellent

Good

Average

Below average

2010 2013

Source: Telesperience studies 2010 and 2013. In both studies CSPs were asked to rate themselves

as providing either an excellent, good, average or below average customer experience

Again, a geographical analysis reveals distinct regional patterns as to how CSPs think theyre performing with

regards to the customer experience (see Figure 5).

Asian operators are most likely to be confident they are providing an excellent customer experience, but

this is also the region with the most low-performing operators.

European operators generally believe they provide either an average or good experience, but 8% believe

theyre delivering an excellent experience. None think they provide a below average experience.

North American operators believe they deliver either an average or good experience, but none rate

themselves as providing an excellent experience or a below average experience.


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Figure 5 How CSPs rate the customer experience they provide (2013), regional breakdown

Global Europe APAC North America

Excellent 5% 8% 11% 0%

Good 54% 46% 44% 64%

Average 39% 46% 33% 36%

Below average 2% 0% 11% 0%


4 What are CSPs top three customer experience goals?

Telesperience asked CSPs what their top three customer experience goals were. As can be seen from Figure 6, overall

these were (1) Increase customer loyalty (2) Right-first-time customer service (3) Cost-effective self-service.

Figure 6 Top three customer experience goals 2013

76%

54%

51%

41%

39%

37%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Increase customer loyalty

Right-first-time customer service

Cost-effective self-service

Improved brand perception

Reduce customer complaints

Increase ARPU


CSPs were asked to indicate their top three customer experience goals

Both the second placed and third placed goals (right-first-time customer service and cost-effective self-service) have

strong operational efficiency that is cost reducing elements to them. And increasing customer loyalty could be

viewed as another cost-saving strategy, since recruiting new customers is usually more expensive than retaining

existing ones. Its surprising that given the level of competition and flattening revenues in many markets (as basic

services commoditise), which both put increasing pressure on the revenue ceiling, more emphasis is not being

placed on increasing ARPU.


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A geographical analysis reveals some differences in CSP goals however (see Figure 7).

Europe follows the global norm for the top two goals, but its third most important goals is reducing

customer complaints. This possibly reflects having to manage the effects of new network rollouts, network

congestion, and confusion around data tariffing as Europe moves away from flat rate pricing.

North America shares the same goals as the global norm but shuffles the importance slightly seeing cost-

effective self-service as being more important than right first time self-service. This shows a focus onreducing costs more than on maintaining customer satisfaction. However, North American operators are

cautioned that when self-service doesnt work first time, it will generate additional or hidden costs in the

form of dissatisfaction, complaints and possibly even churn.

APAC shares the global concern with increasing customer loyalty but sees increasing ARPU as more

important. Unlike other regions it also rates improved brand perception within its top three goals. This

reflects the fact that many high-growth APAC markets have relatively low ARPUs, and as the next billion

customers are added it is creating a downward pressure on ARPU. In more developed APAC markets the

effects of competition and commoditisation likewise create a downward pressure on ARPU similar to that

seen in Europe. A focus on maintaining or increasing ARPU is therefore a key concern in this region.

Figure 7 Top three customer experience goals 2013 by region


1 Increase customerloyalty

Increase customer

loyalty

Increase ARPU Increase customer

loyalty

2 Right-first-timecustomer service

Right-first-time

customer service

Increase customer

loyalty

Cost-effective self-

service

3 Cost-effective self-service

Reducing customer

complaints

Improved brand

perception

Right-first-time

customer service


5 Who is driving social media adoption and usage?

In most CSPs a mixture of the marketing department and the CRM department are the primary drivers in social media strategy.

However, a wide range of other players influence decisions made about social technology (see Figure 8).

Figure 8 Primary drivers and key influencers of social media adoption and usage

76%

41%

10%

5%

5%

2%

24%

59%

17%

61%

66%

32%

Marketing

Customercare

Other

IT

Sales

R&D

Primary Driver Influences

.Source: Telesperience 2013


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In 8 out of 10 CSPs the marketing department is the primary driver for social media strategy. While customer care is either the

primary driver of social technology adoption and usage (in 4 out of 10 CSPs) or is an important secondary influencer (in 6 out of

10 CSPs). Other key departments such as IT and Sales are highly influential on the decision-making process. Figure 9shows that

in North America IT is consulted in every single case, but in Europe it is only consulted in 38% of CSPs. Likewise in 82% of

CSPs in North America the Sales department influences decisions, but only in 54% of European and 56% of APAC CSPs is Sales

consulted. This is surprising given the focus APAC has on raising ARPU.

Figure 9 Primary drivers and key influencers of social media adoption and usage, regional differences

Europe APAC North America

Main driver(s) Marketing (85%)

Customer care (54%)

Marketing (89%) Marketing (64%)

Customer care (36%)

Chief influencers Sales (54%)

Customer care (46%)

IT (38%)

Customer care (89%)

Sales (56%)

IT (56%)

IT (100%)

Sales (82%)

Customer care (64%)


6 What are CSPs using social media for?

Using social technology and approaches is now the norm in the telecoms industry. Ninety-three per cent of the

CSPs we spoke to said they are already using social media to connect with their customers. However, the second-

most common use today of social technology is to drive business impact, which shows a maturation in thinking and

goals. By 2015, 9 out of 10 CSPs say they will be using social technology to drive business impact, and 8 out of 10

say they will be using it to drive conversion and to transform the customer experience (see Figure 10).

Figure 10 How CSPs are using social technology (2013)

93%

61%

56%

44%

27%

20%

37%

Connecting with customers throughsocial networks

Driving business impact

Driving conversion through owned

social hubs

Transforming the customer

experience

Using Plan to use


As can be seen in Figure 11, in general North America is ahead in terms of its use of social media; however in these

four areas the highest growth will be seen in Europe. Europe will be concentrating on utilising the technology to

drive business impact (+62%) and to transform the customer experience (+38%). The biggest growth in usage in

APAC will be to improve the customer experience (+33%) and to drive conversion (+22%). In North America,

which is relatively mature in its use of social technology, the biggest growth areas will be in utilising it to drive

conversion (+27%) and to drive business impact (+18%).


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By 2015 most CSPs will be using social technology to deliver against all four of these goals, demonstrating a rapid

evolution of usage and commoditisation of capabilities. This indicates that what is considered cutting edge today will

be mainstream tomorrow, but it raises two other issues that need to be considered:

there needs to be continual innovation to remain ahead of the competition.

CSPs cannot just implement social technology and expect to gain the maximum benefit from it. They needto embrace what it delivers as an integral part of the way they do business, since to maximise the valuerequires CSPs to really focus on their customers and not just on their networks.

Figure 11 How CSPs are using social technology, regional differences

Connecting

with customers

Driving business

impact

Driving conversion Transforming

customer

experience

Global usage 2013 93% 61% 56% 44%

Global usage by 2015 93% 88% 76% 81%

Most advanced region

2013North America North America North America North America

Most advanced region

by 2015North America Europe North America North America

Highest growth region

(increase) None

Europe

62

percentage points

North America

27

percentage points

Europe

38

percentage points

Status by 2015 Commoditised Mature Mainstream Mature

Difference betweenmost/ least advanced

regions by 2015

22percentage

points

33percentage

points

13percentage

points

16percentage

points


To find out more about how CSPs are using social media to engage with and enable customers, Telesperience asked

CSPs to tell us how they were engaging with their customers. Overall there were four main motivations for engaging

with customers (see Figure 12):

Loyalty using social technology to engage with loyal customers was the most common use of the

technology today and by 2015 83% of CSPs will be doing this

Innovation customer-centric innovation (that is, gleaning ideas and suggestions from customers) was thesecond most common way in which CSPs were utilising social technology for customer engagement today.

By 2015 this will be the most common usage with 86% of CSPs doing this

Operational around 44% are enabling existing customers to support other customers and by 2015 64%

of CSPs will be doing this

Commercial the least common way of using social technology to engage with customers today was to

support commercial goals. Today only 27% of CSPs are able to engage existing customers to provide new

customers with purchasing advice, although this is set to rise to 59% by 2015.


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Figure 12 How CSPs are engaging and enabling customers using social technology

68%

59%

44%

27%

15%

27%

20%

32%

Engaging with loyal customers

Enlisting customers to share ideas

Enlisting customers to support other

customers

Enlisting customers to give purchase

advice

Doing Plan to do


In these four aspects of social engagement North America had less of a clear lead over other regions than we sawwhen we measured uses of social media. Today North America is more mature in its usage of enlisting customers to

share ideas and support other customers; but Europe is ahead in engaging loyal customers and enlisting customers

to give purchase advice. By 2015 North America will have passed Europe in its usage of engaging loyal customers.

However, APAC will be the most mature market in terms of enlisting customers to give purchasing advice.

Relatively low growth in Europe in comparison to the other regions will see it slip back to third position in every

category except engaging loyal customers

Figure 13 How CSPs are engaging and enabling customers using social technology, regional differences

Engage loyalcustomers

Enlist customers toshare ideas

Enlist customers tosupport other

customers

Enlist customers togive purchase

advice

Average globalusage 2013

68% 59% 44% 27%

Average globalusage by 2015

83% 85% 63% 59%

Most advancedregion 2013

Europe North America North America Europe

Most advancedregion by 2015

North America North America North America APAC

Highest growth

region

North America

45percentage points

APAC

44percentage points

APAC

22percentage points

North America

45percentage points*

Status by 2015 Mature Mature Mainstream Mainstream

Differencebetween most/least advancedregionsby 2015

15percentage

points

14percentage

points

37percentage

points

13percentage

points


* in this category APAC is only 1 percentage point behind NAR in terms of growth


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The patterns of growth shown in Figure 13 will result in maturation of some of these areas by 2015. As shown in

Figure 14, sharing customer ideas will be a commodity engagement by 2015 in APAC and North America, as by then

9 out of 10 CSPs will be able to do this and thus it will no longer be a differentiator but just an accepted part of

business-as-usual. Engaging loyal customers will be reaching maturing in Europe and North America, as it still

offers some differentiation, although the vast majority of operators will be able to do it. It is the growing areas of

engagement (supporting other customers in Europe and APAC, and giving purchasing advice in Europe and

North America) that will offer most competitive advantage. At this stage in the market only half the CSPs are able to

deliver the business benefits from these types of engagement, and so they offer points of differentiation both in

terms of the customer experience delivered and commercially. However, as use cases reach maturity, the emphasis

shifts from novelty and simply being able to support or deliver something, to delivering it in a way that drives

business benefit.

Figure 14 Relative maturity of each region in terms of customer engagement 2015

Criteria Europe APAC North America

Sharing ideas 77% 89% 91%

Engaging loyal customers 77% 67% 82%

Supporting other customers 54% 56% 91%

Giving purchasing advice 54% 67% 55%


Key: = Growing = Mainstream = Mature = Commodity

The first of these criteria sharing ideas has the potential to offer enormous competitive advantage. CSPs who are

able to utilise customer ideas can lower the cost of innovation whilst also increasing the volume and velocity of

innovation through crowdsourcing techniques. Importantly, the ideas derived may also have a higher likelihood of

being successful, since they were suggested by customers to meet real needs and wants. The commercial potential

offered by customer-derived innovation is such that we were prompted to ask CSPs how they thought they were

performing in this area. As can be seen from Figure 15, the most popular way of uncovering customer ideas is to use

forums, with 63% of CSPs doing that today. However, almost one-third of CSPs (29%) admitted that they still do

not solicit ideas from their customers putting them at a commercial disadvantage to those that can do this.

Figure 15 How CSPs are using customer-sourced innovation (2013)

63%

29%

22%

15%

12%

Forums etc uncover productideas

We dont solicit product ideas

Crowdsourced innovation driverof competitive advantage

Customer suggested productideas to market

Incremental revenue fromcustomer suggestions



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Figure 16also shows that the most advanced CSPs around 1 in 10 have already been able to utilise customer-

sourced ideas not just to launch products, but also to derive revenues from these suggestions. This is an area where

Europe is leading the rest of the world currently, but where CSPs in APAC with its strong focus on raising ARPU

could benefit from focusing more effort.

Figure 16 CSPs who are able to utilise customer-sourced innovation


Customer suggested

ideas to market15% 23% 0% 9%

Revenues from

customer suggested

ideas

12% 23% 0% 9%


7 Investment patternsSocial media is one of the key technologies that CSPs plan to invest in. Eighty per cent of the CSPs in this study

intended to increase spending on social media between 2013 and 2015, and 95% are either increasing or holding

spending at the same level (see Figure 17). Related areas such as customer loyalty are also a priority for investment,

with 95% of CSPs maintaining or increasing spending. Some areas fare less well with call centres and SEO

experiencing a drop in spending in around 1 in 10 CSPs.

Figure 17 Investment areas for CSPs 2013-15

85%

80%

66%

63%

53%

39%

37%

10%

15%

27%

24%

34%

34%

54%

2%

2%

2%

2%

12%

10%

4%

Customer loyalty

Social media

eCommerce

Self-service through owned social hubs

Call center

SEO

Word-of-mouth marketing

Increase Stay same Decrease



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Beneath the global pattern of investment there are also distinct regional variations in terms of systems spending, as

can be seen in Figure 18. The areas that will see increases in investment are identical in Europe and North America,

although a higher proportion of CSPs will increase their spending in these areas in North America than in Europe.

In APAC, CSPs intend to increase spending on loyalty reflecting the requirement in this market to retain more

high ARPU customers. The increase in spending in e-commerce also reflects this regions interest in raising ARPU.

In all three regions some CSPs intend to decrease investment in call centres reflecting a change of strategy from

dealing reactively with enquiries and complaints, to being more proactive in handling these or using alternative

methods such as enabling customers to support other customers (see Section 5). In all three regions some CSPs

intend to reduce spending in SEO as well, perhaps indicating that they are moving to a social engagement model

rather than spending their budget on search to enable customers to find them.

Figure 18 Investment areas for CSPs, regional breakdown


1 Social media (77%) Customer loyalty (88%) Social media (82%)

2 Customer loyalty (76%) E-commerce (78%) Customer loyalty (82%)

3 Self-service through social hubs(54%)Social media (66%) Self-service through social

hubs (72%)

3 E-Commerce (8%) N/A Word of mouth marketing(18%)

2 SEO (8%) SEO (11%) SEO (18%)

1 Call Centre (8%) Call Centre (11%) Call Centre (18%)


8 How CSPs assess social success

Globally the most common measure used to judge whether social initiatives are successful is customer satisfaction

ratings such as C-Sat scores (see Figure 19). However, this is being combined with a number of other measures

including metrics from popular social networking sites.

More sophisticated measures that require initiatives to be linked to performance in other areas are less commonly

used today, but we would expect these to grow in importance as CSPs begin to use social technology for purposes

other than simply connecting with customers. However, it can be challenging for CSPs to track cause and effect in

order to judge social media performance, due to their complex and siloed IT infrastructure and departmentalisation.

Somewhat surprisingly, nearly 2 out of 10 CSPs are not using any measures to judge whether social initiatives are

successful and this holds true across all three regions.

As can be seen from Figure 20, in APAC and North America sales revenues attributed to social channels are one of

the measures being used to judge performance this is consistent with APACs focus on increased ARPU.

However, in Europe deflected support cases are being used more commonly as a measure of success, which reflects

this regions need to reduce operational costs. Only about 3 out of 10 CSPs in Europe use sales attributed to social

channels as a measure of success, but although this trails behind the proportion in APAC and North America using

this measure, it is not substantially removed from it.

Telesperience believes the way social success is being measured also reflects a maturation process in the use of social

technology. Initially it has been used for engaging with customers (that is, communication) and thus C-Sat scores

and social media metrics are adequate measures of success. But as use of social technology becomes more complexand is used for more sophisticated social engagements, the measures used to judge success likewise have to expand


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and become more sophisticated. In the most mature CSPs social technology becomes an essential part of product

innovation and sales success (that is, revenue maximisation), and thus sales performance data becomes increasingly

important.

Figure 19 Method CSPs use to measure social success

17%

24%

37%

41%

63%

63%

We don't measure it

SEO rankings for brandedcommunity pages

Sales revenue attributed tosocial channels

Number of support casesdeflected by social media

Metrics from popular socialnetworks

Customer satisfaction


Figure 20 Method CSPs use to measure social success, regional differences


1 C-Sat (54%) C-Sat (89%) Metrics from social networks(64%)

2 Metrics from social networks(54%)

Metrics from social networks

(56%)

C-Sat (45%)

3 Deflected support cases (54%) Sales revenues (44%) Sales revenues (36%)

Percentage that dont

use any measures

23% 22% 18%

Source: Telesperience 20139 Summary

Social media provides a new channel for CSPs to interact with their customers. However, taken to its natural

conclusion it also supports, in achievable steps, the necessary fundamental change to the telecoms business modeland processes that the industry has long talked about delivering. This is because it enables the CSP to focus what it

does around the needs of the customer by better engaging with customers; it can glean insights, suggestions and

complaints from customers which it can use to improve its performance; and it can leverage a loyal customer base to

become better at selling more of what the customer wants, in a way the customer wants it.

CSPs cannot just implement social technology and expect to gain the maximum benefit from it. They need toembrace what it delivers as an integral part of the way they do business, since maximising the value requires CSPs toreally focus on their customers and not just on their networks delivering true customer-centricity.

Social technology itself is showing rapid evolution from providing operational efficiency to being an integral

building block in a different type of customer experience and an enabler of future commercial success. Importantly,

CSPs should note that social technology is not just important for the B2C side of the business, but also to engage

with enterprise customers and SMEs.


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10 Research methodology

This research programme uses a technique which is sometimes called the expert panel or expert sample. In

other words we sought to locate a relatively small number of highly qualified and senior staff who had the

knowledge and experience to answer the questions we were researching, and who could also represent the views of

their peers.

The research was focused on delivering a picture of the current status of social technology adoption within the

global CSP market, as well as future goals and investment plans. Thus we sought to locate and speak to those staff

within CSPs who are currently responsible for supporting, or who substantially influence, the companys social

technology or social CRM strategy. The trends shown here are based on a global sample, with regional breakdowns

provided where indicated.

In this programme we spoke to 41 senior managers (CXO, VP and Director level staff) from communications

service providers worldwide. Figure 21 provides a breakdown of the operators represented in this sample by size of

subscriber base and by region of operation. It should be noted that some of the smaller CSPs in this sample were

parts of larger groups. In terms of operator type, 44% were multi-service operators (MSOs), 32% were

mobile/wireless providers, 20% were fixed/wireline/fiber providers, and the remaining 4% MVNOs and WiMaX

operators.

Figure 21 Regions and size of CSPs in research sample

Europe32%

North America27%

APAC22%

MEA10%

CALA10%

Total sample:

41 CSPs

Up to 5 million

39%

5 to 10 million19%

10 to 20 million15%

More than20 million

27%

Total sample:

41 CSPs



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About the author

Teresa Cottam is the Founder and Chief Strategist at Telesperience, an independent telecoms industry analyst firm.She has more than 19 years experience in the industry and was previously an Associate Principal Analyst with UK-based telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason. Before that she headed up Research and Publications at Chorleywood

Consulting, a specialist BSSOSS consultancy which was acquired by Informa Telecoms and Media. Prior to this shewas Managing Editor at industry analysts Ovum. Teresa has authored numerous influential reports and trendspapers during her career, is a regular speaker and chair at telecoms events, and is a judge at the Global Mobile

Awards presented at Mobile World Congress. Teresa is passionate about helping CSPs optimise the value of theirsoftware and data, and strongly believes they will play an increasingly important role in helping CSPs differentiatetheir offering, operate profitably, and attract and retain customers.

You can follow Teresa on Twitter at @teresacottam and can connect with her at www.telesperience.com

About Telesperience

Telesperience is a UK headquartered telecoms analyst firm focused on how software and data helpscommunications service providers improve their operational efficiency, commercial agility and the customer

experience they deliver. We consider where the problems lie with legacy technology, and how companies cantransition to provide a more positive telesperience for their customers and a more profitable business forthemselves.

For more information about Telesperience see www.telesperience.com, check out our blog atwww.microsperience.com or visit our B2B wiki at www.wikisperience.com.

About Lithium

Lithium makes social software that powers the social customer experience. We help brands unlock the passion of

their customers to build brand advocacy, drive sales, reduce service costs and accelerate innovation. Our

software helps companies build vibrant online communities, connect them to public social networks, and infuse

social conversations across every digital touch point.

Telecom Social CXP—Who's Serious in 2013?

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