A language all their own

ClientLogic answers the call for MVNO customers who want to, like, relate.

Mobile virtual network operators are all about market segments — defined groups and communities of users that all have something in common. That fact logically guides the applications, packaging and pricing MVNOs offer, so it stands to reason that it should also define how those customers relate to their service providers. Yet most MVNOs don't operate their own customer service operations and call centers, and outsourcing important aspects of customer care to complete strangers doesn't seem like a great idea.

That's where ClientLogic comes in. The company is a Nashville, Tenn.-based provider of business process outsourcing services. It operates call centers in the U.S. and internationally that address the customer service needs of many different industries. However, for MVNOs in particular, ClientLogic deals with their customers in exactly the way they want to be dealt with, speaking to them in a language they understand — because it's their own language.

ClientLogic purposely hires and trains call center associates who fall into the same demographic or socio-cultural segments as the target customers of their MVNO clients, according to Amit Shankardass, senior vice president of solution planning for ClientLogic.

For instance, this means that the customers of ClientLogic customer Amp'd Mobile, an MVNO primarily targeting 18- to 25-year-olds and focused to a large degree on providing them with cutting-edge entertainment applications, are much more likely to hear a content-savvy call center associate from their own age group on the other end of the line when they call into Amp'd Mobile's customer service number.

“Different customer channels mean different methods for contacting customer service, different expectations and a different knowledge base,” Shankardass said. “A younger audience might be more tech-savvy and use more slang.”

ClientLogic announced Amp'd Mobile as a customer last October, before the MVNO publicly debuted its commercial offering at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Amp'd Mobile said at that time that the company chose to have its customer service operation run out of ClientLogic's facility in Las Vegas because the agents there already work with some other telecommunications and gaming companies, but also in deference to the city's cutting-edge and youth-focused on-the-go environment, according to ClientLogic.

In an increasingly crowded MVNO market, with service providers likely to start overlapping into one another's market segment, the human touch-point could become an even more valuable aspect of the whole service chain.

“What becomes differentiating in a competitive environment is the agent that you put on the phone,” Shankardass said. “That's why we profile agents based on the companies that we serve. That way, you have people on both sides of the phone who understand each other. They get it.”

He also said that because of the affinity between ClientLogic's call center associates and the customers calling in, the call agents also can serve as beta testers of the devices and applications that the MVNOs want to offer. That helps the call agents gain the knowledge of the services that they need to deal with customers, but also gives the MVNO added confidence about selling those services.

ClientLogic also brings some of its own technical tools to the table, including what Shankardass calls a “universal desktop” that brings all of a service provider's applications together in a single view for a call agent engaging with a customer.

Ultimately, ClientLogic's approach to customer service for MVNOs might seem radical, but there is a certain level of common sense to it.

“People forget that having a customer service transaction is not just about solving a problem, but also about the experience,” Shankardass said. “A lot of times, customer service is an after-thought for carriers. It can be a challenge in the same way that network issues can be a challenge if you don't plan for them.”