A Perfect Blend

In the dash to build networks and gain market share, wireless operators have had little time to focus on understanding how customers actually experience their service. Networks have generated a plethora of data. Yet, actions taken on that information have focused on the network; business decisions have been based mostly on billing data. Until recently, data-warehouse solutions that combine network data with customer data were not available.

While the industry focused on building better, bigger and faster networks, the customer environment did not change. Competition amplified while customers learned to expect more from their carriers. As a result, a customer-centric, rather than network-centric, enterprise has emerged.

Along with this new customer-centric paradigm, your organizational process must change to enable customer-focused action. To move your strategic focus from the network to the customer, you and your systems must become customer-adaptive. In this environment, you should learn from customers constantly and evolve your network and services to meet their needs continuously.

Mediation systems translate real-time network information into the right format for downstream business applications, such as fraud management, billing, customer service and marketing, which all focus on the customer relationship. Customer-relationship-management (CRM) tools combine real-time network data with billing and other data and organize it to represent the customer's experience. The output enables customer-adaptive decision making.

THE DATA-ACTION CHAIN A key element in the customer-centric business model is transforming customer data into a deeper understanding of customers and their service needs. The data-action chain is a continuum of transforming data into understandable information that prompts action. In this model, raw data transforms into meaningful customer information. This transformation allows you to extract behavioral knowledge about your customers. When you combine it with meaningful data derived from sources outside your company, this knowledge is even more robust.

Another way to view the data-action chain is to consider the nature of the drivers. Raw data is well suited to making daily decisions about your business operations. With proper data analysis, you can determine when a network is not working properly or when actions are not tracking to expectations. For example, raw data may indicate that a cell site is out of service. However, the raw data does not necessarily tellyou how critical the outage is. If you analyze the raw data based on area usage, you can make an informed decision regarding the situation's urgency. It is nearly impossible to make meaningful strategic decisions based on raw data.

CRM tools can convert raw data into information that is more useful in making tactical decisions. Raw data will indicate that a problem exists. Information, on the other hand, allows you to focus on relevant data combinations. You can prioritize tactical network improvements in areas where valued customers need it, rather than in areas where more problems exist. CRM systems enable you to adapt to appropriate customer needs by collecting and analyzing information in a timely manner.

IS A BILLING RECORD ENOUGH? Data is the first step in the data-action chain. Wireless carriers typically define a customer record as a transaction record the billing system produces. System integrators, vendors and internal IT departments have rushed to funnel billing data into data warehouses for enterprise-wide use. Better than no data at all, this approach leads to limited or distorted customer understanding. The billing record contains a fraction of the information available about the customer's actual service experience and is typically available 30 days or longer after the customer has had a particular service experience.

If the billing record is not enough because of problems associated with comprehensiveness and timeliness, what more can you do? The ideal answer collects complete user information in real time, while the customer is using the services. The system should then gather network and switch data, which reveals when and how often customers use services, the level and quality a customer experiences each time, and simultaneously makes it available to marketing, customer service and other decision makers. Network management also should benefit by prioritizing capital expenditures based on high-value customers' experiences.

CUSTOMER-EXPERIENCE RECORD A customer-experience record enables an organization to minimize guesswork in making business decisions and allows carriers to address urgent business issues such as:

* Making investment decisions to acquire and keep market share

* Identifying high-cost, low-value customers

* Identifying low-cost, high-value customers

* Changing low-value customers into high-value customers

* Retaining customers

* Prioritizing capital expenditures

* Creating, sustaining or repositioning the brand

* Positioning service offerings to match customer experience.

In a competitive environment, you must meet these objectives based on an intimate understanding of the customer. Your ability to take actions that the competition cannot copy easily affects your profitability. Preventing or delaying competitive parity means achieving a sustainable competitive advantage that will meet market-share objectives more profitably.

THE CUSTOMER-CENTRIC ORGANIZATION Recognizing the need to change from network-centric to customer-centric is the first step. The next step is selecting a solution that can make data timely and easily available. The third component of a truly customer-centric enterprise is developing policies and procedures that support the strategic direction. Becoming customer-centric helps you facilitate:

* Better department communications

* Clearer direction of budgeting decisions

* Immediate knowledge of service problems so you can correct them quickly

* Coordination of customer interactions to maximize effect and minimize irritation

* Accurate record-keeping that evolves as the customer base grows.

Based on information from gathering this real-time data, you can analyze and track programs linking customer experience and behaviors with specific actions that you take. You then can see direct results and use them as input to future decisions.

Several new billing and customer-care (BCC) partnerships and products recently have emerged. Ameritech Mobile Communications agreed to outsource Convergys' suite of BCC solutions through September 2004, while Leap Wireless signed a long-term agreement with H.O. Systems for its BCC solution. For call centers, Amik's new CallPrint cellular call-management program includes call-management software that tracks all cellular call usage as to time, date, duration, type of call, call cost, number dialed, called party, billing party and account, phone user, and cell phone used. Its CallPrint phone offers real-time tracking of all call details.

NCR's new Visual Channel Consulting service allows you to analyze, though graphical displays, whether your customer touch points are aligned properly with your overall CRM objectives. Also, Ernst and Young integrated Intelligent Contact Management from Cisco Systems with Clarify's eFrontOffice suite.