Mobile operators failing to engage their customers

Too many mobile operators see engagement with their customers as a one way communication  and are unable to offer a personalised service

These are key findings from an Openet survey on how mobile operators use smartphones to engage their subscribers.  The online survey generated responses from senior managers employed by the world's largest mobile operators, including Telstra, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Verizon Wireless.

The survey found that although most operators offer mobile self-care portals, they are primarily used as a one-way communication tool, and are not architected as an engagement opportunity for individual users.

Results of the survey confirm that mobile operators want to provide a personalized experience and engage more with customers through their smartphones, but almost half are not in a position to deliver this experience. While 89 percent of respondents believe that providing real-time service controls would enhance the customer experience, nearly 50 percent do not have these capabilities on mobile devices.

To provide a more personalized service to customers, mobile operators are looking to increase the number of functions being delivered direct to smartphones. The research found that 79 percent of respondents expect to see subscribers setting controls direct on the device in 2012 and 94 percent said that customers should be able to buy and self-provision new services from the device now or later this year.

The results of the survey are self-evident -- operators want to better engage with their customers, and have a growing need to provide a platform for self-personalization to deliver an ideal user experience. Today's self-care options aren't providing the two-way conversation that is critical to gathering information needed to create, upsell and cross sell personalized services.

"By not having a self-care portal designed specifically for mobile use, operators are limiting their customers' user experience -- and leaving money on the table," said Michael Manzo, CMO of Openet. "The survey data shows that operators are aware of this missed opportunity, so the time has come to offer customers direct-to-device communication and controls, to improve and simplify their mobile activity and provide higher value that results in higher revenues."

In an effort to bridge the gap between operators and subscribers, Openet offers its Subscriber Engagement Engine, a solution that enables consumers to have real-time visibility into their usage and directly control, manage and personalize their services, balances and spend. With Openet's Subscriber Engagement Engine, operators can reduce the complexity around data offerings, simplify the presentation and purchase of services and offer promotions that are completely customized to the customer's desired use and budget.

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