In this series, we have been going through three indispensable goals to telecom success:
- Sustainable growth
- Increased profit
- Loyal customers
First we talked about scalable platforms and how to future-proof your business; then we looked at how added-value solutions are the key to increasing profit. Today we’ll cover the final goal to telecom success: earning customer loyalty.
The drawbacks of the dreaded “customer churn” are clear: loss of revenue, lost opportunities for growth, a damaged reputation, the task of re-marketing, etc. So how can we avoid these things and increase customer retention? There are a few ways.
The first step is to provide a complete solution. If you provide just one piece of your customer’s end solution, they are not wholly committed to you. They will be relying on other providers for the other pieces and could be wooed away by any of those without greatly interrupting their service.
Contrarily, if you provide all the pieces they need, your customer will commit fully to your company and solution. There will be no compatibility issues and no other providers with sales pitches or lucrative offers. Best of all, if they are getting everything from you, switching providers would be a radical and disruptive change that they will not want to make.
So what are the “pieces” we are talking about? Anything that goes beyond basic telephony. Starting with VoIP and going on to UCaaS, mobility, billing, security, etc. (See also: One More Card for Your Hand).
The biggest mistake that we see telecoms making with their customers is neglecting them after the initial sale. Once you have them committed to your complete solution, do not assume that they will glide along happily for years. Customers become partners when you invest time and energy into them. Excellent customer service must extend beyond the sale. And not just when they have problems or need technical support; by then it may already be too late. If you do nothing else in this series, this is vital to keeping your customers: Call them before they call you.
Check in with your customers on a regular basis. Ask how things are going, what their latest goals are, what issues they are seeing. By nurturing your customers before they have trouble, you are practically guaranteeing that they will remain loyal when the problems do come. No technology is perfect and issues are inevitable, but if you are a consistent source of support, advice, and inspiration, they will stick with you.
There are more strategies to earning customer loyalty, but they are too numerous to cover all of them in this series. If you would like to learn more, watch our (free) video presentation on 5 Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty for ITSPs & Telcos at www.bicomsystems.com/customer-loyalty
Concluding this series on goals to telecom success, we would like to invite anyone that wants to pursue one or all of these goals to give us a call today. We are happy to chat with you – no strings attached – about your business goals and ideas and how to attain them today. Whether you have a thriving business or nothing more than a dream, we have something for you. Contact us at: www.bicomsystems.com/contact