Streamlining or the use of lean business processes for better cost-to-output ratios and faster results is necessary for a small telecoms provider to thrive. Taking a cue from larger enterprises, but scaling them down to fit the sector, here are five streamlining techniques that small telecoms providers can put to use for better outcomes.
Automate Mundane Processes
Think of how much time, money and effort can be saved by simply automating the regular, repetitive, and time-consuming work. Bills can be generated and emailed automatically to the customers, and the system can also send reminders to customers so that the percentage of late payments can be reduced. The opportunity to use artificially intelligent software for streamlining business processes in the telecommunications sector is huge.
Simplify Business Insurance
Instead of keeping track of several different insurance policies and providers, try to streamline the process by buying insurance from as few insurers as possible, as well as including different coverage under one policy to negate the need for multiple policies. For example, the business owner’s policy, aka BOP coverage, is a singular insurance package that includes both general liability insurance and property insurance.
Deploy a Smartbot System
Although smart chatbots were previously known simply as chatbots, the term is inadequate to describe smart AI systems of today. The differences in quality, capability and performance are simply far too great to be ignored by any modern telecommunication business now. Smart chatbots are used to:
- Take the pressure off employees
- Close basic queries quickly
- Streamline all complaints by only forwarding those that are complex enough to need an employee’s attention
- Reduce expenses by decreasing the need for overtime payments
- Help provide 24/7 support to all customers
- Market products and services to the right customer at the precise time, via push messaging, SMS and phone calls
Shift to a Cloud-Synced System
Most telecom companies have already shifted to cloud-synced systems for seamless integration and borderless availability of all necessary information. For example, every call and chat conversation in between a company executive and a customer should be automatically recorded and made available to every authorized personnel for reference and rating. When this system is localized, it creates several shortcomings, with distance being the most important factor of course.
Unless the chat and call records are available and accessible from any location, all concerned employees and executives will have to be physically present at the office. At a time when working from home has become the norm for many sectors, lacking a cloud-synced system is simply not a viable option. The amount of time that would be wasted in collecting and sending/uploading all the day’s call and chat records manually at the end of each workday is unnecessarily counterproductive, especially since the entire process could be automatic and instantaneous.
Increase the Success Rate of Special Offers with Intelligent Need Management
It is a common marketing ploy for companies to provide their clients and customers with special offers. However, how can you ensure that the special offer provides true value to the customer in question? The reason why most customers do not even take a proper look at the ‘special offers’ is because they are not anything special or even useful to them, most of the time. On the other hand, if the customer’s available data regarding scale of usage, categories of usage, and active timeframes could be measured and analyzed to create personalized, needs-based special offers, those will have a much higher rate of success. It’s about understanding the needs and wants of the customer using your service, and then presenting them with offers which can actually be useful to them. This eliminates the need to make unnecessary efforts and marketing irrelevant content to customers.
Even if an offer gets the customer to spend more on a higher tier of the service/plan, they are likely to stick with the more expensive subscription, rather than calling up the customer care and asking them to cancel their subscription soon after! Provide customers with feasible options to upgrade in a way that facilitates their own needs in doing so. This in turn will hold your customers and their subscriptions with a much higher rate of success and satisfaction.
