Ericsson ConsumerLab report has suggested Indian telecom service providers to focus on customer care for better mobile user experience.
Ericsson Region India Head Chris Houghton, in a statement, said initial purchase experience and customer service emerged as priority touch points in India. One in three urban mobile users claim they do not find mobile plans that best suit their usage patterns, and 85 percent rate quick activation of services as very important.
According to Ericsson ConsumerLab report, mobile broadband consumers with a positive service experience are three times more loyal to their operator than a consumer with a dissatisfied customer service experience.
Mobile broadband customer service needs more focus as smartphone users are twice as likely to face issues such as slow speeds and dropped data connections. Poor customer service, network or mobile internet performance accounts for half of the issues faced by mobile users who are looking to switch operators.
To retain smartphone users, operators must address basic needs such as accuracy in billing/charging, high quality network performance and delighters such as assured mobile internet speeds, rewards, and loyalty programs. All of these factors will increase satisfaction proportionately.
The report suggests that telecom operators must equip customer care executives with the tools needed to improve service delivery. Three out of five telecom customer care agents find it difficult to respond to the more complex queries presented by data intensive users.
More than 77 percent respondents indicated a need for a single unified view of the customer’s account. This will help them take decisions in the best interest of consumers while improving consumer experience. The long hold times experienced when calling mobile operators’ customer care centers is often because 40 percent of agents claim they have to switch between four screens to solve a single query.
In addition, a quarter of urban mobile users are currently facing issues with their operator. However, on average, under half of all problems are relayed back to the operator. The impact of a poor experience has 47 percent of consumers thinking of switching operators.
