When most telecommunications companies invest in Salesforce, their initial use case is managing sales and billing. But over the long term, this shouldn’t be the only use case for Salesforce. On the contrary, Salesforce can become a key asset in fundamentally rethinking every aspect of how modern customer experiences are delivered. This transformation of CX is becoming increasingly essential for all telcos to achieve. For example, industry research by J.D. Power found that although the phone remains the most commonly used channel for US telco customers to receive technical support, it offers the least satisfying customer experience. By contrast, social media is the top-rated customer channel, followed by mobile apps and online chat, according to J.D. Power’s 2020 U.S. Telecom In-Home Service Technician Study. 

The only viable way for telcos to respond in the face of rapidly changing expectations around CX is to take advantage of existing technology investments to reimagine their CX. Salesforce is ideally positioned to serve as the digital foundation for a telco’s CX transformation. By introducing powerful, fully integrated features and functionalities of the Salesforce ecosystem, telcos can better engage customers, reduce resolution times, and become more accommodating and responsive to customers who seek out support. This reinvention of CX is the type of bold, encompassing change that’s necessary for telcos to remain relevant and competitive. Let’s explore four specific ways that telcos can leverage their existing Salesforce investment to fundamentally reimagine CX:

Implement truly integrated, omnichannel customer service

Most telcos recognize the importance of multichannel options for customer service. But that doesn’t mean these channels are connected and truly integrated: If a customer makes contact on one channel, most telcos cannot offer seamless service if this customer subsequently transitions to another channel. By contrast, Salesforce enables telcos to embrace a true omnichannel service model, where all interactions across every channel—social media, webchat, text messages, emails, etc.—are logged and used to build a comprehensive, insightful profile of each customer. Moreover, the Salesforce omnichannel service model enables telcos to monitor how satisfied their customers are with the service they’re receiving. From within Salesforce, telcos can directly link their customer satisfaction surveys to specific interactions on specific dates with specific customer service representatives. In this way, telcos can use customer service data to intelligently and expeditiously improve CX for every customer.

Modernize management of field assets and services

Telcos are under constant pressure to reduce the costs and time associated with delivering field services. Salesforce offers comprehensive field management solutions that automate and streamline a range of field activities. For example, when it comes to fleet management, Salesforce can help telcos identify optimized routing options. Fleet managers also can take advantage of real-time location tracking to alert customers precisely what time to expect field teams to arrive. Meanwhile, sensors can be installed on field equipment and systems to monitor the performance of these systems—an area known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Using IoT data, telcos can generate a continuous stream of performance data on their field assets, enabling them to forecast when failures are imminent and to invest more strategically in the proactive maintenance of field assets.

Enable sales teams to identify more cross-sell and upsell opportunities

So much of the art of cross-selling and upselling is about making the right offers to the right customers at the right time. While this important sales skill has traditionally been based on the seller’s gut intuition, Salesforce can eliminate this reliance on human skills by enabling sales reps to automatically be fed cross-sell and upsell recommendations. These recommendations are based on powerful AI algorithms built into Salesforce that continuously analyze customer data to make intelligent selling predictions. Moreover, these same predictive capabilities can be extended to field service teams, enabling the teams that maintain, repair, and upgrade telco services to become highly effective at sales as well. When telcos are able to offer cross-sell and upsell opportunities that customers want it’s a win-win situation. Customers get more of the services and assets they want—and often at a better per-unit price as a result of bundling and discounts.

Inject more visibility and transparency into billing

Unfortunately, more often than not, telco customers perceive the industry to be ripe with hidden fees. The idea of being saddled with services they don’t need, or being held to overly restrictive contracts are commonplace. Salesforce can help alleviate these frustrations and anxieties around billing by injecting more visibility and transparency into the process. Using Salesforce billing tools, telcos can redesign their bills to be accurate and itemized in clear, consistent, explanatory formats. Moreover, when customers have inquiries and concerns about their bills, telco customer service teams are empowered with the billing data they need at their fingertips to provide consistently accurate information. In this way, Salesforce helps telcos build and maintain their customers’ trust.

Salesforce should be at the center of every telco’s strategy for fundamentally rethinking CX. By leveraging more of the features and functionalities available through Salesforce, telcos can implement truly integrated omnichannel service for customers, streamline management of field assets and services, empower sales teams to intelligently identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and build customer trust by providing more transparency in billing. 

Simplus is an industry leader in helping telcos continually extract more business value from their Salesforce investment. To learn more about how you can optimally leverage the Salesforce platform to transform CX, please reach out to Simplus today. We look forward to helping you better engage your customers and build their loyalty and trust.