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european COMMUNICATIONS www.eurocomms.com @eurocomms SPECIAL ISSUE Customer Experience Exclusive interview with BT Group CIO Clive Selley Special report featuring exclusive survey results What consumers really want in 2012 How to seamlessly integrate social media Design the ultimate customer experience strategy Q1 2012 ISSUE | OPERATOR STRATEGY | BACK OFFICE | NETWORKS | CONTENT & SERVICES Contents Operator Strategy 04 EU news round-up Quarterly dispatch from Brussels 06 Groupe Iliad launches Free Mobile in France A new mobile operator looks set to shake up the market 08 Technology risks rising up the global agenda, says World Economic Forum New report provides telcos with strategic food for thought 10 Worldwide telco stocks on the up Share prices at telcos across the globe finished in the black in Q4 Special Report Customer Experience 22 Survey Results of our exclusive customer experience survey 32 Analyst v operator What should be done to improve customer experience? 35 What do customers really want in 2012? New data reveal consumer priorities for the next 12 months 40 Designing a strategic blueprint for customer experience Customer loyalty has never been operators' strong point 42 Closing the customer service loop Operators must incorporate social media platforms 44 Blurring the retail and enterprise boundaries Should operators be rethinking the way in which they treat their customer segments? 50 Understanding customer experience seminar Review of our January event Back Office 53 2012: the back office moves forward This year should see operators’ back office systems finally get given the attention they need 54 Mobile Security: must do better What more should operators be doing? Networks 57 Can we predict the network of the future? The New Year heralds the usual array of predictions but will they come true? 58 How do you solve a problem like rural broadband? Finding an answer to the urban/rural digital divide Content & Services 12 Cover Story: Clive Selley 61 First coming of the second screen How BT Group CIO Clive Selley tells Marc Smith can operators profit from this growing second screen? how the company is tackling the tricky issue 62 X marks the spot, but LBS will not of customer experience provide a treasure-trove Location-based services may not boost operator revenues Back Page 64 Sun sets on T-Mobile USA sale Customer experience: it’s time to act Editor Marc Smith Welcome to our special “customer experience” issue. There are many topics fighting for [email protected] prominence at the top of senior managers’ agendas currently; customer experience is just one, T: +44 (0) 207 933 8979 Twitter: @eurocomms but getting it right is one of the most important topics of conversations that should be happening in the boardrooms of operators across the continent. Back office section editor: Worryingly, as we report in our exclusive readership survey, this does not appear to be Sue Tabbitt [email protected] happening in a significant number of cases – just 12 percent of respondents said C-suite executives are leading the customer experience agenda, while eight percent said no one was Networks section editor: leading it at all. Priscilla Awde [email protected] If this is true, then it is truly troubling and does not bode well for the future of the industry. If leaders are discussing it then they are not communicating it to their staff. Content & Services section editor: Either way the result could be catastrophic. Now is the time to act and if you haven’t woken Ian Grant [email protected] up to the fact that providing a best-in-class customer experience is as key as providing a best-in- class network then you are presiding over the terminal decline of your business. Publisher Fortunately, help is at hand from some of the biggest and best. Clive Selley is group CIO of Justyn Gidley [email protected] BT and nails his colours firmly to the mast this issue’s feature interview. “The customer +44 (0) 207 933 8979 experience is a basic building block of what we do,” he told us. Of course, it’s not an exact science and there are many different ways to approach it. Publishing Director Chris Cooke Fundamentally, however, it is time to act, as Selley points out: “The future presents several challenges and the winners will be those who deeply understand their customers.” Senior Circulation & Marketing To help you along the path to providing a better experience to your customers we have Manager Louise Nicholls looked at the subject from a number of different angles: what do customers want, how [email protected] should you implement a strategy across a complex business and what can you do to ensure a seamless experience in-store, on the phone, online and across social media. The tools are Design Alex Goldwater there, the time to act is now. Subscriptions/Circulation BlackBerry diaries: part II Saint John Patrick Publishers Ltd PO Box 6009 As I started my first issue last time out by outlining how my new BlackBerry smartphone was Thatcham changing my habits, I thought it could be an interesting experiment to diarise how this is Berkshire RG19 4TT continuing – particularly as I got some things very wrong! United Kingdom I wrote how monetizing data wouldn’t be easy unless I was made to pay more explicitly for T: +44 (0) 1635 879361 data. However, sending picture messages is one way they have made money from me in the F: +44 (0) 1635 868594 first couple of months. E: [email protected] W: eurocomms.com Consequently, my “no use for apps such as WhatsApp” sentiment went out the window as I realized I could send picture messages via this service free-of-charge. This neatly encapsulates the problems operators face and would hasten a discussion with © St John Patrick Publishers Ltd (ISSN 1367 9996) All Rights Reserved. WhatsApp about revenue sharing. Perhaps this is something new RiM president and CEO No portion of this magazine may be Thorsten Heins could look into. reproduced without written consent. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher, who accepts no liability of any nature arising out of or in connection with the contents of this magazine. European Communications is published quarterly by: St John Patrick Publishers Ltd, 6 Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R 0BL Professionals based in the UK and Europe can apply for a free subscription to European Communications at www.eurocomms.com/subscribe Subscription prices: Follow us on Twitter @eurocomms UK £48 Overseas £64 Join us on LinkedIn – search in Groups for European Communications 02 | european communications | eurocomms.com OPERATOR STRATEGY EU news round-up KEITH NUTHALL PRESENTS HIS QUARTERLY DISPATCH FROM BRUSSELS, WHICH THIS ISSUE FEATURES ROAMING, DATA PROTECTION AND MUCH MORE European Parliament wants tougher prices payable by users is a matter of action on roaming charges The difference concern,” said Niebler. The European Commission is coming This followed centre-right Polish Civic under pressure to toughen its action between domestic and Forum MEP Roza Thun staging a against high mobile roaming charges, as hearing on the issue in Brussels, its latest proposals are debated at the international rates where she said the difference between European Parliament. remained “huge” domestic and international rates MEPs want the Commission to go remained “huge”. At a parliamentary further in its action to foist more “ debate, she added: “The rise of the competition on the roaming market while services separately, so they can choose smartphone and our increasing capping bills. Proposals being drafted by a different supplier for international calls reliance on laptops and tablets, plus the parliament’s coordinator (rapporteur) from July 2014. She also has plans for cloud-based software applications that on the subject, the German Christian tighter caps on retail and wholesale” need an internet connection, means Democrat Angelika Niebler, have roaming prices from this July (2012). many of us still find ourselves suggested requiring telcos to offer clients “The situation is disappointing. The high hostages to high wifi and roaming domestic and international roaming level of voice, SMS and data roaming charges.” 04 | european communications | eurocomms.com OPERATOR STRATEGY Data protection rules set for overhaul Online business requires shake up information and communication The European Commission has proposed A new European Commission e- technologies projects. Of this, €1.7 a comprehensive reform of the EU's commerce policy paper has said that billion for photonics and micro-and 1995 data protection rules, aiming to despite all the efforts of governments nanoelectronics; €4.29 billion for strengthen online privacy and boost and the EU to foster growth in online nanotechnologies, advanced materials Europe's digital economy. The aim is to business, this key economic sector is and advanced manufacturing and simplify EU laws in the area, while still being hampered by serious long- processing studies; €575 million for strengthening privacy regulators. Instead standing problems. These include biotechnology; and €1.73 billion for of burdensome registrations, companies shortages in legal cross-border online space-related projects. would have a duty to quickly inform data business supplies; inadequate commissioners of serious breaches of information about international Metelem gets backing for acquisition privacy, ideally within one day. And if they ecommerce; weak consumer protection; The European Bank for Reconstruction failed to protect personal data, inefficient deliveries and payments; & Development (EBRD) has been commissioners could fine them heavily – illegal content and cybercrime. Brussels planning to back Cyprus-incorporated levying penalties of up to €1 million or argues by tackling these issues, e- Metelem Holding Company Limited in its up to two percent of the global annual commerce and online services could bid to acquire Polkomtel, one of turnover of a company.