In mature consumer mobile markets, CSPs have long-since developed seamless digital experiences for customers, with many able to effortlessly check their balance, purchase bolt-ons and additional services, and even make changes to their credit limit or tariff, all via a simple app.
The experience for enterprise customers, however, still lags behind. For enterprise users, servicing their mobile account usually means having to personally contact a dedicated account manager to request changes, even when it comes to relatively trivial actions, such as enabling roaming, or redistributing minutes or data allowances between corporate users.
Of course, business customers do have more complex requirements and processes than consumers. They may hold multiple accounts, or have multiple phones linked to a single account, and they may engage with a wider variety of products and services. For these reasons, business customers are typically steered towards personal interactions every time they need to amend their services. But is this really in the best interests of the customer, or the operators themselves?
For the majority of the time – for example, in the case of a sales representative on the road, who is about to run out of data – the needs of the enterprise customer are the same as consumers. What they really want is to be able to manage their own accounts in real-time, via an automated approval process, without having to speak to an account manager or controller.
Moreover, for businesses that control spending via bill capping, a lack of flexibility when it comes to serving individual needs can prove costly. Blunt bill caps can leave end-users unconnected, potentially limiting their ability to do their jobs. It creates a major, and avoidable, problem if their connectivity is suddenly terminated without the option to self-service and manage their account.
By providing enterprises with account control at the customer level, combined with proactive alerts when customers are nearing their spend cap, operators could make life easier for their customers and end-users, and potentially increase their own revenues, since many businesses would prefer to pay for additional connectivity than have their employees stranded and uncontactable.
Enabling simplified, flexible B2B self-serve experiences has been shown to increase customer satisfaction and spend, whilst offering CSPs the opportunity to drive down costs through reducing their servicing overhead. As many diverse sectors can attest, introducing self-service capabilities makes good business sense all round.
Learn more about self-care for enterprises >>
To match the expectations set by our experience as consumers – and to generate the maximum returns on their 5G investment – CSPs need a digital BSS designed to meet the evolving needs of the enterprise market.
MDS Global’s B2BonDemand BSS solution is designed specifically for enterprise service providers, with the aim of enhancing the front-end experience. It provides the necessary controls for multi-stakeholder environments, enabling business customers – from SMEs to large enterprises – to manage their accounts in real-time. Using online notifications and messages, self-serve portals and real-time apps, B2BonDemand improves the customer experience, from first engagement through to sale and issue resolution.
Operators have crafted wonderful digital experiences for consumers. It’s high time CSPs took a leaf out of their consumer book for enterprise customers.