Enterprise customers are still pushing for a better service from their service providers, despite CSPs’ new focus on the enterprise market. But what exactly are these customers looking for? Here are the top five capabilities we see business customers requesting from their service providers:
Service providers have made it easy for consumers to manage their own accounts. Most allow these customers to check their balance, buy bolt-ons and change their credit limit or tariff via a simple app. Enterprise customers, on the other hand, do not have the same freedom, and must instead contact their account manager or email their service provider whenever they want to make even a small change, such as enabling roaming for a particular user, adjusting the organisational hierarchy, or redistributing allowances between users.
CSPs that offer their enterprise customers a self-service experience will improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Their costs will be reduced, and their revenues increased through additional upsell opportunities.
Learn more about self-care for enterprises >>
No-one wants to get landed with an unexpectedly high bill, but neither do they want to have their connectivity severed without warning. When forced to choose between these two options, many enterprises choose the latter, but this can be problematic for end users who rely on connectivity. Take the example of a company executive who has just arrived in a new city and is trying to navigate their way to a customer’s office or their hotel. If their connectivity is suddenly terminated, they will be inconvenienced, their safety could be compromised, and their experience of the service lowered.
The solution to this problem is simple, but surprisingly uncommon in the enterprise world. Offer your business customers usage notifications that alert them when they are nearing their limit, and allow them to configure these alerts exactly as they want.
Businesses need financial control. They want to know who is spending the money and how much is being spent. For large businesses with multiple divisions, it can be difficult to gain this insight, particularly if bills are paid at a local level.
By applying charges to the relevant cost centre, with corporate charges to the HQ, for example, the enterprise has the chance to apply the correct costs to the relevant business. But the enterprise also wants to be able to view enterprise wide costs and to be able to tailor their own analytic reporting for their own internal needs.
Every business has its own unique processes that may only make sense to the people who use them every day (and sometimes not even to them). These processes may be hardwired into the organisation and there may be little appetite for changing them, and especially not to meet the prescriptive processes of a supplier.
In order to win new enterprise business, it is essential that you can adapt the processes offered to match your large enterprise customers. Build unique workflows for individual customers or customer types and make it easy for them to be tailored to meet the end customer’s requirements.
The average business has hundreds or even thousands of suppliers. Retail giant Walmart has over 100,000 suppliers, whilst French oil company Total has more than 150,000. That’s a lot of contracts to negotiate and manage, and a lot of complexity in the supply chain.
To reduce this complexity, many enterprises are looking to buy multiple products or services from the same supplier. This is an excellent opportunity for service providers to add value and boost their revenues. Start by offering bundles that go beyond simple connectivity and include hardware, software licences, hosting, and security. Then, when you have a good understanding of the requirements of the industry or vertical you plan to target, develop complete end-to-end solutions.
Read our B2B Use Case Catalogue for some examples >>
Enterprises are made up of individual consumers who are used to experiencing life through the consumer lens. When they step into their business personas, they expect the same level of convenience and control. For the most part, service providers have failed to meet these expectations, let alone exceed them by delivering the capabilities enterprises really need.
To satisfy these customers, service providers need a digital BSS designed to meet the complexities of the enterprise market. MDS Global’s B2BonDemand BSS-as-a-Service fits the bill perfectly. Designed specifically for enterprise service providers, B2BonDemand has been tried and tested in the B2B divisions of leading Tier 1 service providers, including as BT, Telefónica O2 and TalkTalk Business, and can meet the above demands as standard.