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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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If the digital transformation of companies was recognized as a strategic issue before the health crisis, only 48% of firms in 2019 perceived digital as an opportunity and were piloting a truly committed digital strategy. The pandemic, supported by massive telecommuting, has reshuffled the digitalization deck by pushing companies to quickly adapt to containment. For telecom operators, capitalizing on technological means has often been associated with streamlining internal processes and adopting atypical business models. However, while bringing its own set of constraints, the crisis has demonstrated that the customer experience is also central to business development and brand image. Driven by the demands of a pandemic environment that is necessarily virtual and remote, companies have massively reoriented their customer service towards digital spaces. It is now essential for telecom operators to direct their resources and processes towards the customer and to integrate his voice in strategic decisions.
This policy is even important because it allows operators to optimize the quality of service while ensuring their profitability. The combination of these two performance spectrums is extremely challenging for telecom operators as it requires a strong ambidexterity, on the one hand exploiting resources to ensure productivity, and on the other hand exploring innovative technological means to deliver a high-quality customized service. As a major player in telecommunications for the B2B market, Orange Business Services (OBS) is working today to digitalize the experience of its customers, in order to adapt to the new socio-professional habits of the post-crisis era. To meet this requirement, action research was conducted in close collaboration between UIR Rabat Business School and OBS, mobilizing a massive database of customers in different sectors and developing innovative deep learning algorithms. In addition to improving the performance of OBS, the results of the study introduced below constitute a major academic contribution to management information systems, by defining the foundations of customer-oriented digital intelligence.
Proven role of digital B2B customer experience in combining profitability and service quality
On the one hand, the implementation of a digital customer experience has a significant impact on the operator's profitability, especially the cost to revenue ratio. This is the direct cost of connecting customer sites around the world and the service provided to them by OBS. By digitalizing this experience, the operator has been able to attract and retain more customers, thereby increasing revenue and market share. Also, the digital experience mobilizes, among other things, actions that reduce network downtime, which in turn minimizes the costs associated with network maintenance and customer support. On the other hand, research shows that the use of digital technologies for B2B customer relations accurately predicts the quality of service offered. Digitalization helps to better manage and maintain networks, which reduces burdensome manual interventions for the customer, and improves communication reliability and call completion rates. It also provides real-time data on network usage and customer behavior, enabling OBS to quickly identify and resolve any issues that may affect service quality.
Best practices to digitalize the B2B customer experience
This study identified several approaches to digitalizing the B2B customer experience for OBS. We explain the best practices that have a notable effect on improving profitability and service quality.
Business Intelligence: Digitalization improves customer relationships through data analysis. It helps operators understand market variations and create targeted marketing campaigns and personalized services to meet the needs of each segment. During this research, customer dashboards were implemented to enable client firms to track and understand their own consumption and markets, assist operational teams in managing service quality, and act to minimize downtime. These dashboards allow clients to monitor network performance in terms of volumes, geographic locations, and call center dynamics. This not only increases customer satisfaction and retention, but also the likelihood of upsells and revenue generation.
Virtual Session Border Controllers: Session Border Controllers are network elements that control the flow of signaling and voice over IP. They serve as a security gateway between the internal network and the public Internet. By virtualizing these controllers, the operator optimizes the use and cost of IT infrastructure because multiple controllers can run on a single physical machine. This results in economies of scale, greater flexibility, and improved network scalability. Quality of service is also enhanced because these controllers can shape traffic to ensure that calls receive sufficient bandwidth and low latency.
• Virtual probes: Virtual probes are software that allow organizations to monitor their networks remotely and in real time. They are designed to collect data from a variety of sources, including switches, routers, firewalls, and servers. These probes allow the operator to detect the presence of high levels of traffic on the network and slow response times. This optimizes the network configuration resulting in a better customer experience, reduced hardware and maintenance costs, and the prevention of costly downtime in terms of time and revenue.
• Robotic (RPA) and Intelligent Process Automation (IPA): RPA involves automating repetitive tasks using software robots, while IPA focuses on more complex tasks that involve decision making, reasoning and natural language processing. RPA allows the operator to automate billing processes, reducing errors that affect customer satisfaction. IPA is implemented to automate network monitoring and maintenance, and optimize downtime. Both technologies help automate customer service including inquiry response and order processing, streamline supply chain management, and free up employees to focus on cognitive tasks. Together, these technologies enable the operator to optimize processes, reduce errors and improve efficiency.
A future intelligent and human digital experience thanks to OpenAI
The recent OpenAI and ChatGPT open up a new field of possibilities for operators' B2B customer experience ensuring more profitability and quality of service. OBS is experimenting with this technology to create a chatbot capable of handling customer inquiries, complaints, and support. The chatbot uses natural language processing to understand and respond to customer requests, and learning algorithms to improve its responses over time. OBS is also testing the potential of OpenAI to monitor network performance, and proactively offer appropriate solutions to customers experiencing service issues.
