So Many Devices, So Little Time

By Mike Couture, Amdocs

I have a longtime friend in the United States whose wife recently asked him what he wanted for his birthday. His immediate answer was “a smartphone,” which was followed by, “One that saves and plays music, but we’ll have to get the kids to help me figure that out.” I tried to point out to my friend that he could figure this out if he checked out the online instruction manual or called customer service.

He laughed and said the last time he tried to get help for his Blackberry through customer service he was routed around 10 times to no avail. He went online only, to become more confused when he couldn’t find his phone’s manual and then, when he stopped at the retail store, the salesperson seemed just as perplexed as he was by the various features on his phone.

It seems my friend’s retail experience, and his trepidation toward using his smartphone to anywhere near its true potential, is not unique. According to a recent survey, one out of six consumers are unaware of their smartphone's advanced features or don’t know how to use them. This is a massive revenue opportunity for service providers to consider, and an opportunity to expand the service provider/customer relationship.

Service providers also have an opportunity to enhance their customer relationships through their support services. One survey discovered that those respondents who had contacted a call center classified the reason for doing so as a "technical support" issue, even though the majority of these issues were basic "how to" inquiries such as device configuration (like how to set up e-mail), or menu navigation (how to enable Wi-Fi access). These inquiries can be resolved quickly and efficiently via Web self-service, by empowering level 1 customer-care agents, and by routinely training the customer on basic usage, at the time of sale.

Fortunately, my friend hadn’t experienced any frustrating moments with his new smartphone, but many users have over the past months. I’ve lost count of how many stories I’ve heard of people frantically trying to figure out how to use a feature on their phone, only to become so overwhelmed that they returned the phone for a downsized version or a competitive product. In fact, the same survey pointed out that a majority of the respondents who had difficulties in using their smartphone strongly considered returning their devices because they couldn’t resolve basic issues. Often this is done at the behest of frustrated call center agents, who have lost patience trying to resolve basic issues.

Smartphones seem to be the way to the consumer’s heart, and service providers are in an optimal position to “seal the relationship deal” and take customer relationship management to the next level. But they must consider three things: First, train store representatives to fully educate the customer; second, empower level 1 and 2 agents to provide maximum service and support assistance for smartphone customers; and third, make self-service easy and compelling through a user-friendly Web site. Now that’s smart!

Mike Couture is vice president of Amdocs, where he leads the company’s global team of marketing professionals in the areas of market research and insight, product marketing, marketing communications, corporate marketing, regional marketing and account-based marketing.