Customer service

Winning new customers is always a difficult and expensive proposition, particularly in a market characterized by intense competition. That makes it all the more important for providers to give existing customers a level of service that will build long-term loyalty and make them feel appreciated. A key success factor here involves customer service. What aspects of customer service are important to users? Exactly what kind of service do customers want?

Over 80 percent of the experts surveyed identified hotline and online support as top priorities. Other factors rated by over half of the experts as very important for maintaining long-term customer relationships were remote configuration capability for terminal devices and broadband Internet applications, and service offerings for specific customer categories (Fig. 19).

Fig. 19:		Importance of customer service for long-term customer relationships (Broadband experts)

The consumers surveyed agreed with this view, with over 80 percent seeing an easily reachable and professional service hotline as a high priority. They also required a high-quality, clearly presented online portal which would enable them to make full use of their broadband Internet provider’s service offering. Other important factors for customer service with real consumer appeal were the ability to talk face-to-face with a customer adviser, and an on-the-spot installation service. (Fig. 20).

Fig. 20:		Customer service offerings for broadband Internet users (Consumers)

The responses from the experts surveyed left no doubt that the quality of customer service was the most important parameter in the service area. Fast availability and reachability and the response time and friendliness of the customer service team were also high priorities (Fig. 21). Other critical success factors for broadband Internet customer service included a comprehensive service range and the price – with slightly lower ratings, but still attracting concurrence levels of over 60 percent.

Fig. 21:		Success factors for customer service (Broadband experts)

Consumers took a similar view, rating response time and reachability as the two critical success factors for broadband Internet service. Other key concerns for consumers were a single point of contact, i.e. a customer service operation able to assist with all kinds of problems, and the friendliness and flexibility of customer service personnel.

Customer service is therefore a key requirement for long-term customer satisfaction in the broadband Internet sector, and its importance is set to grow still further. The significance of core services as compared with auxiliary services was assessed as over 70 percent in 2007, but the experts expect a further narrowing of this gap through 2015 (Fig. 22).

Fig. 22:		Growth of core vs. auxiliary services in broadband Internet (Broadband experts)

The coming years are clearly going to see a trend towards more customer service and auxiliary services over and above the core product. Broadband Internet providers have a number of options available to them when it comes to designing their service offerings, and can charge different prices accordingly. However, the broadband Internet experts surveyed for this study believed that all-inclusive packages would become the most popular form of auxiliary services in the future broadband Internet market (Fig. 23). Conversely, they saw only limited success prospects for “no frills” service packages consisting primarily of just the core service.

Fig. 23:		Broadband Internet service offerings and future customer expectations (Broadband experts)

Our look into the “crystal ball” indicates that tomorrow’s broadband Internet customers will be looking for more than just highly reasonable prices. Customer service, auxiliary services and especially user-friendly products will be key requirements for winning and keeping customers in the long term. This also applies specifically to mobile Internet, as one of the major drivers of growth in the broadband market. The next chapter looks at this topic in more detail.