Connectivity has become increasingly important for everyone, with the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerating our dependence on mobile phones. Most of us now rely on them to order groceries, hear the latest government advice and keep in touch with loved ones.
This is one of the many factors causing mobile providers to face growing pressure from customers. Quadient was interested in finding out the most pressing concerns mobile customers had and the level of service they received from their providers, so conducted a survey of 2,000 UK consumers – you can see our blog on how it impacts broadband providers here.
What issues are plaguing customers’ minds?
Our research revealed some interesting concerns of mobile customers. Unsurprisingly, they’re spending more time online at the moment: 61 percent are relying on online services more during the pandemic than they were previously. Worryingly though, only five percent feel their mobile providers have improved customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic – meaning that when mobile services are more in demand, the experience provided isn’t enhanced accordingly.
Mobile customers are also concerned about the impact of 5G. In fact, 59 percent feel their provider should focus more on customer service and improving their existing services than push 5G to be ‘the next big thing’. Meanwhile, worries are mounting about the proposed merger between O2 and Virgin Media, with 56 percent of respondents concerned it won’t improve customer services.
The impact? Customer experience is taking a hit. More than a third of mobile data customers have experienced an issue with their customer service recently.
The time to act is now
With concerns growing, there’s never been a more important time for mobile providers to communicate with their customers. Many have, or are planning to, switch – nearly a third, or 32 percent to be precise. And with Ofcom’s 2019 initiatives making it easier to switch companies, 81 percent are confident they could either switch if they wanted to, or have already done so and found the process simple. It just goes to show that if you don’t listen to your customers, there’s little to stop them jumping ship to a competitor.
This is even more crucial when you consider many customers are actually more understanding of the pressures mobile providers’ customer service teams are under at the moment. 70 percent are willing to use self-service options during the pandemic to resolve issues, making poor experiences all the more futile.
Omnichannel is the answer
Mobile providers would be forgiven for thinking these issues seem insurmountable, but there’s one thing to remember: always keep customers well informed of updates and put their worries at ease through the channel that’s most relevant for them. A single, omnichannel communications platform enabling providers to communicate quickly, consistently and accurately with their customers is vital, helping mobile providers to:
- Proactively inform customers of issues, for instance, a network outage, by sending updates via the most relevant channel
- Not just recognise when customers are unhappy, but analyse the entire customer journey to address the root cause – whether that’s COVID-19 disruption or wider network problems
- Pay attention to self-service interactions, making them as simple and stress-free as they would be if speaking directly with an agent
- Ensure an overarching strategy focused on a centralised communications hub is in place, to co-ordinate all communications from any channel
Using a partner like Quadient will provide a consolidated platform for managing all communications a mobile provider sends. This means experts in the technology side of life can attend to the core processes, leaving providers with that crucial time to focus on improving the overall experience during a particularly trying time.
To learn more, download the full report here: or if you’d like to speak to one of our team, contact us here.