Driving Hyper-Personalization via AI-Driven BSS for Telco CX

The telecom industry is inherently data-rich, given the sheer number of voice, messaging and data sessions, and various user transactions that are logged and processed each second. With the maturing of AI technologies, operators are now leveraging advancements in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) to unleash the power of the data they churn daily. As a result, a vast number of telecom functions are now being enhanced with new levels of intelligence that allows the industry to deliver improved performance and experiences.

More increasingly, operators are turning to AI to transform customer experience (CX) and drive digital transformation. The emphasis on CX cannot be timelier, as players in consumer markets are zeroing in on their physical and virtual interactions with existing and potential customers to improve customer satisfaction, upsell services and expand their market share. According to IDC, product homogeneity and intense price competition are forcing players in such markets to create differentiation for their brands by leveraging CX [1].

For the telecoms industry, capitalizing on CX presents a powerful pathway towards brand identity, customer retention and ultimately, profitability. This however requires operators to develop a wide array of capabilities, especially analytics and AI, to enable deep personalization across every phase of the customer journey.

From personalization to hyper-personalization

While AI-driven customization is already underway across BSS and CX domains, most operators are not aware that generic parameters often used in AI modeling, for example, location, language of preference and market category, are inadequate in delivering truly impactful personalization. To address this, IDC urges companies to look into other facets of engagement, tapping into customer profile details, dynamic content and contextualized interactions. The report [1] found that deeper personalization improves engagement rates by 35 - 40% across key marketing KPIs namely conversion, lead generation, cart / transaction value, CSAT / NPS metrics, and loyalty/repurchase and lifetime value.

Understanding customer requirements, however, is only one part of the journey. Knowing when and how to act on this information is another crucial aspect. This is where advanced analytics and AI technologies come into play. With advanced analytics, operators are kept in the know of the behavioral and consumption trends of their customers, while AI techniques such as ML and DL enable operators to accurately predict and respond to customer needs.

AI-Driven BSS Platform for improved CX

Merging advanced analytics and AI with the latest BSS capabilities is a powerful breed of BSS platforms that are AI-driven. An AI-driven BSS platform enables intelligent and contextualized interactions. It connects with the customer at every mile of the journey, identifying their needs, and filling in the gaps with personalized offers. “Increased personalization can drive revenue and retention rates, while AI-enabled automation and resource optimization help operators bring down operational costs,” said Ali Durmuş, PhD, Founding Partner and CTO of Etiya.

An AI-Driven BSS platform combines advanced NLP and ML technologies to deliver highly relevant and actionable customer insights. With 80% of consumer applications being developed with a ‘voice-first philosophy’ [2], the platform brings together speech, text and social analytics to deliver accurate predictions via large volumes of structured data. This enables the platform to deliver not only predictive analytics and forecasting, but also real-time automated event detection, decision support and risk modelling as well as churn and fraud prediction.

“Given that conversational agents handle 20% of customer service [3], enhanced predictive capabilities can power virtual assistants and chatbots across self-service applications and operator websites, to better assist and guide customers and significantly boost customer experiences,” said Ali. “These ensures operators are always equipped with the analytics they need to respond contextually to customer queries and issues. Operators can also better strategize their upsell and cross-sell approaches using sales prediction and demand forecasting tools that we provide.”

AI capabilities offered by an intelligent BSS platform are also spurring the use of digital twins in CX management, enabling operators to visualize and simulate customer behaviour and decisions, across different phases of the customer journey. These enable operators to uncover hidden issues, identify new market segments and experiment with creative marketing ideas, without too many trials and errors. It also accelerates innovation cycles and time-to-market as new product offers and pricing decisions can be tested virtually using AI models.

From powering intelligent chatbots to expanding operators’ customer base

An AI-driven digital BSS platform can support a wide range of use cases, including intelligent chatbots where it uses APIs to connect to messaging channels such as WhatsApp and Telegram. The platform deploys natural language understanding (e.g. intent recognition and sentiment analysis) as well as conversation management (e.g. intent selection and action handling) to drive analytics and supervise chatbot activity. With Generative AI, operators can incorporate contextual messages, images and animated content that echo customer sentiments and thus enable operators to establish stronger connections with their subscribers. With direct integration with CRM, billing and campaign management, the platform enables transactions made via various touchpoints to be updated automatically into the operators’ systems.

Another use case is churn prevention, where an AI-driven digital BSS platform identifies dissatisfied customers and follows up with product recommendations, discounts and bonuses. It also analyses the root cause of churn. The platform drives customer satisfaction, with prompt responses and immediate attendance to customer issues. Here, it utilizes functionalities such as text classification, language detection and key phrases to understand customers and their needs. When it comes to customer acquisition, operators can leverage AI-driven messaging across social media, content and email marketing to reach new customers. Operators are also able to identify marketing opportunities, establish customer acquisition costs and discover new acquisition channels.

Improving campaign effectiveness with intelligent targeting

As 5G matures, and the adoption of 5.5G begins, operators will see new opportunities unfolding. Higher bandwidth and sub-second latencies enabled by in-network computing in 5.5G enables operators to support edge-processed, computing-intensive applications such as V2X connectivity, IIoT and smart health. These capabilities will rapidly enhance the breadth of services operators can offer, be it private 5G services, 5G FWA or application-based packages such as cloud-gaming and video streaming. Launching new services and ensuring high take-up rates depends on how well operators manage their campaigns. In this regard, marketing teams can leverage campaign management capabilities offered by AI-driven BSS platforms to coordinate and monitor their marketing efforts, from planning to channel selection and final execution. Using customers’ past transactions and interactions, such platforms are able to generate personalized offers and appropriate action prompts.

Expanding customer reach with smarter omni-channel strategies

Today’s customer interactions span many touchpoints, from walk-in customer service centers to self-service kiosks, website, chatbots, virtual assistants and social media channels. However, operators very often grapple with fragmented channel-centric approaches that fail to coordinate and streamline communications with a customer, resulting in inconsistent experiences. An AI-sdriven BSS platform mitigates this by unifying related data, including customer channel preferences and engagement updates, on a single pane of glass. Topping this with AI allows operators to follow and analyze customer conversations, proactively manage channels, and keep tabs on customer complaints and sentiments.

AI-driven future for BSS

Etiya, a leading independent software vendor, specializes in customer experience-driven-digital transformation. At the heart of its offerings lies the AI-Driven, cloud-native Digital Business Platform, which seamlessly integrates all essential components of an AI-driven BSS.

The platform boasts cutting-edge AI capabilities, including advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML). These features not only enhance operators' predictive capabilities but also facilitate data-driven decision-making, ultimately leading to greater automation. It also facilitates the creation of a digital twin for each customer, a repository of data that simulates the customer’s behavior, enabling accurate predictions for future interactions.

With its modular, scalable design and open APIs, the Digital Business Platform offers unparalleled flexibility. Operators can easily integrate it into their existing systems, ensuring a seamless transition. Moreover, its microservice-based architecture further enhances adaptability.

With the help of the platform's robust capabilities, operators can deliver personalized and frictionless customer experiences. From comprehensive campaign management to innovative social listening capabilities, Etiya's platform empowers marketing teams to engage customers effectively across various digital channels, fostering proactive channel management and communication strategies. Etiya’s AI-driven platform empowers CSPs to predict CLV, evaluating both new acquisitions and existing customers for long-term profitability. It also helps calculate CLV scores in real time and refine customer segmentation to deliver highly personalized campaign recommendations, enhancing customer retention, satisfaction, brand loyalty, and revenue growth. Etiya's BSS platform, featuring an integrated LLM-supported virtual assistant, enables self-service across various domains, spanning from product and service offerings to addressing customer complaints. This solution contributes to boosting sales revenues and enhancing the first-contact resolution rates.

With AI-driven digital platforms pushing BSS capabilities to the next level, operators can scale up their operations to cater to a larger subscriber base and a wider service portfolio. From creating and delivering a plethora of innovative services, to upselling, cross-selling and rewarding long-standing customers, AI-driven BSS will significantly enhance customer experience and boost operator brand proposition and revenue growth.

References:

[1] IDC Spotlight, Nov 2022: Toward Superior Customer Experience: Building Blocks for Personalization

[2] CXO Today

[3] Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020