How can Telco Operators Benefit from AI-Driven Sales Enablement Solutions?

Delivering a satisfying customer experience is essential to any sales process, but the expectations that telecom operators face are higher than most. Modern consumers expect highly personalized offers, complex and sophisticated product bundles, and seamless experiences – and if these expectations aren’t met, operators face the constant threat of churn, that can both be costly and also jeopardizes reaching long-term market share and revenue targets.

The challenge of meeting and even exceeding these expectations requires a system that can handle these complex requirements, improve efficiencies and thereby reduce costs – and increasingly, AI is providing the solution. Companies integrating AI into their sales and customer service processes are increasing leads by up to 50%, with call times down by as much as 60-70% and costs reduced by as much as 40-60%.

AI-driven sales enablement tools are therefore increasingly essential for operators looking to deliver packages tailored to their customers with a seamless purchasing process. These tools leverage advanced AI technologies to provide deep customer insights, automate and optimize processes, enhance customer interactions and drive revenue growth.

Deep Insights for Personalization

The vast amount of data generated by modern devices can be leveraged to achieve personalization at scale. AI algorithms can identify the usage patterns of individual customers, pinpointing their needs and preferences while also enabling the provider to segment them into relevant demographics. With deep insights and analytics, CSPs can pick up on even subtle changes in usage, predict new needs, and create tailored offers, cross- or up-sell opportunities that are highly likely to resonate with customers. If providers proactively propose better alternative offers that are more suited to the customer’s changed habits and requirements, users will feel that their needs are understood. This can help to prevent churn, and is also likely to inspire loyalty, brand advocacy and brand recommendation.

For large companies with millions of customers, it has long been difficult to gain such deep insights on the individual customer’s level using traditional techniques due to the sheer scale. However, AI-driven CRM tools can now pinpoint individuals or niche segments as well, and offer accurate information on their usage patterns, allowing for an informed reaction from the operator.

Automation for Streamlined Sales Process

In a sales process speed and accuracy are key factors for success, and AI-driven automation can help operators improve on both accounts.

Catalog-based bundle creation means, that offers are put together by using predefined building blocks, combined with specific eligibility rules, ensuring accuracy, relevance and reliability, but also fast time-to-market. Previously, the development of a new bundle could have required as much as several months, which is no longer acceptable by today’s market standards.

In a guided selling process, customers can enjoy the flexibility of fast offer creation that is supported by relevant recommendations based on valuable, AI-powered customer insights. Sales processes aided by algorithms will mean more personalized and relevant offers and customer journeys, less abandoned baskets, and enhanced sales efficiencies.

Automation also plays an important part in the validation and approval processes both for faster quoting and fulfilment, altogether contributing to a smoother purchase experience.

Omnichannel Capabilities for Seamless Experiences

Offering a consistent and personalized service across various channels facilitates an enhanced customer experience. Customers might prefer different channels for different interactions, or might want to use several channels in one process, e.g. in a single purchase flow. A good example for this could be the purchase of a device with a subscription. Customers might prefer to hold the device in their hand and try it first, or ask for advice from the sales agent on price plans. But they may wish to take some time to think it over or discuss it with others. Through AI, customer data and interaction history are synchronized across all channels, enabling an uninterrupted experience: after a store visit, customers can log into their account on their computer or mobile, and finalize the purchase themselves without having to go back to the store.

Recommendations and support during an interaction might also be useful in complex flows or scenarios with multiple options, where AI-powered virtual assistants can offer quick help to users. Such chatbots can facilitate decision-making and help accelerate the closing process without the need to involve agents either from a call center or going into a physical store. This offers more convenience to the customer, and higher cost efficiency to the operator.

As the above examples show, there are myriad benefits to implementing AI solutions into sales and customer service processes, and they encompass the whole customer journey.

As a starting point, AI-powered deep customer insights help operators be more knowledgeable about customer needs, and create more tailored offerings. But the benefits of AI don’t stop here. AI-driven automation enables significant reductions in cost of operation while increasing the speed, accuracy and reliability of offers served to customers. Guidance from virtual assistants throughout key customer interactions facilitates online conversions as well as reducing costs.

An omnichannel approach can further help in lowering infrastructure costs associated with retail and customer service by streamlining the sales process, reducing the costs of maintenance across the board.

By combining these elements, implementing AI into sales enablement can improve retention rates by boosting customer satisfaction. This leads to improved customer loyalty, which ultimately drives the lifetime value of each customer.

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Etiya’s primary mission is to deliver software solutions that enhance customer experiences and help achieve growth targets. Its comprehensive offering includes an end-to-end sales enablement solution featuring Product Catalog Management, CPQ and Order Management, all with embedded AI capabilities.

Leveraging deep insights and AI-driven tools, like Smart Offer Creation and Digital Twin Assisted Offer Creation, CSPs can craft personalized quotes tailored to specific demographic and usage profiles. In addition to the offer generated, Digital Twin Assisted Offer Creation also provides estimates for new acquisitions and potential revenue, aiding in forecasting business impacts. This capability also allows sales teams to adjust and fine-tune such offers as necessary, to come closer to reaching the desired business targets.

AI also enhances the order management process through intelligent fallout and jeopardy management, extensive automation in validation and approvals, and real-time tracking and notifications in the fulfilment process, ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.

This sales enablement solution is modular, flexible and scalable, adhering to industry standards, such as ODA and Open APIs, which facilitates easy and seamless integration with existing systems and with other BSS modules. The implementation of microservices across all the modules ensures the necessary agility for CSPs to modify capabilities quickly, and thus adapt to evolving customer requirements.

By leveraging such AI-driven solutions, telco operators can not only meet but exceed customer expectations, fostering growth and success in a dynamic market environment. As AI technology advances, the potential for further innovation in sales enablement tools is immense. Telco operators that embrace these tools will be well-positioned to thrive in the digital age, delivering exceptional value to their customers and maintaining a competitive edge.

To learn more about Etiya's AI-driven sales enablement tools contact us at contact@etiya.com.