The idea of convergence in industries like telecoms and media and entertainment is not necessarily a new idea. But now, with COVID-19 changing the ways brands do business, it is starting to gather serious momentum as consumers begin to dictate how brands in telecoms should strategize and develop.  

Telecoms are struggling to find new ways to generate customer growth and retention. There are several market dynamics at play here: consumer expectations of ubiquitous connectivity, high-speed 5G deployment spurring fixed-mobile substitution (FMS), and commoditization of basic, universal access. From the consumer point of view, as it becomes more and more common to buy telecom services as a package, the consumer has an entirely logical expectation that these services will work together in a (reasonably) seamless manner. 

At the same time, as telecom services move into the TV and media space (think Virgin, Sky, Verizon, and Comcast), and take advantage of the major changes and disruptions in that market, they wish to make consuming their content as easy as possible, on the full range of devices that the customer has at their disposal.

A natural consequence of all these factors is a shift to convergence. That is, the merging and migration of multiple communications services into a single network, most commonly information technologies, telecoms, consumer electronics, and entertainment. With convergence, these previously separate technologies can now share resources, communicatie, and act with each other synergistically. So what impact does this have on global telecoms with millions of customers across multiple apps?

Deliver a More Relevant Customer Experience

Consumers expect seamless, connected experiences delivered in context across channels and devices. To meet that challenge, telecoms need to invest in the places where they will interact directly with their consumers—websites, and call centers yes, but also the app (both on mobile and TV), and emerging channels including web push notifications, messaging platforms, chatbots, and more. 

Across all these platforms is the need to deliver information in a straightforward way, but also to support interactions that are relevant and contextual in real time. These can be outbound, like information on service changes or updates, or particular campaigns relevant to the individual customer, but they can also empower the customer to talk back, both with direct questions or feedback through simple customer survey mechanisms.

Successfully operating with one voice across a diverse landscape means sharing data across channels, understanding the individual user based on their behavior in each channel, and managing that relationship at a personal level with relevant, contextual information. Those telecoms that deliver that experience will win in the convergent landscape.

At Swrve we help global telecoms with millions of customers scale real-time, 1:1 communications across multiple apps, devices, and channels. Speak to one of our customer experience experts to learn how Swrve can drive value for your business.