Ffoulkes-Jones added that while different divisions naturally have different concerns, they are all interconnected when it comes to CEM. “Operators have to change their business culture and understand that CEM is everyone’s problem and they have to connect those dots if they’re going to implement it effectively.”
Northstream CEO Bengt Nordstrom agreed, adding it all starts with the CEO. “It won’t work until the CEO realizes that change has to be made. If you empower someone to manage CEM, the effort has to be made from the top.”
That’s not to say the challenge of CEM stops with the operator itself – roaming services introduce additional challenges because operators approach roaming differently, said Mary Clark, senior VP of roaming at Syniverse.
“In Asia, for example, operators tend to be very strategic about roaming – having it tightly integrated into the service and working to give customers value,” she said. “But globally it’s a very fragmented approach.”
Clark pointed to a Syniverse study released this week found that over half of roamers don’t use voice services, and up to 70% don’t use data services, which adds up to $1.2 billion the mobile industry won’t be making this year. Syniverse’s proposed solution is using real-time intelligence to better monitor and manage the roamer experience.
She admitted another aspect to the problem has been the historical tendency of operators to see roaming as a pure money generator. “More operators are starting to move away from that and seeing an obligation to be customer-focused - thinking about the experience roaming customers have when they hit the ground and how to ensure that in an integrated way.”