Airtel keeps it simple

Here's how the telecom operator is putting the "controls" back into the customer's hand

Telecom market leader Bharti Airtel has just launched a programme ‘Project Next’ to make the customer experience on its platform simple, interactive and transparent. The programme has two legs-retaining high-value post-paid subscribers and demonstrating its much vaunted “Airtel experience” through its newly launched Next-Gen Airtel stores.

In the run up to the launch of ‘Project Next’, Bharti Airtel spent a significant amount of time listening to customers and collating feedback. Based on more than 2,450 hours of observing customers stream in and out of its various stores, the operator has drawn up an exhaustive list of pain-points in the customer lifecycle. The company is addressing each of these pain-points with digital solutions. 

“Having closely observed our customers, we have recognised that there are bound to be positive as well as negative interactions through the customer lifecycle. We have identified 17 moments of truth. At each of these moments, our aim is to eliminate customer frustration and make the experience better via digital innovation,” says Raj Pudipeddi, director, consumer business and chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel.

As the company found out, the areas where it needed to work related to the customers’ on-boarding experience, communicating offers, hastening the billing process and tracking data consumption. These areas were identified based on customer feedback from more than 3,000 company-owned and franchise retail stores; 30,00,00 queries received on social media every day, and 480 million calls received by 18,000 exclusive agents at its 40-odd contact centres across 36 cities. 

Here’s how it is easing the pain-points. For instance, the company has digitalised the entire on-boarding process. It claims that using the Airtel app, a customer can acquire a new connection within minutes. Earlier, it would take a customer about a day or two to get a new connection on the Airtel network. “The digitalisation drive is aimed at motivating customers to go for self-care rather than assisted care. The idea is to put the control back into customer’s hand,” says Sarang Kanade, director, customer experience, Bharti Airtel. 

In its pursuit to resolve customer queries quick and fast, the operator has reengineered a number of its back-end processes ensuring that nearly 95 per cent of the queries are resolved through the Airtel app. Alongside multiple app updates, the company has also invested time and resources in retraining its customer relationship officers (now referred as Airtel friends) to guide customers to resolve their queries on their own. 

The operator has digitised existing interfaces in a bid to arm its team of Airtel friends with customer profiles and other data points to ensure that when a customer calls both the stakeholders (the Airtel friend and the customer) are looking at a common set of data. In other words, an Airtel friend while interacting with a subscriber would know exactly which version of the Airtel app the customer is using. Accordingly, the Airtel friend will suggest solutions so that the customer is able to self-address specific queries thus raised.

To increase stickiness among existing data users, the operator is promising data roll-over to its postpaid customers. Claiming that the move is an industry first, the operator will now allow postpaid customers to carry forward their unused monthly data quota to the next billing cycle ensuring zero data wastage for customers. 

Without spelling out the specific impact that the move will have on Bharti Airtel’s data pricing, Pudipeddi says that this offering stems from operator’s ‘customer first,’ philosophy. The move will likely protect its high value customers from migrating to cheaper rival networks. 

“Data revenues are concentrated in Tier I markets and postpaid subscribers account for higher revenue. The operator’s move to allow customers to carry over their used data is aimed at locking in high paying customers. Since Bharti Airtel has already invested heavily in spectrum and telecom sites in Tier I markets, incremental capex on account of facilitating data roll over will come at a small cost for the company,” says Pankaj Agrawal, partner, Capitel.

Further, Agrawal claims revenues of most telecom players are under pressure. Customer care is a large part of a service company’s investments; but operating expenses are low if one pushes self-care. In a highly competitive market with rapidly falling prices, an operator stands to get a lot of marketing mileage with initiatives centred on improving customer experience, he adds.