Telcos Look to CEM to Garner Customer Loyalty and Longevity

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Telecom service providers are increasing their reliance on customer experience management (CEM) tools as a way to improve their relationships with enterprise customers, according to the latest report published by Heavy Reading Insider (www.heavyreading.com/insider), a subscription research service from Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

Service Providers Use CEM for Competitive Advantage examines the customer experience management market, analyzing the verticals that are most likely to utilize CEM over the next two years, as well drivers in the market and challenges in the industry. It includes a comparative analysis of CEM solutions available, examines the growth expectations of the market and explores trends that are likely to occur in the industry over the next 18 to 24 months.

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/hri0512_companies.pdf

"Telco service providers are turning to CEM solutions to manage the increasing demands placed on their networks and to better understand the needs and desires of their users," says Denise Culver, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. "While CEM has ties to customer relationship management (CRM), it takes a more holistic view of the customer experience, essentially taking all customer touch points or 'experiences' and transforms it into actionable business intelligence for the telco service provider."

Competition and rising customer expectations mean that customer experience issues increasingly drive financial performance, Culver says. "CEM enables companies to think in terms of customer personalization and how to motivate individual customers," she continues. "As more customers feel they're individual needs are being met the more loyalty they will feel toward the companies that are eager to hang on to them for the long term."

Key findings of Service Providers Use CEM for Competitive Advantage include the following:

• Smartphone and tablet proliferation, as well as rising customer expectations, will drive the need to provide an outstanding customer experience, leading to the increased use of CEM.
• For the majority of mobile and VoIP service providers, the biggest contributor to churn is reduced customer experience resulting from poor network quality, an issue that CEM directly addresses.
• CEM will continue to be important to telco service providers as increasingly advanced services and devices are introduced, increasing the complexity of the network and driving up customer expectations.
• Increased competition, especially in mature and emerging markets, will force businesses to utilize CEM to seek alternative revenues and save costs to retain profitability.

Service Providers Use CEM for Competitive Advantage is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Heavy Reading Insider, priced at $1,995. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

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About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)
Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the $4 trillion global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com)
The Light Reading Communications Network combines the most trusted telecom research brands with award-winning online communities and a rich events portfolio to deliver the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.  With the power of this platform, leaders who build, deploy, finance, and regulate next-generation telecom networks are able to make more informed decisions on emerging market and service opportunities.  Light Reading Communications Network is a division of UBM TechWeb (www.ubmtechweb.com), the global leader in technology media and business information.

SOURCE Heavy Reading