Onboarding 3.0: transforming the customer relationship

The response: Onboarding 3.0

In order to design and implement a solution, the team at Konecta responded to this telco sector challenge in two stages: 

1. Consultancy support, including a customer study and care / resolution strategies
2. A proposed optimization solution, based on integrated and evolved E2E management, which we called Onboarding 3.0.

At the heart of this solution was showing the client that its integrated E2E process for acquiring, onboarding, serving and then evolving customers – in other words, the customer lifecycle - could be viewed in terms of ‘macro-phases’. We defined these macro-phases, helping the client understand what was happening and what was needed at each phase, to integrate both front- and back-office improvements.
 
Macro-phase 1: Service / product activation.
At this stage, the key expectations of the customer included speed, clarity and low effort – precisely what they weren’t being offered, according to the feedback above.

Macro-phase 2: Service / product utilization.
Throughout this phase, customer expectations were largely around caring and effective management and support. Again, the existing feedback showed this wasn’t being delivered – due to a lack of tools and self-care channels.
 
Macro-phase 3: Evolution and loyalty. 
This phase offers good upgrade / evolution opportunities. However, in the case of the client, the onboarding weaknesses and inadequate churn prevention meant that too many customers were not reaching that stage of the journey.
 
Our solution for the telco then showed how to improve and optimize the different processes involved in these phases, integrating them into a smooth and seamless journey for the customer.

Support on all of these phases and steps of Onboarding 3.0 was offered through a range of Konecta tools – from multimedia content to virtual agents and digital assistants to remote visual support to the use of AI tools and predictive algorithms. Through these tools, the clients would be able to improve its service to the customer through both reactive and proactive activity. Here are just a few examples:

• On the reactive side, the use of multimedia content and digital channels meant that customers could be taken through the onboarding processes, and helped through any issues, in the channel and manner they specified or preferred.
• Also on the reactive side, the use of remote visual support and virtual agents meant that activation instructions, or instructions for deactivating certain features, or other instructions could be provided more effectively, with faster resolution.
• In terms of proactivity, the use of predictive algorithms could help the telco to better anticipate issues and expectations, and also personalize its offer, in order to not only prevent attrition but also evolve the relationship.

 
Those are just three examples of improvements and opportunities generated. Feedback management also ensured that any ongoing unresolved or new pain points experienced by customers could be quickly identified and addressed.
 
 
Diving into the detail of E2E onboarding

Across all of this, the integrated end-to-end approach of Onboarding 3.0 accompanied the big-picture ‘macro-phases’ with absolute attention to detail at each step of the telco client’s customer lifecycle. The table below shows how Konecta’s toolkit was applied at every stage in order to provide the speed, clarity, effort minimalization, support, care and effective management that the telco’s customers expected throughout their onboarding journey and thereafter.

Equally importantly, the digital tools embedded in Konecta’s solution enabled the client to provide these different services and high standards of speed, care and support to customers cost-effectively.


Looking to the longer term

An effective onboarding process confirms to the customer the value of the product or service they signed up for, and shows them that their expectations are likely to be met. Not only does it engage them with using the product, it starts to build the relationship longer-term – you’ve done the courtship, now you step into the ‘we’re getting serious’ stage of the relationship. Or, in other words, as well as preventing churn, it can open the door to loyalty, upselling and evolution opportunities with the customer.

As with Onboarding 3.0, an effective integrated end-to-end onboarding process transports client and customer beyond the initial order finalisation, shipping, activation, and receipt of contracts and invoices, towards a longer-term relationship. With the telco provider, this involved applying Konecta’s expertise and toolkit to two further stages.
 

With the various tools and processes of Onboarding 3.0 implemented for the telco client, its ongoing evaluation shows that significant benefits have been achieved by the transformation of its onboarding processes.

These include: 

• improved end-to-end governance of first customer impact 
• evolved and effortless digital experience 
• reduction in cancellations (higher turnover) 
• reduction in customer contacts and recalls (lower costs) 
• reduction in churn (higher turnover) 
• improved loyalty (higher turnover) 
• increased customer value (higher turnover) 

According to Stefano Madonna,  Konecta’s Business Process Innovation & CX manager, ‘The objective of Onboarding 3.0 is to maximize the value and loyalty of the end-customer throughout each stage right through from order finalization to the receipt of invoice / payment. This is achieved by enhancing the care they receive from their new provider with a proactive, customer-centric approach that gives them an effortless experience. This can also be extended forwards to the entire lifecycle.