In The Loop

Here at Cycle30, we’re big believers in the power of customer service. After all, that’s part of how we started this company. We had seen one too many wireless and cable billing/BSS vendors deliver less-than-stellar service to us and our peers in the industry. We knew we could do better. More…

Every year, communications service providers kick off projects to determine whether improving their back-office infrastructure makes sense. It’s often a time-consuming and financially exhausting process for the provider as well as the vendors involved. Before you take on this kind of effort, consider the three questions below.

If your business support systems are the heart of your business, then replacing back-office infrastructure like billing is something like open-heart surgery More…

I bet you’ve heard plenty about Twitter and how important it is to “friend” your customers and create a 24/7 “feedback loop” a la Frank Eliason and @ComcastCares. There are lots of ways to do this, and service providers of all sizes are still struggling to put together effective social media and listening programs that help them take advantage of this customer feedback loop.

But it’s a struggle. As our More…

It’s always exciting to attend the TMF Management World conference. I had a chance to speak at last year’s event in Nice, and I’m looking forward to the discussions this year in Dublin.

One area I’m especially intrigued by are the sessions related to “smart grid/smart utilities.” It will be interesting to see what lessons the utility sector takes from the experience of telecoms.

My prediction is that there are many technology lessons to be learned; however, the primary lesson will be about the criticality of putting the customer at the center of the model. That means gaining a greater understanding of your customer, developing products/plans that meet their requirements and giving them access to information about their consumption patterns. Giving customers the power to be better informed and thereby better able to make choices to suit their individual needs.

It’s a lesson that took the telecom industry a while to learn and a valuable one that utilities should take to heart as soon as possible.

This topic is near and dear to my heart, but it’s just one of the many discussions I look forward to sharing with colleagues new and old at TMF Management World this year. Let me know your thoughts here, or better yet, meet us there and join the conversation. More…

In 2011, it’s an amazing time to be in business, especially in the technology business. New speeds, systems and protocols we never imagined 10 years ago are being launched all the time. It’s a time of sweeping change in the telecom, cable and utility industries, and yet I’m hearing a constant theme over and over again. Despite all these technological advances around the globe, business still boils down to just one thing — customers.

The companies destined to succeed are those that continually seek a culture of customer service. By that, I mean they seek to infuse their companies with values, processes and tools that help them understand and serve their customers — because the customers are their business.

Our goal at Cycle30 is to assist service providers, which are our customers, by providing some of those values, tools and processes that bring them closer to their own customers. We think service providers’ ability to truly know and serve their subscribers with perfect service is really the holy grail. Many seek this, but too many fall far too short of the goal

Technology is amazing. It helps us every day. But while it can bring enormous benefits, it can’t help you take care of customers if your values and processes aren’t in place as well. None of us can afford to forget that customers always hold the power in the customer-provider relationship: the power to trust you with their services, and, more importantly, with their hearts.

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