Highly trained support staff and advanced customer care technology are now essential to delivering needed high standards of support to enhance end user experience

Customer support is the biggest marketing tool any ISP can have in today’s instant and review-led society. That was the message from Craig Norman, Managing Director of connection manager software specialist Emotum, at yesterday’s opening day of the Broadband World Forum in Paris.

During his interactive panel session on ‘End-to-End Customer Experience Management’, alongside operators Elisa and Telio, Mr Norman said customer support is now more important than ever and that negative comments about ISPs can spread quickly.

“Five years ago high quality customer support was not a high priority for ISPs but now it’s nothing short of essential, as one bad user experience can have a huge negative impact for an ISP,” said Mr Norman. “It’s not just about getting access to fixed or mobile connections for customers; it’s about the entire journey they go on, right from set-up to the moment they have problems. ISPs have the chance to differentiate themselves by being there throughout the end users’ journey and to help solve any issues quickly.”

He added: “With increasing demand for OTT and IPTV services and the use of sites like Facebook and Twitter being key to people’s day-to-day lives, when something goes wrong with their connection it creates panic. They want to be back up and running instantly, and this is where ISPs need to deliver.”

Mr Norman, an expert in user experience software design, explained that call centre staff now need to be experts rather than “inexperienced personnel” owing to the complexity of the home networking environment and the array of devices people now carry. He also maintained that end users are becoming smarter and that those who are less savvy often have people who can help them.

“It is the ‘technology-aware’ user that needs to be empowered to help the ISPs, as they probably have a better understanding of the problems being faced,” said Mr Norman. “Working collaboratively with end users and technology, such as connection management software, ISPs have an opportunity to solve access issues quicker, meaning reduced support costs, increased efficiency and a better brand reputation.”

Emotum has just launched a “best value” connection manager for emerging or expanding mobile operators. The new software includes Emotum’s unique self-help technology and has been developed to relieve the ‘pain points’ experienced by mobile internet service providers (ISPs) including increasing customer support outlays, low loyalty, high churn rates and costly start-up and licence fees. In addition it alleviates issues around update management of software and device firmware, testing and quality assurance, time to market for new releases, and includes native support for both Mac and Windows operating systems.

For more information please visit www.emotum.com.