Swisscom Mobil AG uses its outstanding customer service for critical competitive advantage in the telecommunications industry. The firm uses Oracle's Siebel call center software and Oracle Database to meet the needs of its 4 million clients. Up until 2003, call center agents used 47 different customer systems that gave agents only part of the data they needed to address customer problems. Now billing and customer care information can be pulled up in the same view, facilitating the management of product and service orders, price quotes, and service requests. Markus Wilhelm, who heads the Swisscom Customer Care group, contends that Siebel offers valuable system performance and reliability. The combination helps call center agents to meet the needs of customers because system problems are less likely to frustrate customers calling in with telecommunications problems. Future plans call for the company to implement the Siebel Customer Relationship Management system to all points of sale and to also introduce data-mining features to assist with customer retention.

As Published In November 2006

Assignment: Customer Care
By Ann C. Logue

Swisscom's customer service team creates a competitive advantage.

"If your mobile is not working, you have to complain," says Markus Wilhelm, who heads the Customer Care group at Swisscom Mobil AG, in Bern, Switzerland. And despite the best efforts of Swisscom's telephone suppliers and network engineers, sometimes things go wrong. Handle it well, and Swisscom has a happy customer. Handle it badly, and the customer will move to another vendor in the highly competitive Swiss mobile market. That makes Wilhelm and his team critical to the success of the company.

Snapshot Swisscom Mobile AG www.swisscom-mobile.ch Number of employees: 3,000 Annual revenue: 2.5 billion euro (2004) Oracle products and services: Oracle9i Database Release 9.2, Siebel Communications 7.7.5.2

Swisscom Mobile relies on Oracle's Siebel Communications and Oracle Database to serve its 4 million customers—residential, small and medium businesses, and large business customers. Until 2003, the call center agents needed to navigate a patchwork of 47 different customer systems. Each gave agents a fraction of the information they needed to solve complex problems. Today, customer care and billing information can be pulled up in the same view, helping agents make and track price quotes, place orders for products and services, and manage service requests.

"Swisscom is known for very good customer service. Customers expect that if they give us a call, they will get service immediately," Wilhelm says. Swisscom Mobile's philosophy is that customer service forms a competitive advantage. If customers get the service they expect from well-trained agents, they are less likely to choose other mobile carriers.

What the Customer Wants, the Customer Gets

Good customer service principles are similar in all industries, but telecommunications has a few special challenges stemming from the industry's regulated past. Customers could not negotiate prices, and carriers had to maintain government-mandated service levels, which may have been very different from what customers wanted. Now, Swisscom and other legacy carriers around the world have to deal on price and raise some service levels while deemphasizing others.

And what's the basic expectation of a Swisscom Mobile customer? "Simple data services like SMS [short message service] and voice is seen as a basic service," Wilhelm says. "It just works. If I have a problem, I expect that the agent will solve the problem immediately." With a clear understanding of the minimum acceptable customer care, Swisscom Mobile designed a system that exceeds it.

But while the service expectations are simple, the technology that controls the phone, supports the network, and enables operations within the company is sophisticated and evolving. When problems happen, they tend to be intricate, which frustrates customers. "We have direct contact with the end customer," Wilhelm says, and that person might not be an engineer or a scientist. It's just an ordinary citizen with a problem, looking for a solution and not a detailed explanation of the intricacies behind the problem. Likewise, customer service agents need to know the customer's usage, billing, and service history. They need to know how to replace a faulty phone. They don't need to explain how the phone's chips are etched. That's why Wilhelm recommends that companies resist the temptation to pack customer relationship management (CRM) systems with features, like Swiss Army knives. "It is wise to use the Siebel application in a very standardized way," Wilhelm says. Only those features needed to serve the customer should be turned on, as the others simply distract agents and tie knots in the service chain.

Wilhelm stresses that the agents need a reliable system. "Siebel's performance is something that helps a lot," he says. "If the call center agent is talking to the customer, and the customer is upset because his phone isn't working, it's a problem if the agent has to shut the system down." While the agent is rebooting the computer to get to the customer's information, the customer's frustration will only increase. Reducing the likelihood of system problems is one way that Swisscom Mobile maintains its customer service edge.

Special Agents, Special Service

Swisscom Mobile has 800 call center agents, who make up a third of the company's payroll. "I think these guys are very special," Wilhelm says. "When the customer makes the call, the agent must be flexible enough to help, no matter what the problem is."

The agents are organized into teams, each of which is headed by an experienced leader, who is often referred to as a Super User. All agents receive extensive training when they are hired, followed by additional sessions whenever new features or new products are introduced. The Super Users offer coaching to help new agents and to assist in upgrades and product rollouts. This ensures that the people who set call center practices are the same people who deal with customers and understand the challenges that sometimes come with the job.

The agents are located in four call centers spread throughout the country, which is important because Swisscom Mobile's service reaches all of Switzerland's population. The centers handle a combined 15,000 inquiries per day in three languages: German, French, and Italian. Computer/telephony integration (CTI) functionality handles the initial routing, assigning customers to agents based on language and problem, but customers don't wait long for agents. Almost 80 percent of calls are answered within 20 seconds.

Swisscom Mobile has no interest in outsourcing its customer service, Wilhelm says, and not because of the challenges of serving a multilingual customer base. Rather, it's because the company sees its service as a way to set it apart from the competition. By keeping the expertise in-house, the company owns its market advantage. Swisscom Mobile has a 65 percent share of the market, and its size makes it vulnerable to upstart companies.

Customer Service Provides a Competitive Advantage

When Swisscom Mobile introduced new, lower-rate plans last year, the company made a point of notifying customers and giving them the opportunity to switch. The company sent letters and ran new promotions, launching what it calls its "next-best activity" service to move customers to calling plans that better meet their current needs.

"When the customer gives a call, the agent can look up information and make a recommendation," Wilhelm states. The customer may be able to save money, and Swisscom Mobile is able to keep a satisfied customer from going over to the competition. "This is true customer relations," emphasizes Wilhelm. "The customer believes that Swisscom understands their needs. Of course, Swisscom loses some revenue, but it increases customer retention," he adds. After all, customers are likely to be angry if they find that their mobile phone provider has been hiding a better rate.

In addition to the customer's current rate and usage information, the agent's screen shows the customer's profile, service inquiry history, and billing information. The database that supports the CRM system not only helps customer care agents understand the customer better but also gives Swisscom Mobile the information needed to track its progress in meeting its customer service goals. In fact, the company has been able to use this data to reduce the number of customers who call in, while increasing the number of problems solved the first time the customer has to call.

For More Information Oracle Solutions for Communications

Keeping the Service Advantage Sharp

Swisscom Mobile has two future improvements scheduled that will help the company keep its service edge. The first is to roll out the Siebel CRM system to all points of sale. Swisscom Mobile sells its phones and services through its own stores, Swisscom-branded franchised shops, and third-party locations, such as mobile services counters in grocery stores that represent several different telecommunications vendors. When all of these outlets have access to the system, a mobile phone customer who goes to a grocery store will be able to get the same service resolution and rate recommendations as a customer who calls in, which will improve walk-in customer satisfaction rates.

The next step is to make data-mining features available to the Siebel system to assist with customer retention. Right now, customers sign 24-month contracts, after which they go to a store to trade up their equipment, change their calling plans, and renew their contracts. The salesperson doesn't always have the information needed to make a recommendation that is both suitable for the customer and profitable for Swisscom Mobile. "The combination of the retention offering and full customer information makes the difference," Wilhelm says. Once he is satisfied that the feature will enhance service, it will be added. "We work step-by-step to keep service high," he says.

Trendwatch: Q & A Customer Service and the Telecommunications Company Ruth Bolton is a professor of marketing at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona. She specializes in technology marketing between business-to-business (B2B) customers, having developed an interest in that topic while working at Verizon for eight years. "Technology is an enabler," she says. "It's critical that companies figure out how to use it to their advantage." We asked her about the unique challenges that customer service creates for telecommunications companies. PROFIT: How can telecommunications companies build a strategic advantage with customer service? Bolton: In the past, telecom's core value proposition was reliability of communications—that is, first-time connect, no static, no dropped calls, and so on. This reliability arises from its original status as a regulated monopoly and as a "lifeline" service for residential customers. For example, every telephone switch is actually a computer that has a duplicate that operates in parallel and kicks in if there is a failure. AT&T built its brand name on stressing reliability. Today, telecom requires a differential advantage to compete against cable, internet service providers, satellite companies, the postal service, and courier and logistics services, because there are so many ways for businesses and consumers to communicate or share information either simultaneously or asynchronously. A strategic or differentiating advantage can be built by augmenting the core value proposition—in service contexts, this usually means improving the company's responsiveness—its speed and flexibility, its knowledge and ability to deliver, and its empathy and courteousness. In other words, reliability can be considered "table stakes" to get into the game; the new dimensions of service allow companies to "up the ante." PROFIT: How can customer service affect relationships with resellers? How can telecom and technology companies ensure that resellers and franchisees are meeting customer service standards? Bolton: Managing networks of supplier relationships is a major challenge for many organizations. A key is information sharing; suppliers and resellers need to have the same "customer service dashboard" or set of metrics or they will not be able to react in a coherent and coordinated fashion. That means they require common information about end-user expectations, actual delivered service metrics, and related matters. PROFIT: How are the needs of business customers different? How should companies with large pools of both business and consumer customers meet the expectations of both? Bolton: As a general rule, it is useful to group similar customers together in segments or "buckets." By similar I mean that they are similar in their needs and expectations and consequently similar in their behavior. For example, a business customer's definition of responsiveness might mean "service appointment within a single business day of a request," whereas retail consumers may be willing to wait longer for certain services if they can be scheduled at a time that is convenient. It's important to note two points: first, that the two segments' expectations are different; second, that the business customers' standards aren't simply higher, they are qualitatively different. For example, businesses typically do not want any interruption to their own mission-critical activities, which often involve serving their own customers. Of course, the question is: If it's more costly to provide a service, are customers willing to pay for it? If customers aren't willing to pay, it suggests they don't value it or don't value it enough. So, companies must look carefully at the willingness-to-pay issue. The augmented services must provide value that is more than proportional to any necessary price increases.