Top 10 reasons for customer support calls, and how service providers can reduce them

As the main point of contact between service providers and their customers, call center operations are key to operator success. On the customer side, the less calls, the better the service is perceived.
On the Service Provider side, the less calls and truck rolls, the lower the cost of service.

Rather than developing a theory on why broadband customers call support and then offering operators a product-based remote management and CSR application to reduce support calls, Jungo decided to validate its product vision in a real life situation. We conducted a trial with a major European tier-one broadband operator to check why customers call, and then tested whether our solution reduces those calls and their duration.

The trial measured the following:

- Number of support calls per root cause, so the top reasons to call will be easily identifiable

- Support call length, and

- Truck rolls

Subscribers were provided a broadband service gateway with Jungo’s software, and Jungo’s self-help capabilities. Call center representatives used Jungo’s TR-069 remote management software and customer service application, Panorama, to treat calls and resolve customer issues.

Why do broadband home subscribers call customer support?

While broadband home subscribers call the customer support center for a variety of reasons, some reasons are more popular, presenting an opportunity: if the  most common reasons to call can be reduced, overall support costs can be cut and customer experience be improved.

The ten most common reasons to call support account for more than 70% of calls. This means that dealing with those ten most common reasons can radically affect the operations of the call center, making it more efficient and providing a better customer experience.

The ten most common reasons and their occurrence are as follows:

# 1: wireless password issues (18%)

# 2: account provisioning (9%)

# 3: configuration isses (7%)

# 4: hardware & wiring issues: (7%)

# 5: ISP network issues (7%)

# 6: wireless coverage issues (6%)

#7: initial set up and provisioning: (5%)

# 8: gateway freezes: (4%)

# 9: PC setings (4%)

# 10: No Sync (3%)

How can calls be reduced?

The key to Jungo’s approach is the end to end management of the digital home, at the device and service level, equipping customer support representatives and subscribers with a range of tools to quickly identify and resolve problems, based on a robust methodology and Jungo’s products. By removing the support barrier, digital home management solutions also ease the introduction of new value added services and increase customer and service retention.

The breadth and strengths of Jungo’s Digital Home Management and Support solution is based on our residential gateway software, remote management software, user enablement tools and application framework offering.

The solution lies in two key approaches Jungo takes to reduce support costs:

(1)    User enablement: Jungo’s gateway software discovers issues with the customer connection. It either removes the reason for the problem proactively (e.g. by rebooting the gateway) or alerts the customer to the problem, guiding him through a step by step problem resolution process.

(2)    Service provider enablement: using Jungo’s remote management software gives a holistic view of the service, or any device. Many issues that lie at the heart of customer calls, such as radio interference issues with wireless networks can be resolved in this way, using the capabilities of Panorama, Jungo’s remote management software.

Reducing calls to the customer service center

Some call categories, like wireless password (-66%), hardware and wiring (-65%), wireless coverage (-72%) and gateway freezes (-50%) were reduced by more than 50%. This changes call volume and length considerably. Some issues that are beyond the control of the operator, like ISP network issues and PC settings, remain unchanged.

This graph illustrates the reduction in call, by root cause:

 

Overall, the total number of calls was reduced by 35%, and the call cost (as calculated by a reduction in call duration) was reduced by 25%, with truck rolls cut by 20%. Overall, service provider support costs were almost cut in half (a 47% reduction).

About Jungo’s Panorama

Managing millions of devices, Panorama gives service providers  the tools they need to control gateways, set-top boxes, and other CPE types as well as broadband voice, data and video services. The result is better customer service and operational excellence, reducing costs and churn and extending the service providers’ visibility into the subscriber experience.

Rather than browsing through device data models with hundreds of parameters, Panorama’s CSR application presents customer support representatives with meaningful data. It aids CSRs in identifying and resolving problems, based on the real-life experience of both NDS and Jungo.  Panorama supports a flexible portlet-based GUI, and provides the choice of solving problems using a top-down approach that lets CSRs zoom-in on the issue or a structured predefined problem solving approach.

Together with OpenRG gateway software or NDS MediaHighway set-top box middleware the functionality of Panorama extends beyond the standard TR-069 data model, enabling better and faster fault discovery, analysis and resolution.

 

 

By roni in Blog on June 6, 2012