OSS are all about helping the customer in some way
“There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule.” Charles Osgood. When it comes to customer experience management at a CSP, Charles Osgood’s statement rings true. A friend of mine recently talked about the challenge of solution design where “Everyone is an exception.” When it comes to […]
“I think we have a gap that we have to close,” he said in response to a question on the OTT threat. “The internet brands I think will become serious competitors for us as an industry and I think can erode our revenue models more than sometimes we appreciate.” He added that telcos needed to change their […]
“I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.” Gordon Ramsay. I’m not a fan of reality TV, but a friend recently pointed out that there was a common theme in Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen makeovers. He always seems to reduce the menu from 30-ish dishes to the 10-ish that can be done well and become the […]
“A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.” Plato. Great salespeople have the ability to convert a customer’s wants into genuine needs. When evaluating new OSS products for a CSP, great OSS consultants are able to make connections that the […]
“By the time the phone rings, there’s already trouble. When that manager is called or this department is reached, it’s because someone is disappointed, angry or stuck. Illness, broken promises or a real urgency have led to this new conversation even taking place.” Seth Godin. Being the OSS guru that you are, have you spent […]
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” Abraham Lincoln. One of the keys to data integrity is to understand the data flows between your various systems and which is the data master and which are the data slaves for any given transaction. […]
“It is common for us to receive an e-mail from a customer apologizing for not responding sooner because they thought our automated follow-up was being done manually. The key to a successful follow-up program is personalization and making it relevant for the customer.” John Hopkins. Why did Apple’s iPod revolutionise the music industry? Was it […]
“I used to say of him (Napoleon) that his presence on the field made the difference of 40,000 men.” Duke of Wellington. If you really want to learn about your OSS deeply, you have to get out into the battlefield – at the customer site, with the OSS operators, with the developers, with the innovators […]
“I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue.” Daymond John. Many CSPs are in an era of reducing revenues as their historic cash-cows such as voice calls (especially STD and IDD calls), text messages and data are becoming increasingly commoditised or replaced by Over The Top (OTT) service offerings. They’re also scrambling to […]
“If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is.” Jan Carlzon As much as we may consider CSPs to be the customers of OSS, the real customers are actually the ones using the CSP’s services. There is massive change underway for almost all CSPs globally, perhaps with the exception of […]
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates. I’d extend this one step further in the world of OSS and look to learn from your competitors’s most unhappy customers. Chances are that they’re making the same mistakes as discussed in this Toyota Five-Whys Analysis of OSS. It’s better to learn from the […]
“Customers will want to talk to you if they believe you can solve their problems.” Jeffrey Gitomer. This article from Ericsson, indicates that CX (Customer Experience)* is key to a CSP’s financial performance according to 81% of C-level executives at tier-one carriers in South-East Asia. The article goes on to say, “Nevertheless, 72 % of executives evaluated their […]
“Understanding what people really want to know—and how that differs from what you want to tell them—is a fundamental tenet of sales” Jason Fried. In the same post on INC.com, Jason also explains “I made the discovery that people’s reasons for buying things often don’t match up with the company’s reason for selling them… They […]
In the State of the Asian CXO Survey 2012 by T.C Seow, there has been a clearly identified increase in corporate culture being an inhibitor of innovation. Seow speculates “that there is now conflict between senior management and the younger, so-called Generation Y executives or millennials who do not see eye-to-eye with their bosses. Perhaps there […]
“Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.” Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration There is an interesting trend that often occurs when a vendor implementation team begins a new OSS project. There is a tendency to start with […]
“Everything starts with the customer.” Louis XIV It just dawned on me today that OSS requirement definition never seems to start with the customer. It always starts with the CSPs operators and their needs. That sounds logical, since they’re the ones who will use it the most. But how many customers have had terrible experiences […]
“If you want to be around in 10 years you’ve got to do something to differentiate yourself from the pack.” Chris Evans In Building a Business Case we indicated examples of the business case models that can be used to build a compelling story for implementing a new OctopOSS, including: Brand security (ie being able […]
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington From my experience in OSS vendor evaluation, most vendors’s marketing collateral makes you read between the lines of fluffy-marketing-speak to identify the real functionalities and benefits of their products. In the connected world, a company is going to do a great […]
“The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.” Roy H. Williams The technical (left brain) versus the visual (right brain) both need to be catered for in the sales and marketing of your OSS. The customer’s executive tend to want to easily see big-picture benefits, whereas the technical team wants to […]
“When I was with John, I thought he was the greatest person in the whole world.” Then why did you marry Bill, the friend asked. “Because when I’m with Bill, he makes me feel that I’m the greatest person in the world.” Technology is not the panacea for business problems. A vendor’s product, a vendor’s process […]
