CEM and LTE: The beginning of a beautiful relationship

• 
• asheesh.gulati
• 
• July 5, 2012
• IN: Customer experience
• 
• 1 Comment

LTE is on a roll. More than 250 operators have committed to LTE in nearly 90 countries, and more than 70 commercial networks are up and running, making LTE the fastest developing mobile broadband technology ever. As subscribers in advanced markets get a taste for the amazing speeds that LTE offers, the role of Customer Experience Management (CEM) will become critical to the success of LTE FDD and LTE TDD (TD-LTE), so both modes of LTE*. CEM will be fundamental to driving up revenue with a positive customer experience. There are at least three reasons why:

With CEM, operators can measure and analyze how subscribers are experiencing LTE.

To ensure the success of LTE, operators will need to know how their subscribers are using their services and how their services measure up to expectations. 

CEM will give them a clear view of their subscribers’ experience as well as real-time capabilities to address any problems. They will also be able to correlate their network and business KPIs and their customers’ perception of their experience. 

This way operators can ensure a good initial experience with the new technology, which will turn people into promoters. By carefully monitoring, analyzing and assessing the rollout of new services, they can prevent the bad initial experiences that drive people away. This is what happened in many markets during 3G rollout, and thanks to CEM is completely avoidable during the rollout of LTE.   

CEM is the key to up-selling LTE.

For LTE to drive revenue growth, operators need to be able to identify potential customers for high-speed data packages and move them to LTE as quickly as possible, even before their previous non-LTE contract expires.  

CEM will help operators identify prospective LTE customers and proactively give them the opportunity to experience LTE. With CEM, operators can see which heavy 3G users have LTE-capable phones and send a one-time offer to try LTE video streaming free of charge. Once subscribers experience the difference, LTE sells itself. Identifying the right prospects for the upsell offer is key. 

CEM helps operators engage OTT players and drive video consumption.

To boost video usage, which will be the key to the success of LTE, some operators may choose to partner with OTT players like Hulu (for instance, Docomo in Japan), Netflix in the US or iQiyi in China. 

The operators’ role will be to provide information to their OTT partners about the quality of the user experience. They will do this by tracking the perception (real experience) of the OTT players’ paying customers with specific services. If customers are dissatisfied, operators will need to resolve any problems, and in the best case solve them proactively. 

CEM will be the eyes and ears of the service experience for OTT players. Without this insight and an operator partner who can take action to improve the experience, they will not be able to meet the expectations of their paying customers. 

For all these reasons and many more, CEM and LTE were made for each other. In fact, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.  

This post is by Araceli del Rio from Nokia Siemens Networks’ CEM team.

*LTE can be run in paired (FDD – Frequency Division Duplexing) or unpaired (TDD – Time Division Duplexing) spectrum.

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