Viewpoint
I’ve enjoyed my tenure as a judge for the Total Telecom World Communication Awards (WCA) for several years. This year, one category will be enhanced by taking Customer Experience to Total Experience. Historically, the Customer Experience Award has garnered many submissions, so why change it? The WCA asked if I would weigh in, and as a technology industry analyst that covers networking and telecommunications – I am always eager to share my insights and perspective.
If it ain’t broken, why fix it?
That’s a famous expression from my birthplace in Austin, Texas, and it wholeheartedly applies here. Customer experience, or CX, as it has been coined by many in the tech world, is at the forefront of many mobile network operators (MNO), communication service providers (CSP), and networking infrastructure company strategies. Why, might you ask? A lack of focus on CX can result in poor application and service experience, missed service level agreements (SLAs) and other negative consequences, leading to the dreadful notion of subscriber churn and financial penalties. On the other hand, a proactive focus on CX can provide differentiation, drive innovation, and lead to incremental monetization opportunities. However, the WCA’s decision to broaden the award category from Customer Experience to Total Experience is a smart move for many reasons. Let’s dive in!
Defining the Total Experience
CX mainly captures the subscriber journey. Undoubtedly, it is a valuable endeavour, but the MNO and CSP experience are equally important. These companies are under intense operational and capital expense pressure to deploy next-generation public and private 5G networks and the underlying services that will transform consumer and enterprise applications. It is a challenging task, thus these efforts should be recognized with the new award category focusing on Total Experience. The trend toward using open, disaggregated hardware in the radio access network and cloudification of the converged core infrastructure will likely immediately impact greenfield network deployments. Some examples include Dish Wireless in the U.S., Rakuten in Japan and Reliance JIO in India – but the telecommunications industry should recognize efforts beyond these broader ecosystem considerations. I believe that the WCA Total Experience Award will deliver on this objective for both net-new network deployments and existing ones too.
Wrapping up
I applaud the WCA’s decision to broaden the popular Customer Experience award to Total Experience. This move will recognize not only the subscriber’s experience but also the operator. Both are essential measures that should be quantified and recognized for the collective impact on the telecommunications industry – totally!
If you are interested in entering the Total Experience Award, or any other WCA category, the first step is to download the categories brochure. Entries close on 16 June 2023.
Will Townsend is the Vice President and Principal Analyst that manages the Networking Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Security practices at Moor Insights & Strategy. He advises some of the world’s largest networking infrastructure providers and mobile network operators. Townsend has been featured on the NBC Today Show, NPR, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal, providing insights into enterprise networking, 5G and security. Mr. Townsend is also considered one of the top technology analysts in the world as measured by ARInsights and his consistent ranking within the ARchitect Analyst Power 100.