Customer self-care -- including e-bills and online billing analytics – can dramatically lower costs and reduce the probability of an SMB customer churning by 14% or more.
Gone are the days when technology and telecommunications providers could sell to and serve small and medium businesses (SMBs) from their enterprise or consumer lines-of-business. The best technology providers recognize the value of this heterogeneous market. The United States’ 6 million SMBs account for 50% of the total US employment and 44% of the US’s total annual payroll. All in all, US SMB spending on telecommunications services exceeds $60 billion.
Savvy communications service providers (CSPs) in the US smell something else good cooking in the kitchen. Historically, SMBs have
Savvy CSPs in the US smell something else good cooking in the kitchen.
providers can’t efficiently sell and service SMBs like Major Accounts, because SMBs don’t need and can’t afford the customized solutions often required through this channel and the operators cannot afford
purchased classic connectivity services from wireline and wireless operators, CLECs and cable TV operators. These services – fixed and mobile voice, fixed and mobile broadband data – go a long way to meeting the communications needs of SMBs. More and more, SMBs are willing to purchase ancillary technology and IT services like managed/hosted email and messaging; utility computing; managed security; and other services from CSPs and indirect selling partners. These solutions ride on top of the underlying core network connectivity provided by operators.
But the way CSPs service SMBs must undergo a revolution. SMBs have their own business needs, challenges and constraints. Service
the dedicated resources. However, the mass-market approach of consumer marketing leaves SMBs without enough technology guidance to assemble relevant solutions.
One secret is to put as much self-serve operations infrastructure in place for SMBs as possible to give them control and involvement in their decisions. In essence, CSPs push the work to the SMBs themselves, eliminating the operation support costs from the service providers’ books. But keep in mind, SMBs lack the internal technology resources of enterprises, so all selling, support and related tools must be intuitive, graphically-based, and aimed at a non-technical users.
Pipeline
Publishing, Volume 6, Issue 9
