Customer experience:

Apractical approach
based on measurable
outcomes
Business white paper

Table of contents
Executive overview
Defining objectives and measures
Focusing on specific segments
Measurable outcomes
Operations focused measures
Defining customer experience
Customer context
Dimensions of customer experience
Making customer experience real
Actionable areas
Programs and projects
Conclusion
HP enabling business transformation for the CMEindustry
HP Industry Advisory Program

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Executive overview
Achieving excellent customer experience is a common strategic
goal for many Communications Service Providers (CSPs) today.
Top telecoms of the globe have realized this and have cited
customer-centric goals and programs for their future growth.
Achieving leading customer experience is equally relevant in
both high-growth and in maturing markets. For the former, factors
such as sales channels experience and network coverage can
affect customer acquisition. For the latter, factors such as customer
intimacy, innovative products, and service quality can help protect
the customer base and maintain ARPUs. The rewards of being
able to attract, delight, and keep customers can be enormous. A
study from Bain & Company suggests that a five percentage point
shift in customer retention consistently resulted in 25100 percent
profitswings.1
Despite the broad recognition of the importance of customer
experience, the challenge for many CSPs is translating this strategic
goal into a well-defined, holistic plan of action. To address this issue
and arrive at a practical approach to achieving excellent customer
experience, this paper seeks to:
1. Describe over-arching objectives of a customer
experience program.
2. Define measurable outcomes that become the basis for specific
customer experience program objectives.
3. Understand the contextual aspects of a customer and arrive at a
cognitive model that describes the dimensions on how a customer
may perceive his or her experience with a service provider.
4. Discuss areas for which a CSP may define customer experience
programs, for each dimension of customer experience.
5. Provide examples of specific programs and projects and discuss
key success factors.

Defining objectives and measures

Focusing on specific segments
Launching customer experience programs must take into account
two general objectives. The first is improving the mean customer
experience across the customer base; resulting in an average result
that is higher than its competitors. This objective supports broad
investments in organizational and technological infrastructure but
tend to overlook specific customer segments.

The second objective is to enhance the experience of focused

customer segments. There are two concepts behind this second
objective. The first is fairly self-explanatory. Irrespective of the types
of products and services availed of, a CSPs customer base can
be segmented into value-based segments; whether this is based
on revenue, such as in the case of high-end postpaid subscribers,
profitability, such as in the case of prepaid subscribers with high
billable consumption, or based on future value, as in the case for
mobile data subscribers who often represent an emerging, high
growth market. Programs and projects can be targeted towards
these high-value segments as these can result in greater financial
return. The second concept involves segmenting a customer based
on the level of advocacy; whether the customer is a promoter,
passive or a detractor. Research on the net promoter score, which
is the percentage of customers who are promoters of a brand
minus the percentage who are detractors, has indicated a strong
correlation between a companys growth rate and the percentage
of its customers who are promoters. Programs and projects can
be initiated to strengthen, protect, promote or manage various
advocacy segments.
In line with both concepts, customers can be plotted against a grid
of customer value and level of advocacy. Customer experience
programs can be targeted towards desired segments. For instance,
high-value, satisfied customers should be protected through loyalty
programs and can be targets for cross and up-sell campaigns.
Programs can be run to strengthen the experience provided to
high-value but low-advocacy customers to mitigate the risk of churn.
Promotions can be run for satisfied but low-value customers to
increase their uptake of products and services thereby increasing
value. Finally, low-value, dissatisfied customers may be difficult
to convert and have a high-propensity to churn. Unless there
are significant numbers in this segment, because of the limited
value it may be difficult to have a pay-off that justifies significant
investments catering exclusively towards low-value, dissatisfied
customers. Instead, the challenge may be to lower the cost to serve
these customers.
1

Reichheld, Frederick. The Loyalty Effect: the forces of loyalty versus chaos, Bain &
Company, http://www.loyaltyrules.com/loyaltyrules/BB_Loyalty_effect_essay_4_
Forces_loyalty_chaos.pdf. Accessed on September 27, 2011

Figure 1:
Customer value and advocacy grid

High

Value

Strengthen

Protect

Lower cost
to serve

Promote

Average

Low

Detractors

Passive

Customer experience
programs and projects
can be tailored to
specific customer
segments. These can
range from protecting
segments, to migrating
customers across
segmentsand even to
minimizing the exposure
from uneconomical
segments.

Promoters

Level of advocacy

Measurable outcomes
It is important to define the goals and metrics of a CSPs customer
experience as these measurable outcomes form the basis of both
planning for and evaluating the success of customer experience
initiatives. If we examine the typical measures of customer
experience, whether direct customer measurements such as results
of customer surveys or bottom-line measures such as churn rates,
it becomes apparent that there is a need to translate customer
experience goals and metrics into targets that design, marketing
and sales, operations and supporting teams can act upon. Adopting
an operational measure based approach has the advantage of
providing CSPs a span of control over the factors of success for their
customer experience program and provides the opportunity to build
in customer-focused quality practices into daily operations.

Operations focused measures

In structuring a customer experience initiatives detailed objectives
and measures of success, it is recommended that CSPs develop a set
of goals and measure geared towards achieving operational results.
Good starting points include examining aggregate performance
measured and end-to-end processes.
Aggregate performance measures, such as availability and Mean
Time Between Failure, are baseline measures for the quality of
service enjoyed by a customer. A support team capable of proactive
incident to resolution processes can resolve issues before they
generate complaints. It is important to note that aggregate measures
do not only track the efficacy of operations teams, but also track the
capability of the design teams responsible for the parameters and
constraints of the infrastructure.

End-to-end processes include: concept-to-market for product

development and lifecycle (PDLC) management, lead-to-cash for
the service fulfillment, incident-to-resolution for customer experience
assurance and plan-to-provision for infrastructure development and
lifecycle (IDLC) management. Each of these end-to-end processes
should have one or more macro goal. Example includes: launching
products within three months, activating services within one hour
of a sale, resolving more than 95 percent of issues within defined
service levels or provisioning a computing resource pool within one
day from request. Each end-to-end process can be decomposed into
increasingly granular levels, across the various units involved. At
each component processes and level of granularity, the macro goals
are likewise decomposed into more specific, operational measures.
A CSP can structure a results-based customer experience initiative
with the end in mind by designing programs and projects around
meeting and exceeding desired operational measures.
In complement to the operational measures focus, the other methods
provide means to validate the impact to both the customers and
the CSP. Direct measurement, such as through surveys or technical
tests, can be performed at the prior to or at the start of a customer
experience program to establish a baseline. After this, it needs to
be performed only periodically to measure progress. The use of
operational measures, as proxies for customer experience, removes
a CSPs reliance on potentially time-consuming, expensive and
complex direct measurements.
While direct measurements track the impact to customers, bottom-line
measures track the impact to the CSP. In contrast to direct measures,
measures such as churn and sales figures are typically already
collected and made available as part of regular management
reporting. The use of operational measures provides a CSP the
means to identify and manage areas of improvement that can affect
the bottom-line.

Table 1:
Analysis of types of customer experience measures

Type

Examples

Benefit

Considerations

Direct measurement

Market research: Customer surveys,

focus group discussions and others

Direct measurement
of a customers
experience

Expensive and time consuming

Quality testing: Drive by testing,

Mean Opinion Score (MOS) testing,
automated call testing tools and others

Bottom-line measures

Churn rates
Impact to sales and margin

Need to correlate results to financial impact

Can be disruptive to operations if existing units used to
collect data
Direct calculation of
financial impact

Cost to serve; cost of operations

Operational measures

Process-based measures: first call

resolution, average resolution and
activation times, and others
Use-based measures: drop call rates,
bit rates and others
Aggregate measures: availability,
service levels and others

Possibly complex results that needs to be translated to

operational actions

Typically available only after the fact in periodicreports

Need to translate results to operational objectives
Need to correlate results to actual customer experience

Direct control of
many success factors
and improvement
programs are within
a CSPs span of
control

Defining customer experience

Customer context
Modeling customer experience begins with understanding the
complete context of a customer; which includes not only information
about the customer itself but also about a customers relationships
and affiliations. From a CSPs point of view, the holistic customer
provides a data set of events, characteristics and attributes, historical
information and patterns of behavior which can be used as an
aid to decision making. This customer information model includes
sources from:
Customer: Through information about the customer such as
characteristics and attributes, the offers, products and services
availed of, current and historical account and usage information,
interactions with the service provider, and records from third party
sources (such as credit scores).
Connections: These are other entities related to the customer
through direct association, such as through customer and
account hierarchies, or through interactions, such as call and
messaging interactions. The aggregate of individual information
and interactions can indicate patterns of behavior that a service
provider can use to advantage.
Communities: These are the broader groups that a customer can
belong to. This can relate to clearly defined market segments,
whether demographic or psychographic, or through affiliation via
social networks. Communities provide larger patterns of behavior
that a service provider can use.

Dimensions of customer experience

A customers experience with a CSP spans through several
dimensions as influenced by the wants and needs from a holistic
context. A customer may have a collection of logical vs. emotional,
baseline vs. aspiration, and stated vs. unstated wants and needs.

Measures and quality initiatives should be built

intoprocesses
Modeled actions and results should be correlated to actual
customer experience
Need to translate results to financial impact

These needs are shared with and influenced by a customers

connections and communities.
In line with this, a customers experience is the sum of the direct and
shared from interactions with a CSP or through the use of its services.
In addition, a customer may also frame his or her experience based
a logical assessment of benefits and trade-offs. Finally, a customers
experience is also shaped by the emotional attachment to and
qualitative value placed on a CSPs brands, products and services.
As a framework in understanding the cognitive process behind
customer experience, we can categorize the types of experiences
into 4 distinct dimensions:
Products and economic benefit: This is a customers direct and
shared perceptions about the benefits and associated costs of a
CSPs offerings, products and services towards meeting wants
and needs.
Quality of service: This is a customers direct and shared
perception of the efficacy, availability and reliability of the services
provided by the CSP.
Quality of interactions: This is a customers direct and shared
perception of the ease, utility and performance versus expectations
of interactions with a CSP; whether directly, indirectly through
automated channels or through an extended network of dealers
and affiliates.
Emotional appeal: This is the qualitative and intrinsic value placed
by the customer, including the connections and community,
on patronizing the CSP. This can range from a perception of
how a CSP fulfills its brand promises, the prestige, or other
socioeconomic associations to add to an accumulation of good
will towards the CSP.

Figure 2:
Customer experience perception model

Products &
Economic
Benefit

Emotional
Appeal
Customer

A customers experience,
both direct and shared
with connections and
communities, with a CSP
spans through several
dimensions; as influenced
by wants and needs.

Connections Communities

Quality of
Service

Quality of
Interactions

Making customer experience real

Actionable areas
The dimensions of customer experience cater to a very wide range
of possible programs and projects. In order to structure the effort
a CSP invests, the dimensions can be segmented into actionable
areas. These areas represent different business functions that can
be addressed individually or as a group through a combination
of process, organizational and technological programs. A total
of 12actionable areas have been identified.
Products and economic benefit:
Portfolio of offers and products: How well a CSPs offers
and products are able to meet a range of broad and specific
wants and needs across the various segments that make up its
customer base.
Product development and lifecycle management: The ability of a
CSP to introduce new and innovative offers, products and services
that enhance a customers experience or to address wants and
needs. This also includes the ability of a CSP to withdraw offers,
products and services that are no longer substantially relevant to
the customer or economically viable to the CSP.
Suppliers, partners and the developer community: These are
the entities with whom a CSP works with to produce, sell, fulfill,
support, and manage its customers, offers, products, and services.
In an increasingly data-driven landscape, these entities can help a
CSP provide the content, services, and preferred delivery models
to customers.

Quality of service:
Devices and points of service delivery: A customers perception of
CSPs services is immediately affected by the method through which
these were accessed. These can range from personal, detached
or fixed devices such as a mobile phone, fem-to-cell access point,
or satellite dish, respectively. There can also be a virtual point of
delivery such as in the case for streaming content delivered over
theinternet.
Technology operations: The ability of a CSP to perform fulfillment
and assurance over the services and underlying resources. Ideally a
CSPs operations team should be able to anticipate and proactively
respond to issues; meeting or improving upon defined service levels
and working in coordination with customer-facing teams.
Supporting network and IT infrastructure: The quality of a service
can be affected by design constraints such as capacity, built-in
redundancies or density of coverage. The availability, reliability,
security, and recoverability of the network and IT resources can
directly contribute to a customers experience.
Quality of interactions:
Customer facing units: Units who directly interact with customers
and are typically responsible for pre-sales, sales and fulfillment
and post-sales services. These units can interact with customers
face-to-face, such as front office personnel and account
representatives, or remotely, such as outbound or inbound call
center agents.

Figure 3:
Actionable areas for customer experience

Suppliers, Partners and the

Developer Community

Corporate Communications,
Regulatory Affairs and Affiliations

Product Development and

Lifecycle Management
Portfolio of Offers and
Products
Devices and Points
of Service Delivery

Community Relations &

Social Responsibility

Customer

Marketing and Brand

Management

Connections Communities

Customer Facing Units

Technology Operations
Supporting Network
and IT Infrastructure

The dimensions of
customer experience cater
to a very wide range of
possible programs and
projects. In order to
structure the effort a CSP
invests, the dimensions
can be segmented into
actionable areas.

Channels and Dealer

Network
Back-office, Supply Chain and
Administrative Support

Channels and dealer network: A CSP can provide pre-sales,

sales and post-sales services through automated channels such
as portals and kiosks. CSPs can also indirectly serve customers
through channel partners such dealers. Some of these partners
may then recruit lower-tier resellers to form a dealer network
accessible to customers.
Back-office, supply chain, and administrative support: Units
without direct access to customers but whose functions impact
customer experience. Examples include credit analysts who may
approve or disapprove post-paid applications, inventory specialists
who plan for which phone units become available and fraud
specialists who can detect theft or hacked accounts.
Emotional appeal:

choose the right set of initiatives to ensure that each will receive
adequate investments.
Based on our experience while working with leading service
providers across the world, specific examples of initiatives that have
produced significant benefits are provided below:
Concept-to-market and fulfillment transformation: A competitive
differentiator for CSPs is the ability to launch new products rapidly
and efficiently leading into an excellent fulfillment experience.
This can be achieved by shortening the concept-to-market and
endtoend lead-to-cash process while increasing the quality of
results. In our experience, starting with a robust, standards-based
design supported by streamlined processes can considerably
accelerate project completion whilst mitigating risk.
FastWebs, a leading converged-service provider in Italy, slogan is
one step ahead. This is a commitment on simple and competitive
services focused on customer satisfaction. FastWeb was
challenged by a rapidly growing service portfolio and increasingly
sophisticated operations and business processes were getting
more sophisticated. Business expectations included improving
service implementation efficiency for launching new services and
changing existing ones, meeting concept to delivery time-frames,
and increasing efficiency and improving controls. FastWeb
turned to HP Solution Consulting Services (SCS) to develop a
standards-based approach to provisioning processes, architecture,
application integration, and data model standardization. An
example was the redesign of large account provisioning that
satisfied the requirements of the business units.2

Marketing and brand management: The units who build the CSPs
corporate and product brands. These encompass a wide range of
brand-building activitiesfrom traditional multi-media advertising
to non-traditional techniques such as event-based marketing and
product placements.
Community relations and social responsibility: Units and activities
geared towards building goodwill with communities where the
CSP operates.
Corporate communications, regulatory affairs and affiliations:
The formal positions and interactions with stakeholders such as
investors, news, analyst regulators, and the public. This also
includes the perceptions a CSP may have based on its affiliations
with related or allied entities.

Programs and projects

Stand-alone or inter-related programs and specific projects can
be defined for each actionable area. While there are many
possible initiatives, a CSP will be subject to constraints on
regulatory restrictions, time, money, and people. It is crucial to

Carlini, Antonio, interview by Martyn Warwick, TelecomTV, May 21, 2010. http://www.
telecomtv.com/comspace_videoDetail.aspx?v=4737&id=c26cc842-5ba0-470e-9b9dc92b4a93db96. Accessed on September 27, 2011

Table 2:
Sample customer experience initiatives

Dimension

Key areas

Sample initiatives

Products & economic

benefit

Portfolio of offers and products

Value-based customer segmentation and a balanced portfolio

Product development and lifecycle management

Integrated product development lifecycle processes

Suppliers, partners and the developer community

Service broker and other 2-sided business models

Devices and points of service delivery

Device management and advanced policy control

Technology operations

OSS transformation

Supporting network and IT infrastructure

Cloud-based service delivery

Quality of service

Infrastructure development lifecycle processes

Quality of interactions

Customer facing units

Integrated lead to cash and incident to resolution end-to-end processes

Channels and dealer network

Profile-based processes and service delivery using advanced

customeranalytics

Back-office, supply chain and

administrativesupport
Emotional appeal

Marketing and brand management

Integrated brand building activities

Community relations & social responsibility

Community outreach programs

Corporate communications, regulatory affairs

and affiliations

Sustainable corporate practices

Customer experience assurance transformation: A CSP can deliver

enhanced customer experience by proactively managing issues
and shortening the incident to resolution process while increasing
quality of results. This can be achieved by integrating customer
support processes across customer facing and operations teams,
in conjunction with implementing leading Operations Support
Systems (OSS). In our experience, a transformation program
composed of process, organizational, and technological initiatives
is proven to deliver results.
Telenor subsidiary Total Access Telecommunications (DTAC),
one of the leading telecom providers in Thailand, implemented
an HP solution enabling it to monitor network performance and
customer experience from a single center. Then DTAC CEO
Tore Johnsen said that it would enable the company to boost
serviceoffering capacity, which would in turn increase its revenue
and glue customers to its network.3 Gunnar Somby, Senior
Advisor, OSS Systems for DTAC remarked We needed the tools
to cover the whole organization end-to-end. HP helped us do that
by giving us a consolidated view, that is, what we need to make
the customer experience much better.4 The HP solution resulted in
double-digit percentage increases in first call resolution and more
than halved the number of alarms managed.

Employee empowerment

Customer insight transformation: Traditional business intelligence

solutions and reporting solutions require structured data and
typically have a degree of latency before the results are available.
The results often must be analyzed and then interpreted into
operational actions. However, increasingly customer information
is stored in unstructured forms in social networks and in shifting
patterns of behavior. Also, there is greater demand for CSPs to be
agile enough to understand and react to customers in real time.
In HPs experience, achieving deep customer insight requires a
blend of traditional and next-generation analytics supported by
agile processes integrated into Business Support Systems (BSS)
and OSS.
3

Srivish Toomgum, DTAC Boosted by HP solution, The Nation (Thailand),

November 21, 2009

Somby, Gunnar, interview by Martyn Warwick, TelecomTV, July 21, 2009. http://www.
telecomtv.com/comspace_videoDetail.aspx?v=3888&id=c26cc842-5ba0-470e-9b9dc92b4a93db96. Accessed on September 27, 2011

Figure 4:
Transformation initiatives

Concept-to-Market and
Fulfillment Transformation
Products &
Economic
Benefit

Emotional
Appeal

Customer Experience
Assurance Transformation
Products &
Economic
Benefit

Customer

Products &
Economic
Benefit

Customer

Connections Communities

Quality of
Service

Emotional
Appeal

Customer Insight Transformation

Customer

Connections Communities

Quality of
Interactions

Impacts:
Products & economic benefit
Quality of service
Quality of interactions
Initiative Components:
Program management & governance
Architecture and service design
Implementing fulfillment solutions
Optimizing product development teams
Implementing standard goals and metrics
Process (concept to market, lead to cash)

Quality of
Service

Connections Communities

Quality of
Interactions

Quality of
Service

Impacts:
Quality of service
Quality of interactions
Initiative Components:
Program management & governance
Architecture; linking design and operations
Implementing assurance solutions
Optimizing operations centers and teams
Linking front and back office support
Implementing KQIs and KPIs
Process (incident to resolution)

France Dominican Telecom introduced the Orange Telecom

brand to the Dominican Republic in 2000 and quickly became a
leading provider. Analyzing customer feedback and intelligence
was critical for Orange to maintain its competitive advantage
and continue to grow the business. Traditional methods allowed
Orange to analyze only a small portion (approximately eight
percent) of customer interactions. Orange needed a tool that
would automatically perform extensive analysis of customer
interactions in order to gain comprehensive insight into call trends.
Orange leveraged a suite of Autonomy solutions to automatically
analyze interactions and apply the results to agent coaching and
training, and to deliver real-time intelligence for business process
improvements. As a result, Orange experienced a 30 percent
reduction of call center costs, gained a 25 percent increase in
management productivity, automated process, gained root cause
behavioral understanding, and improved campaign effectiveness
by 10 percent.5

Emotional
Appeal

Quality of
Interactions

Impacts:
Products & economic benefit
Quality of service
Quality of interactions
Emotional appeal
Initiative Components:
Program management & governance
Architecture
Traditional business intelligence solutions
Unstructured data, social media and
real-time operational analytics
Transforming BSS/OSS

Each of these examples represents comprehensive programs

that include quick win projects, which can be completed within
three to six months, to demonstrate business benefit early. When
planning and initiating their own customer experience programs,
it is important for CSPs to consider what the key success factors
are. HPs track record of delivering business results is a result of
careful planning and a holistic approach, leveraging on proven
methodologies and industry frameworks and supporting intellectual
capital. HP has stored these assets in HP COSMOS; a unique,
model-based repository that facilitates rapid re-use. In addition,
HPs success is hinged on the quality of its people; bringing in the
right mix of skills and experiences. Finally, as both a provider of
innovative solutions as well as a systems integrator, HP ensures that
the technologies that best fit the CSPs needs are used.
It is recommended that CSPs consider this same mix of key
success factors when planning for and executing its own customer
experience programs.
5

Orange Telecom Case Study. Autonomy. www.autonomy.com. Accessed on

September 29, 2011

Conclusion
While customer experience is broadly recognized as an important
strategic goal, the challenge is in translating this into a plan of
action with clear and, most importantly, agreed objectives and
measures. More than simply increasing the average level of
customer experience, a CSP should consider focused programs on
specific value and level of advocacy segments that can provide
the best return on investment. Operational measures, bottom-line
measures and direct measurements of customer experience form
the basis of structuring and evaluating the success of customer
experience initiatives.

10

To achieve excellence in customer experience, a CSP has to

consider the direct and shared experiences of a customer, his or her
connections and community. These experiences can be modeled
across four perception dimensions: products and economic benefit,
quality of service, quality of interactions, and emotional appeal.
As the range of possible initiatives across these dimension are
very wide, 12 actionable areas have been identified by this paper
and examples were provided. Specifically, in our experience,
transforming capabilities around concept-to-market and fulfillment,
customer experience assurance, and customer insight have provided
CSPs a mix of quick-win and comprehensive projects that can
deliver accelerated business benefits. Finally, key success factors
were provided. These include leveraging on proven methodologies,
industry standards, and intellectual capital, using a team with skill
and experience and using the best-fit solutions.

HP enabling business
transformation for the
CMEindustry
HP Communications and Media Solutions (CMS) assists the worlds
top communications and media companies to transform their
customers experiences and exceed business objectives of cost
efficiency, innovation, and revenues. HP CMS draws upon more than
thirty years of hands on telecom industry experience and proven
leadership in combining network and IT technologies.
HP Solution Consulting Services (SCS) practice delivers a
comprehensive suite of industry business consulting services
designed to transform a CSPs from a technology centric business to
a customer-centric business through:

A proven methodology to guide and orchestrate a completely

customized transformation strategy on any scale
A model-based approach that attacks problems in a systematic
way, synchronizing interdependencies between operations,
organization, and technology

HP Industry Advisory Program

The HP Industry Advisory Program is a unique program of
HP Solution Consulting Services (SCS) that delivers innovative
thought leadership, addressing key industry business issues for
our clients. The HP Industry Advisory Program is built-on the
global knowledge, expertise, and experience of HP SCS Business
Consultants and HP proven methodologies, industry frameworks
and intellectual capital to deliver true business value, leveraging the
speed and ease of use of collaborative social media tools.

CME industry thought leader business consultantsleveraging

global reach with local capabilities
A proven track record of defining and executing business
transformation to large CSPs, worldwide

Turn your business challenges into opportunities with the help of HP Solution Consulting Services, visit http://www.hp.com/go/scs.

11

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