In the last four years alone, more than 1 billion people have gained mobile network access, bringing the global total to 3.2 billion mobile subscribers — nearly half the world's population. And we're only about another four years away from crossing the next significant milestone — 4 billion global subscribers.
Historically, this rapidly growing landscape has translated to fierce competition between mobile operators for new customers. But, as some markets reach saturation and the well of new customers dries up, mobile operators must focus on keeping the customers they already have satisfied. And that's not an easy task, given that competitors are around every corner, coming up with new incentives, such as paying early termination fees, to woo subscribers away from their current mobile operator.
So with fewer new customers on the market, and lost customers almost certain to not return, what can mobile operators do? Many have found success in first addressing the most common reason customers leave in the first place — poor quality of service (QoS).
The Service Puzzle
The top reasons for mobile customer churn are generally related to QoS, whether subscribers think they're receiving insufficient value for their money or they're frustrated with poor network quality. What's worse for operators is that these problems rarely exist in a private vacuum.
Any time subscribers experience service problems, whether it's a serious outage or constant, ongoing degradation, they will voice their complaints through social media, sometimes so loudly that news outlets pick up on the story. The resulting storm of criticism damages the operator's reputation and can increase churn, which, in turn, jeopardizes revenue.
To prevent these losses, operators need to understand why QoS problems are happening in the first place. Network problems have been on the rise for two reasons — networks today are increasingly complex, and subsequently, operators lack visibility across those networks. Together, these factors make it difficult for operators to monitor QoS and then act quickly to address any problems.
But, these limitations are avoided when mobile operators apply end-to-end mobile service assurance. By gaining a full, near-real-time view of the service delivery chain, in a single dashboard, mobile operators can respond quickly to service problems and deliver on the agreed upon KPIs, meaning less performance degradation and network downtime for customers, and improved QoS.
Meeting the expectations of 4 billion mobile subscribers isn't easy, but it's more within reach when operators apply end-to-end mobile service assurance
To learn more, see our video, "End-to-End Mobile Service Assurance: Keeping Customers Happy."
