Building unified, omnichannel digital experiences across telecom and media platforms

The telecommunications and media industries have been transformed by the digital revolution in the last couple of decades. The combination of easy access to high bandwidth and the massive proliferation of low-cost smartphones has made the world a smaller place. Consumers today have access to information, services, and experiences at their fingertips, anytime and anywhere, whether they are interacting with fellow consumers or brands. Traditional product and service business models in these industries have been disrupted by new-age social, mobile, analytics, and cloud technologies and business models. Consumers no longer interact with brands via just one channel. The digital experiences that brands provide – engaging, seamless, empathetic, and relationship-accretive – need to be omnichannel in nature and differentiated based on the consumer segment or persona (Iroju et al., 2013; Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014; Dash et al., 2019).

Telcos and media companies cannot build these omnichannel digital experiences in a piecemeal manner. They need to architect the customer journey that consumers take across the plethora of touchpoints – voice and SMS, mobile apps, websites, video platforms, social media, email, retail stores, contact centers, and customer service agents. This journey needs to be architected not just from a technology standpoint but also from a business and organizational structure standpoint. The customer journey should transform the way telecoms and media companies engage with their consumers, driving more personalized, contextual, and relevant interactions that foster long-term relationships.