“Can I ask you a personal question?” How AI-Powered chatbots are revolutionizing Telco customer service

Customers are learning to love chatbots, but they want them to be better. Now, thanks to advances in AI, chatbots are finally offering the kind of personalized service that customers long for. This is especially true in the Telco space. In our latest blog post, we explore how new AI-powered chatbots are making life easier for mobile customers while helping operators to cut costs, improve loyalty, and gain a competitive advantage.

The current landscape: pain, repeated steps, impersonal support

According to a recent survey, the typical smartphone user spends 5 hours a day in apps– that’s a third of all waking hours. No wonder people panic when anything goes wrong with their device.

But as we all know,things do go wrong. So the pressure is on mobile operators. Whenever there’s a device care problem, customers expect their mobile operator to fix it. Consequently, operators are faced with significant challenges: they have to offer immediate personalized support and resolve issues quickly. Yet they have to do all this while managing costs.

To add even more pressure, customers in general are becoming more demanding. In today's digital world, they expect a personalized service. In fact, 61% of consumers say they expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.

Regrettably, most customers don’t experience this level of service throughout their mobile device care journeys. Instead, customers often experience pain points such as basic self-help tools (if at all), failure to resolve issues, and disconnected channels that force them to describe the same problem over and over again.

These device care journeys affect a huge number of customers. A survey by device lifecycle journey specialist MCE found that one in five customers experiences a device problem every year, more than half need to repeat steps when seeking help and switch channels, and many don't receive appropriate solutions. These challenges significantly impact an operator’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), which drops by 19 points when problems arise and by 36 points if unresolved.

Telco customers prefer digital-first solutions

So what can a Telco do? The obvious solution is to offer a digital-first self-help solution. However, despite 59% of customers in the US preferring digital tools for device care, less than a third actually use them. Why? Usually because of a lack of awareness, or because these tools do not solve the issues. Also, many operators offer multiple apps for multiple needs (account management, device care, cloud storage, etc.), rather than a single support app, which can be confusing for consumers.

Thankfully, better tools are becoming available. Operators can now offer apps that let customers run their own on-device diagnostics. They can get instant answers, and even access immediate solutions – especially when their issues have clear causes.

Additionally,advances in AI, particularly Generative AI (GenAI), are making these tools even better, especially in the area of chatbots. This is important because research shows that more than one-third of people prefer chatbots over human agents, and 80% of people are willing to use a chatbot if they can be easily routed to a live agent when needed.

Chatbots are always available, easy to use and endlessly patient. But they can be improved. They often lack access to real-time data, which limits their effectiveness. Without real-time device information, Telco chatbots can only provide generic advice, rather than solve specific issues. Indeed, 75% of consumers believe that chatbots can't handle complex inquiries and often deliver inaccurate responses. This is because chatbots have traditionally relied on rule-based decision trees to guide users to a solution.

AI tools, like those based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, change this. They promise to make interactions more natural and human-like. However, this does bring a new set of challenges, such as unpredictable or "hallucinated" responses that don’t align with the company's service branding.

Refining chatbots: riding the guardrails to better answers

To avoid these problems, businesses have developed tools to set programmable rules, often referred to as guardrails, to ensure chatbots remain intelligent while operating within specified boundaries. Guardrails define the limits of what chatbots can say or do, ensuring appropriate conversations with consumers while adhering to business standards. They make the information exchange in chats also safe and secure.

Another challenge is ensuring that chatbots have access to up-to-date and live information, rather than relying solely on pre-existing data within their training set. Access to live customer data allows chatbots to give hyper-personalized and relevant responses, which reduces the likelihood of ‘useless’ answers or hallucinations.

MCE's dDLM platform: revolutionizing AI chatbots and leading the way for mobile operators

The good news is that specialist companies have developed solutions using AI to supercharge digital-first device care. MCE Systems, a pioneer in device lifecycle management, now offers an innovative digital-first Device Lifecycle Management (dDLM) platform that addresses the need for device data to power and enhance mobile operators’ GenAI applications – especially chatbots.

Central to this platform is MCE's DeviceAI, an innovation that powers GenAI applications with device-specific data and intelligence. It provides real-time device data by transforming the user's device into a dynamic data source – enabling the chatbot and device to “converse” with each other.

The platform also provides a common data layer with full device history awareness. This ensures chatbots have access to all previous customer interactions on the device, such as past diagnostics test results and customer support requests. The device history awareness and DeviceAI, create a powerful and professional “three-way” conversation between the chatbot, device, and customer.

Through the three-way conversation, customers can communicate their issues in plain English, with no need for a deep, technical understanding of the issue. Using the device history and live device data, the chatbot understands the context of the interaction. It can then tailor the conversation to fit their specific scenario. Based on the conversation with the customer, the chatbot can pull more data from the device, such as initiating live diagnostic tests, to provide the most intelligent conversation possible.

These features make the chatbot the ultimate telco-grade, digital care agent. It can guide customers through more complex diagnostic tests to pinpoint device-related issues, and provide detailed tutorials or suggestions to resolve them.

Furthermore, the chatbot can bridge the gap from care to commerce. When it makes sense, it can use the device history (or even operator CRM data) to provide customers with contextual alternatives like a trade-in instead of repair, offering a smoother experience for customers. This is better than a painful repair process. And it confers a genuine competitive advantage for the mobile operator.

Another feature of MCE's platform is that it connects seamlessly to legacy systems and existing channels. This ‘plug and play’ approach means operators can sync the chatbot across all steps of the journey: onboarding, device care, trade-in, and more.

The result is in-year payback for operators and yet another clear differentiator in a rapidly developing market.

For more information, visit the MCE webpage.