CX Network is joined this week by Maria Marino, VP of CX at telecommunications provider Windstream Enterprise. Here is a sneak preview of how the discussion unfolded and why Telecoms brands shouldn’t be intimidated by the ‘mystifying lingo’ surrounding blockchain.
Maria reminds: “Blockchain might not be on your 2019 roadmap, but it probably should be in the next three to five years, because if you’re not thinking about it, your competitor certainly is.”
Blockchain customer experience strategies
Blockchain can unlock efficiencies in any scenarios that require proof of origin or identification in a string of transactions. Starbucks is using blockchain to trace and track their entire supply chain to assure product quality. Maria explains: “It’s important to Starbucks, that when [customers] buy a cup of coffee, [they] not only get a great product, [but they] feel good [about the fact] that [the] coffee has been ethically sourced and the company isn’t exploiting it’s suppliers. Starbucks is able to prove that now, using blockchain technology, because it can prove the provenance or origin of that coffee bean, and trace it through every transaction in the harvesting, with RFID’s on the plants, transfer, shipment [and] supply. All of that can be logged in the final transaction, all the way to your coffee cup. There is total transparency”
Telecom customer experience management
Maria pinpoints blockchain as a solution to revolutionise the low NPS scores plaguing the telecoms industry by drastically lowering customer effort scores.
When customers embark on a journey with telecoms companies they face constant interruption; “we’re constantly interrupting them to ask who they are, and are they authorised to make this transaction with us?” Maria notes that transactions can be completed in a ‘safer way’ with blockchain to generate the “true state of customers’ data and the verification and validation of their identification” which results in a more streamlined journey for the customer.
Going beyond merely reducing the customer irritation with validation processes, blockchain could help telecoms firms with compliance; “if you break a privacy law, because you didn’t follow the required steps in the transaction correctly and validate someone's identity correctly, then you’re in big trouble as a company.” Blockchain can help protect your brand's reputation and “not to mention, dollars!”
If you want to find out more about blockchain and how it can strengthen your customer’s journey, then click below to listen to the podcast!