The Q1 2012 issue of European Communications will launch at Mobile World Congress next month with customer experience taking centre stage in our bumper special report.
BT Group CIO Clive Selley (pictured) is the subject of our feature interview and shares his views on how the UK-based operator is turning customer experience into a science.
He explains how the company defines customer experience, which low- and high-tech tools it is using to deliver a best-in-class service and what benchmarks he considers to be the most important.
“The future presents several challenges and the winners will be those who deeply understand their customers,” says Selley.
In addition, we present the results of our exclusive customer experience survey, recently carried out on eurocomms.com, with analysis and commentary from leading telco experts at Arthur D Little and KPMG.
Comments Arthur D Little director Dr Michael Opitz: "The responses show that the telco ecosystem is more sceptical about the ability of operators to deliver great customer experience than operators themselves, but we do not support that opinion."
Our analyst v operator piece finds out what experts think operators should be doing re customer experience and what actually is happening in practice, while market research experts Kantar Worldpanel reveal what consumers really want this year.
There are further features on how operators are implementing CEM at a strategic level, how to create a seamless customer experience in store, over the phone and online, plus a look at whether the traditional customer silos of enterprise and retail need to be rethought.
The latest financial information from telcos around the world are analysed in our regular data section, while our Brussels correspondent files his quarterly update on all things regulation.
Our regular back office, networks and content and services sections analyse a range of hot topics from EC journalists.
Sue Tabbitt asks what more operators should be doing to protect customers who are increasingly taking their sensitive data and financial transactions mobile.
With the urban/rural digital divide growing ever wider, Priscilla Awde analyses the arguments to see if there is a solution to the problem of rural broadband provision.
Finally, Ian Grant looks at the latest developments in location-based services and finds the future may not be so bright for telcos after all.
As if that wasn't enough, the issue also comes with a free cloud computing supplement that features a look at the latest developments in the space: how operators are gearing up to monetise the cloud in 2012, insights from vendors about what new technology lies in store, plus how to deal with the increase in data passing through the cloud.
Photo by Sam Kesteven