Order Fallout in Telecommunications: AI is the Simple Solution to a Complex Problem

Order Fallout in Telecommunications: AI is the Simple Solution to a Complex Problem

Losing customers due to complex order fulfillment is a huge problem for telecoms. Here's how using data to power technology can fix it.

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Eliminating telecom order fallout is critical to companies remaining profitable in a constantly evolving industry. A lost order is lost revenue. Simple enough concept, right? But telecom order management, ensuring every order goes smoothly from start to finish, minimizing as much as possible the number of customers who drop out of the process at any step along the way, is much more complex than it seems. It demands a level of technology that eliminates manual processes and speeds up the process exponentially.

That's especially true today, as telecom companies increasingly become about more than just simple connectivity and offer additional services. It adds a layer of complexity when it comes to orchestrating a customer's journey from lead to activation. Traditional, manual systems, while once the backbone of operations, now often lead to lost revenue. The first step should be upgrading to a unified platform that uses your company's data to power your order management system with automation and AI. That technology is crucial in transforming how telecommunications companies manage and fulfill orders, often consisting of multiple products including from marketplace partners, with precision and efficiency to prevent as much fallout as possible.

What you'll learn:

What is telecom order management
The challenge of increasingly complex orders
Order management with AI relies on unified data
AI is the key to minimizing order fallout and increasing revenue

What is telecom order management?

Telecom order management is used to monitor and manage order fulfillment and react to fallout, which is the failure of an order to be fulfilled successfully. That can happen due to a number of factors, including errors, inefficiencies, or technical issues in the order management process. Fallout can occur at various stages of the order lifecycle, from lead capture to configuration and field deployment to activation. The resulting delays in fulfillment can result in customer dissatisfaction, the order being canceled, and ultimately lost revenue.

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The challenge of increasingly complex orders

Telecommunications companies face numerous challenges in managing orders, from handling large volumes of customer requests to ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of each order. Manual systems struggle to keep up with the increasing complexity and scale of orders. Meanwhile, customers have higher expectations: 86% of business buyers are more likely to buy if companies understand their needs, but 63% of respondents say customer experiences fall short of what they know is possible.

Telecoms often fall short of those expectations due to complex processes and the manual nature of order fulfillment. Communications companies are rolling out more sophisticated services that combine traditional connectivity with newer technologies such as SD-WAN or on-demand speed increases to meet growing demand. At every step along the way - from order capture, orchestration, to activation - there's a chance for something to break or be delayed and a future or existing customer to take their business elsewhere. The more complex the order means more headaches and the higher the chance for fallout, especially if you don't design your system to handle it.

Manual processes can result in the following:

• Higher error rates leading to customer dissatisfaction and fallout.
• Slower processing times that delay fulfillment and impact customer experience.
• Inconsistent data in disparate systems, causing inconsistencies and inaccuracies in order processing.

These issues lead to operational inefficiencies and result in significant revenue loss. How can telecommunications companies overcome these challenges? The answer lies in AI-driven order management solutions.

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Order management with AI relies on unified data

Before you can effectively implement AI, your company's data must be unified into a single source. High-quality, relevant, and sufficient historical data must be accessible to train AI models effectively. This includes data on previous orders, customer interactions, pricing history, and product configurations.

When integrated within an existing CRM and order fulfillment system, unified data makes automation and AI especially powerful tools for preventing fallout. Automation can eliminate tedious manual processes that have the high potential for error. Predictive AI is able to learn from historical data to analyze thousands of orders to find potential errors. And generative AI can provide valuable insights to personalize the process and optimize orders.

Here's how it works:

AI-driven systems can automate the entire order processing workflow, from order capture to fulfillment. By reducing manual intervention, AI minimizes errors, accelerates processing times, and ensures that orders are fulfilled accurately and promptly. A huge benefit to automation is eliminating swivel chairing, when agents have to toggle between various systems to fulfill an order, which causes delays. In fact, 58% of service agents at underperforming organizations toggle between multiple screens to find what they need - compared to 36% at high performers. AI allows companies to fulfill orders faster and accurately.

AI can analyze historical data to predict potential issues by learning from past order fallouts and analyzing why they occurred. This gives AI the ability to analyze thousands of in-flight orders and flag any issues to ensure they are swiftly addressed in a way that would be impossible for a human agent.

AI-powered inventory management systems provide real-time visibility into stock levels, demand forecasting, and inventory optimization. This ensures that the right products are available at the right time, reducing delays and enhancing the efficiency of the order fulfillment process.

AI can also personalize the customer experience by providing real-time updates on order status, predicting customer needs, and offering tailored recommendations. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters loyalty and drives repeat business. It's also expected; 73% of customers expect better personalization as technology advances.

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AI is the key to minimizing order fallout and increasing revenue

In the competitive and increasingly complex telecommunications industry, order management isn't getting any simpler - and the risk for fallout is getting higher. Orders are becoming more involved, while customers expect a faster and more personalized experience. Efficient and accurate order management that can scale with your business goes beyond human solutions. By bringing automation and AI into the mix, telecommunications companies can overcome the limitations of traditional manual systems, reduce order fallout, and increase profitability.

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Thomas has been in the telecommunications community for 15 years, spending most of that time in software. His experience has been up and down the OSS/BSS stack, making him an expert in the interdependencies of systems. His passion for continual learning has been leveraged greatly through the... Read More evolution of networks and how connected our lives have become through these technologies.