As a managed service provider for wholesale telecommunications operators, we have faced many challenges throughout our journey and pursuit to drive satisfaction and value to our clients. Being customer-centric is an intrinsic part of our business and entails much more than just saying that iCONX customers are important. Having customers at the heart of our business is about delivering an outstanding quality customer experience, and truly understanding what our customers value. 

This pursuit of our clients’ happiness has made us look for ways to assess the quality of our services from the customer’s perspective, adopting the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as our customer satisfaction metric. NPS has given us a much better understanding of the business and its impact on our clients, and we couldn’t be prouder of the feedback we have received: a remarkable score of 80! Reaching this impressive score as a managed service provider indeed comprises the entire iCONX team’s hard work behind the scenes. We want to share the iCONX pathway to an 80 NPS with our amazing clients in this post.  

How iCONX brings customer-centricity into the game and stands out as a managed service provider 

There are a lot of aspects involved in bringing customer-centricity into the game. For iCONX, it’s a vital part of our organisational culture. It’s not only about acquiring a new client and saying, “ok, let’s make them top of mind”. It’s the natural flow of making them feel part of the iCONX team; it’s understanding their pains and putting a lot of effort into creating value for them.  

In this process, empathy is the word, and it all starts with our support team being users of our system. For this reason, we invited our Head of Customer Services, who has been with iCONX for 15 years, Rupert Rock, to answer a few questions about how we deliver excellent customer satisfaction to our clients. Having worked on the telco operator side and in implementation, training, and support roles, Rupert is both a managed services provider expert and an iCONX client at the same time. 

Q. Customer service vs customer support: how do you differentiate between them, and what does good customer service mean? 

Although quite similar, customer support is more about dealing with clients’ specific issues, whereas customer service is a full hands-on experience for the customer. However, they cross over in relation to good customer support for user issues, impacting what they see as good customer service. For our team, good customer experience means valuing the customer and exceeding their expectations while meeting their day to day needs to run a successful business process. We have reached this level of excellence due to our personalised approach. This means we do more than simply support our customers, instead, we build personal friendships with our clients and empathise with any issues they are facing. From the managed service provider side of the iCONX business, we are also users of the system and, in theory, doing a team member’s job. This helps with really understanding our customers’ needs. 

Q. What has been your biggest challenge as the Head of Customer Services, and what have you learned from it? 

Adapting to a “new normal” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was a big challenge in the sense that we had to evolve and improve our ability to build a rapport remotely. We’ve found ways to interact with our customers through video calls and keeping the iCONX essence of prioritising personal and business relationships with all clients. Besides, dealing with customers’ different urgencies when issues arise has always been (and I believe it always will be) important for our team. That’s why we’re continually looking for ways to find balance and be able to prioritise our different customers’ requirements. 

Q. How do you ensure you maintain good communications with every customer? 

We have customers who like continual communication and others only when support is required. The most important thing is the customer knows we are available when they need us. It’s all about knowing the person and communicating with them in the way they want. Our personalised approach is one of our biggest strengths. 

Q. An 80 Net Promoter Score is an impressive achievement. How do you feel about this score?  

There’s a generalised sense of satisfaction, of mission accomplished! It is gratifying to have data proving that the iCONX Support team and even those in our team that are not directly facing the customer, are delivering an excellent customer experience from our client’s perspective. The NPS results tell us about how customers perceive our services and products, and we have been using this feedback as a tool for improvement. We’re trying to think ahead to reduce risk and time of response, thinking of what customers need, even before they know they need it. 

Q. In your opinion, what are the three essential elements of excellent customer service?   

First of all, communication. Communication is critical in every type of relationship – the customer must feel we are listening to their needs. A second element is a personal approach. Customers need to see that they are treated friendly but professionally. A personal approach enhances the user experience even when issues may arise. Last but not least, putting the customer’s needs first. As system users, the iCONX Support team can proactively suggest system enhancements even before a customer may have raised an issue. Empathy for customers and putting ourselves in their shoes helps us put their needs first. 

Being an excellent managed service provider is an ongoing process 

 
iCONX are incredibly proud of an 80 Net Promoter Score. Our main goal is to listen to our customers and act on issues they may bring to our attention. We understand that achieving excellence is an ongoing process, and there is still a lot we want to improve as we strive to provide a great experience for all customers. iCONX are a software and managed service provider constantly looking for new technologies to automate and enhance our response time, and we are happy to see that we keep evolving with our clients.  

Our experienced teams have been delivering managed services to our global wholesales telecommunications customers for more than two decades, dedicated to providing quality services and support. Looking for a managed service provider? Tell us about the challenges you face in running your wholesale telecoms operations, and we will show you how we can help. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Net Promotor Scores and the most industry benchmarks, this article is a good one to read.