I recently had the opportunity to speak with William Mich, chairman and chief executive officer of Aperio CI, and get his thoughts on where the market and his company is headed.
As you may recall, the company has a unique way of generating more revenue for service providers and moreover can reduce churn while increasing ARPU.
To get some history on the company, be sure to read this article I wrote last year about how Aperio CI can help service providers generate more revenue.
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Please outline your new corporate initiatives.
Aperio CI is focusing on helping service providers better understand the propensities and behaviors of their customers, which ultimately will enable them to deliver more targeted and compelling offers that result in longer customer lifecycles, enhanced brand loyalty and greater profitability.
How is IP communications changing your company’s strategy?
IP communications gives providers many more options in terms of delivering value-added content. As a result, our company has become more refined in mapping customer attributes to help providers deliver the right offer to the right customer at the right time.
What is the biggest request coming from your customer base?
Finding solutions to reduce churn and build brand loyalty.
How are you answering their demands?
We have developed a comprehensive suite of technologies to help customers understand the attributes of both desirable and less than desirable customers, and customize offers that will motivate good customers to stay with the brand.
What do you think the future of the market is?
We are extremely optimistic that providers will pay equal -- if not more -- attention to retention. Savvy providers understand that keeping good customers is much more profitable and operationally sound than having to acquire a significant base each year.
How does the US growth rate in the U.S. compare to the rest of the world?
European wireless adoption rates, particularly for data services, far surpass the U.S. market but the U.S. is catching up.
How will communications evolve over the next five years?
Transport infrastructure will become completely commoditized much like in today’s fixed line voice market. The real differentiator will become the applications and services that are delivered to the user. The challenge for providers is to make the right service available to the right customer for the right price, instead of the traditional mindset of force-feeding technology. Providers will need to become much more attuned to their customers’ wants in order to satisfy their thirst for content.
What sorts of things will we be hearing about during your presentation at ITEXPO?
One of the big mysteries in the CRM space is the concern around the low adoption rates of Web-based self-service solutions. Our session will attempt to provide some insight into why these tools have not been more readily accepted by users. We’ll also offer some suggestions on how service providers can make their self-service portals more responsive to customer needs.
Why is your presentation a “Can’t Miss?”
Businesses in a variety of industries have spent huge sums of money promoting Web-based self-service tools, but usage is relatively low. Our thought is that while technology may be impressive, it doesn’t mean anything if customers find it cumbersome or unreliable. Our mission is to allow providers to see their solutions from the perspective of their users, and then determine if they are realistically meeting their expectations through the use of these tools.
What do you want the industry to know about your company?
Aperio CI is committed to giving service providers a thorough and complete understanding of how customers use their services, where their strengths and weaknesses are and how they can protect good customers from competition. Our solutions are based on comprehensive data analytics and thorough analysis of comparative service offers, combined with years of mapping and modeling customer behavior. Aperio CI’s clients use this data to better understand the drivers of each customer, and make more targeted and relevant retention and acquisition offers.
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