Help, I can’t use data and analytics to engage customers – European Service Providers

“A big massive gaping hole that I am desperate to fill is understanding specific customer behaviours so that we can actually understand the different types of user within our current service.” – OTT Provider

This is the view of one of the TV service providers we spoke to, when trying to understand exactly how data insight and analytics are being used to improve subscriber engagement, marketing and communications throughout the customer journey. We interviewed C-level executives from European pay-TV organisations, telcos, broadcasters and OTT providers and one thing was clear, they’re failing to deliver what consumers are looking for. Customer experience ranked a top priority for all providers surveyed, and all agree that analytics is required to improve the overall experience. Despite this, the vast majority are failing to make effective use of subscriber data and analytics to engage consumers.

Where are the gaps?

“Data is one of those words that means a lot of different things to different people.” – Broadcaster

Everyone agrees that data and analytics are important to improve customer experience but there is a huge difference in the way it has been implemented so far. It is clear that data analytics means very different things to different market players, and there is a large gap between where operators are and where they want to be. Data and analytics should be used to improve the customer experience at all touch points in the customer journey, but all are failing to do this so far. These key points include: acquiring a new customer; tracking content consumption for recommendations and offers; upselling and cross-selling to boost average revenue per user; churn prediction and reduction; billing accuracy; and winning back lost subscribers. Although there are many differences to the way it’s being used so far, all providers surveyed plan to increase their use of analytics over the 12-18 months.

Leaders and Laggards

When it comes to who’s winning the race so for, online video providers and broadcasters seem to be the most advanced with their use of analytic, and many OTT players we spoke to often consider themselves to be ‘data-driven’. We found that telco’s are the most ‘backward’ in utilising customer data to advance their video businesses.

One telco TV executive quoted. “A telco is an infrastructure billing and marketing company. It is not a content or video distribution company that understands how to build a consumer experience to watch a movie – that’s just not what they do.”

Download our Research

Hear more about the opinions of top executives in the industry by downloading ‘Customer Analytics in the post-OTT age: insights from European Service Providers’.