First impressions count: How can telcos avoid a digital onboarding disaster?

Onboarding is one of the most important phases of a telco’s customer journey. It’s the first experience that a customer has with their service provider, and as we all know, first impressions count. Despite this, it’s also one of the key areas where mistakes are made when a telco decides to go digital.

Digitalisation is sweeping across every industry, leaving customers with high expectations and meaning businesses must ensure a fast, frictionless and fully digital customer experience in order to succeed.

Following the pandemic, digital experience is even more important. In fact, 68 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by CRM software provider Salesforce agreed that the pandemic has elevated their customers’ digital expectations. Meeting these expectations is important for any business, but for service providers — the very companies responsible for providing the connectivity we’ve all come to rely on — it is crucial.

Why digital onboarding?

Onboarding has historically been one of the most challenging processes for a telco to digitalise, due to the need to complete two SIM activation and identity verification in person.

Telcos typically provide their new customers with physical, plastic SIM cards, which can either be delivered directly to the customer or collected from a retail store. Similarly, identity verification has taken place in person at a store or by the courier delivering the SIM card or device. However, the development of embedded SIMs, or eSIMs, has innovated the onboarding process.

eSIMs facilitate digital onboarding by eliminating the need for a physical SIM card. Instead, a device is authenticated by downloading network authentication credentials that are embedded into the device, for completely digital onboarding.

However, while eSIMs facilitate speedier onboarding, it’s important not to rush things. A poorly executed digital onboarding solution can do more harm than good to customer satisfaction, resulting in a high churn rate. Research by Capgemini revealed that 41 percent of telco customers prefer to visit their service provider in-person as opposed to using online channels. With telcos fighting against consumer preference already, it’s vital that digital customer experience is made as seamless as possible, to change perceptions and initiate industry-wide change.

Clunky, confusing, complicated

Unfortunately, many service providers approach digital onboarding the wrong way, creating a customer experience that works against, rather than in conjunction with, eSIMs.

An ineffective digital onboarding process starts with an ineffective communication channel choice. Constantly switching between different platforms creates unnecessary complications. There are five key steps to eSIM customer onboarding: selecting a plan and ordering an eSIM, providing contact details, identity verification, payment, and finally, eSIM activation.

Selecting and ordering an eSIM, entering contact details and handling payments can all be done simply from a service provider’s website, but the process becomes complicated when it comes to identity verification and eSIM activation.

Digital identity verification typically takes the form of a video showing the customer’s face and identity document and verbally confirming that they have purchased the outlined plan. Then, a photographic copy of the same identity document is uploaded for more detailed inspection. Once the identity has been confirmed and payment processed, the customer then must activate their eSIM.

Digital onboarding via a website requires customers to activate their eSIM using a QR code. A QR code is emailed to the customer, who can scan it on their device and securely download and activate their SIM profile. Although this activation method works, it requires the user to use another device to onboard, which complicates the digital experience and requires more effort and time from the customer.

Digitally onboarding in this way creates a clunky, confusing and complicated first experience for a telco’s customers, which could leave them frustrated and result in them abandoning the process. So, it’s essential for companies to create a frictionless digital onboarding process for excellent customer service right from the get-go.

Going digital the right way

To avoid these common onboarding mistakes that could hinder customer satisfaction and retention, telcos should consider the benefits of a well-designed app. An app allows telcos to interact with their customers directly from their smartphones and offers a range of services through one channel — including the entire onboarding process.

The two sticking points of web-based onboarding — identity verification and eSIM activation — are streamlined to create the seamless user experience telcos are striving for. Identification can be verified through videos and ID document upload from right within the app, while in-app eSIM provisioning replaces the need for a QR code, enabling customers to activate their profile in just one simple tap.

Mobilise’s M-Connect platform is designed to empower telcos to digitalise their onboarding process quickly, simply, and correctly. Taking an in-app approach streamlines the onboarding process to create a simple, intuitive customer experience. What’s more, opting for an app-based solution cuts down the onboarding time from a couple of working days to just a few minutes.

Making digital onboarding a positive customer experience is crucial to improving customer satisfaction and reducing churn. Onboarding is the first significant interaction that many companies have with their customers. Avoiding these common pitfalls by adopting in-app onboarding gives telcos and their customers alike the confidence in digital-first customer experience and making sure that first impression really counts.