As the restrictive measures we’re living under begin to cautiously ease, thoughts are starting to turn to what we’re learning from the experience. Without question, the pandemic has caused untold damage on a personal and social level but it’s also forced us to think differently about our businesses, our customers and what changes we may need to implement moving forwards.
For network operators, it’s the ideal time to drive understanding into not just subscriber experience, but how customer behaviour has changed during the lockdown.
With such a transformative social shift taking place so quickly, we’re pleased to provide some ideas on how crowd data can help drive insight for three key operator activities which can greatly benefit activities for both today and tomorrow.
Testing
Where walk and drive testing were once staples of network insight, the limitations on them have led to a reduction in new data coming in to support operations and processes. Key testing needs include gaining insight across transport routes and roads as well as boosting understanding into the differences between indoor and outdoor experience. While operators may be finding this data difficult to gain, crowd data can be captured from subscribers using these routes or situated at home and use this information to better-inform optimisation teams.
Optimisation
UK communications regulator, Ofcom, have reported that providers are facing a 20-40% reduction in their work forces resulting in “fewer people in call centres to help customers, and fewer engineers to carry out repairs and new connections.” As a result, prioritising optimisation work has become even more crucial to ensure resources are utilised for the maximum benefit of the subscriber base. Crowd data from subscribers can help to quickly identify potential trouble areas and form part of a triage process which can identify whether drive test resources should be dedicated to further investigation and optimisation work.
Analytics
When are the times of day when your subscribers are most dependant on the network? Which OTT apps are proving most popular? How has the balance changed between fixed Wi-Fi and mobile? With many stuck at home, it’s understandable that entertainment and communications apps saw a rise in usage but the levels of their use changed as people adapted to new social conditions and working environments. Verizon saw a 25% increase week over week in March while Skype saw their average daily users rise by 70% in the same time frame.
While we hope we’ll continue to see a slow return to normalcy, it’s important to plan for these restrictions should they need to be tightened again. If we do see are occurrence of strict lockdown rules, the information gained from the changes seen recently in subscriber experience and behaviour will be invaluable.
Our crowdsourcing capabilities are helping operators around the world overcome these challenges via a simple, subscriber-centric route to crowd sourcing proven to help preserve testing budgets and provide new avenues to insight.
Request an overview of our crowd solutions today.
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