Easier, better, cheaper – the demands of the consumer have become those of the enterprise too.
Since when did that happen?
Since when has that most unsophisticated of wish lists become an ever-present daily mantra for those running complex businesses?
Answer: it’s always been the elusive Holy Grail; it’s just that ever-evolving technologies have now matured to make it an oh-so-matter-of-fact expectation.
Automation and self-service are the big enablers.
Deploy any degree of either and enterprises really can begin to shift the efficiency dial.
And improved efficiency always equals increased productivity and, ultimately, enhanced profitability.
Self-service, in particular, has the power to transform in that way.
And nowhere can increased self-service make the most immediate difference to enterprises’ bottom lines than in the area of billing.
“Over the last two years we have seen a rapid evolution in the way we work, with business users coming to expect the same levels of simplicity and efficiency in their work interactions as they experience in their personal lives,” says Vincent Disneur, Managing Director at leading UK telecoms billing and provisioning software provider Union Street Technologies, whose market-leading aBILLity billing platform now boasts the smart, new ‘Billnow’ self-service management portal which delivers on those demands.
“Enterprises want an increasingly broad range of options to self-manage and control the services they buy from the channel. It is now a powerful differentiator capable of keeping customers loyal and locking out competition.”
Self-serve simplicity is of course inextricably linked to that other giant differentiator: user experience.
Refreshingly – and in stark contrast to price – the UX revolution has created an ongoing (and brilliantly innovative) race to the top as opposed to the bottom.
“Enterprise customers in the telecoms market have always expected basics like quality and fair pricing, but now they also have more modern expectations such as proactive service, personalised interactions and connected experiences across the whole spectrum of digital channels,” says Sam Dennahy, Product Owner at Union Street Technologies.
“The consumerisation of B2B customer service means that those end user enterprises are demanding more from their technology reseller. They want fast turnarounds, more ways of communicating, and they want more self-service.
“Our own resellers are reporting that they are under increasing pressure from their customers to provide more ways for them to help themselves rather than calling or emailing the reseller.
