Telecom giants Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, are restructuring their business operating models to ensure smooth flow of services post lockdown period. Since social distancing is the new norm, telecom operators are focusing more on digital recharges, chatbots and automation tools which will minimise the need for call centre operations. Not only this, but telecom operators are also doing major changes in their sales funnel. As reported by ET Telecom, to generate business leads, teams are targeting on neighbourhood instead of long-distance. Also, there have been talks regarding lower network costs for maintain financial stability and cater to the growing demand of network and data services.
Telecom Operators Offering Multiple Platforms for Digital Recharge
Since the lockdown period was announced by the government to combat the deadly virus, telco subscribers were facing huge distress in getting the recharge done at stores. To ensure that subscribers stay connected in the lockdown period, telecom operators teamed up with various entities to offer recharge facility to subscribers. India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio teamed up with 9 different banks to offer recharge facility at ATMs. Similar to Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea also teamed up with various banks to provide recharge facility to its subscribers in the lockdown period. Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, tied-up with ATMs, grocery stores and pharmacy stores to offer digital recharge facility to its subscribers and reduce the hassle. Kunal Vora, who is the senior telecom analyst at BNP Paribas India, stated that digital recharges will increase in post lockdown period, and distribution cost will go down.
Telcos Call Centre Costs to Slash by 20%
Since telecom operators are decentralising the entire operating model of the business, subscriber calls which were earlier routed to call centres will be reduced as the structure is being decentralised. Instead, telecom operators will deploy more chatbots for subscribers where they can share their queries and get immediate feedback from the telco team. Also, telecom operators are deploying software which will help the subscribers to obtain all necessary details with the help of an app. Rajiv Sharma, who is the head of research at SBICap Securities, stated that call centres cost of telcos would slash by 20 % with the new operating model.
