telcoinabox

We all know that it costs infinitely more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer.  If this is the case, why is the Telecommunications industry so crap at account management.  It forms the corner stone of any business that has high value customers (or for that matter any customers).  Businesses can be made or lost on the quality of their account management.

 
As an example we pulled a multi million dollar annual spend from AAPT and moved it to Telstra due to poor account management.  When we "pulled" the traffic, AAPT hardly battered an eye lid.  In the end we were taken for granted. Now this obviously did not hurt AAPT to a massive extent, but just to maintain their volumes they need to find a few million a year in revenue.  How much will this cost them?  It could have been avoided through  good account management.
 
We see it time and time again.  Even our major competitor in the market has no idea (we are a customer of theirs also) with little to no follow up and getting a return phone call is all but impossible.  Yet, our experience at Telstra has been sensational to say the least.  For a massive beast of a company they seem to have got it right.  It is a major focus of theirs and they seem to nurture good people.
 
I used to argue with our previous billing house that they just did not get it, and why?, they never took the time to  understand our business or understand our expectations despite many attempts by us.  In the end we left and found an alternative solution.  At one stage we had a great account manager but their opinion was that she "over serviced" her customers.  In the end she left and worked for me :)
 
Coming from a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) background such as Colgate Palmolive, Mars (Masterfoods) and others probably taints my view as everything is about account management, but surely the fundamentals that have made this industry so successful translate to our own beloved industry.  Many operators just don't get it.  We have seen so many times, the only time we hear from our account manager is if we are 1 day late in paying our monthly invoice.
 
As I often ask rhetorically, where am I going with this?
 
Nobody can deny, we are coming into tough times.  Reducing our overall costs while maintaining growth and reducing debtor days is key.  So if retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring customers, why does account management in telecommunications seem to be a lost art (in general)? 
 
Who knows.  In any case, this begs the question, what is good account management?
 
Successful account management is more than making a scheduled phone call, sending them their monthly reports or ringing them looking for payment?  It is about immersing yourself in your customers business, understanding their business, knowing their people and forming a relationship at all levels within their business (account penetration).  By doing this, you form a true partnership and can better make informed decisions on how to grow and make more money out of that account.  A good account manager is the one that fights for their accounts cause within their own business and goes beyond the call of duty to find solutions for their customer.  In some situations a good account manager will play business coach and other times will just be an empathetic ear to the concern of their account. 
 
By building a strong rapport with an account is gives the account manager the ability to push back on their account when they push too far or they do the wrong thing.  This is because they will have the respect of the account and done in the right way will not damage the relationship.
 
I would personally speak with our Telstra account manager 3-5 times a week and I know that she also speaks with our General Manager, National Operations Manager, Business Development Manager, Product Manager a number of times during a week and she makes the effort to speak with our admin person every time she is in the office.  We will present an opportunity to her and she will fight like a bulldog within the Telstra business until we get an outcome whether positive or negative (more often than not positive).  In the whole process she keeps us updated by phone call or email.  Communication is key to building a successful relationship.
 
If you want to know if someone is a good account manager, ask them when was the last time they were driving or having a shower or on a train and suddenly they had a great idea or the solution to a problem for an account came to them and they just had to ring their account immediately.  Also ask when was the last time they rang their account and just said "hello" with no agenda or reason.
 
So what do I think of our business and our account management.  Without being too detailed, we are average.  We have a great framework and "tool chest" of tools and internal training for our account managers, as well as systems and processes, but we could be much better at building lasting relationships of respect and a complete understanding or our customers businesses.  We go someway in immersing our self in our customers business but not deep enough.  We do not get the level of respect that is required to truly help grow our accounts.  The good news is that we know this and we are working on improving our performance all the time.
 
I will say that we piss all over our competition and most of the carriers, but as always we are never happy and want to be better.  As the Managing Director, I cannot ask any more than that.
 
Damian Kay