Introducing QuEST WCX

QuEST WCX is a method of subjective quality measurement for telecoms. It is based on real feedback from real customers (as opposed to an assumed experience by customers in QoE. However, it can also integrate QoE).

It takes advantage of several kinds of insights into user perceptions that have been taken from the practice of machine learning:

1. The resolution of perceptions on the user side is very limited (much more limited than technical parameters that are measured)
2. There are general patterns of perception that can be taken as a standard, as they explain >80% of customer behavior (loyalty/churn)
3. A large part of these patterns relate to the network
4. These patterns play a key role in customer behavior
5. Customers ‘measure’ the quality of networks intuitively
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The objective of WCX

The objective of WCX is:

a) identification of critical parameters (in network perception) that drive customer behavior

⇒ This is done with the help of customer experience interviews, compatible to those that operators run as NPS or similar. It is refreshed once a month to track how competitions and technology change user behavior.

b) tracking of theses parameters along the timeline

⇒ Quality rating is done with a swipe on the phone’s screen

c) identifying the objective (technical) data that are technical reasons of user perception

⇒ This is done by integrating OSS data or any other technical data available in the existing systems.

Each level (a, b, and c) can run with internal staff and internal data sources. They can be outsourced to third parties. During the first 12 months, WCX serves as a driving force and enabler.

WCX as Managed Service

The deliverables per month, always updating:

Managed Services of quality tracking and reporting to provide these deliverables:

• To-do lists (prioritizing items with the potential)
• Instances of Critical Impact (ICI) to track
• Monthly analysis and continuous bias control
• Behavioral analysis (patterns & segments)
• Rules for loyalty
• Benchmark
• The main drivers of perception – customers are classified according to patterns of perception
• Business strategy success tracking
• Loyalty and churn – the main drivers of churn and customer stickiness

How is WCX used?

WCX as a standard provides insight into the whole mobile (3G/4G/+) population and benchmarks carriers. In practice, it is adjusted to strategic target groups. The measures can be restricted to an overall sample, as well as scaled up to multiple regional and sociographic segments. It will always produce and track the few parameters that drive real customer perception and behavior (churn).

Its purpose is to make subjective quality (and customer behavior) the reference for network performance and to focus on business success.

It can run with existing data as part of the existing customer analytics. However, it has the capacity to reduce the complexity of data tracking and data analysis, as well on the subjective as on the objective side of operations.

‘Subjective’ data and their technical reference

Subjective Quality – Looking at business from another viewpoint

Most users have neither the means nor the interest in measuring network quality. However they perceive network quality as they use it to interact with others.

Subscribers live in an unbroken flow, where networks are organized to optimize local connections and the handover. Customers and their providers seem to live in two different worlds. But it is just the same world and network viewed from two different angles.

So we get “red-green” problems in which, for example, the technical network values are all green but customers see them as red.

Network quality from the user perspective is an impression made up of experiences in interaction. In former times the perception focused on call quality, then later browsing quality was predominant. For the impression of network quality, nowadays it is mainly about the flow of social network activities.

Perceived network quality is always an aggregation of effects that are felt by customers. They may be different by persona, time of the day, and kind of activity, but they can be ultimately measured.

The WCX app and its distribution

Beginning with WCX our app allows active and passive user communication (asking for feedback or receiving feedback). Many operators have their own app spread among the customer base. The WCX app adapts to pre-defined procedures (push service ability required).

The WCX app collects minor amounts of information that are insignificant in terms of cost.

The app runs on smart phones and communicates with a cloud database in two possible ways.

Active: the network sends a signal in case of a critical event (‘video uploaded to Facebook’) which triggers a ‘flash feedback request’. At the same time the relevant technical parameters are recorded

Passive: the user signals a problem. At the same time, the technical data is being recorded and reveals the technical background of the problem.

The technical data is transferred to the same cloud database where they are merged and analyzed.

The analytical results are constantly updated and can be accessed by authorized staff/departments of operator. Apart from network management, typical users are marketing, customer service and, in the context of personalized services, service orchestration.

Benefit for the operator

• Operator success rises with customer loyalty. Loyalty is driven by perceived quality.
• Operators get ‚hard‘ data for ‚soft‘ customer behavioral patterns. The can be married with technical analyses.
• According to the customer view, the relevant set of data is small and easy to handle in day-to-day operations.
• For each of the relevant parameters, an economic figure show how much it moves in terms of contract value.
• Operator gets data about critical incidents on the customer journey to create efficient improvement initiatives (where business or strategic values are at stake).

WCX as global reference standard

WCX provides a subjective quality reference across networks of all suppliers and all kinds of customer groups and across the 20 major countries in the world.

This reference is taken to ensure a possible bias in quality data. This policy is supposed to distinguish between a local and a global optimum. Examples of sources of a bias:

• Measures are taken only in the environment of a single network. Some of the results cannot be generalized
• Our feedback base suffers from a kind of structural bias that distorts results (e.g. a high percentage of low-level devices in the network)

The reference measure is especially important when it comes to estimate the economic value of an action, a functionality, or any improvement measure.

WCX Reports

Subjective Quality Study in the Americas 2017

Looking at business from the source of cash flow

Here you will find some answers to the WHY of customer churn, what users demand and how they make decisions. The data that we have gathered from representative samples in 6 countries across the Americas, provide insight strictly from the user perspective. In these summaries we look at the background to these questions, even if we are restricted to a small amount of information in this document.

• Americas Report
• Argentina Report
• Brazil Report
• Colombia Report
• Mexico Report
• Peru Report
• USA Report