Why good tech support is essential to any carrier billing setup

In the world of carrier billing, the role of technical support is multiple, and it can never be overstated. If organized well and consistently performing to high standards, it is one of the pillars ensuring that carrier billing engine runs smoothly, to the satisfaction of both merchants and mobile network operators.

The 2018 independent survey by the analyst company ROCCO found that tech support is among the KPIs that mobile network operators value tremendously in carrier billing vendors. Comments left by telco professionals pointed at this capability as not only desirable in vendors but oftentimes a sine qua non in a serious business partner that is trusted to process, manage and support their carrier billing operations.

Centili tech support, a worthy team of experts, has impressive performance stats. They respond to client queries within 12 minutes, and their average resolution time is 23 minutes.

Early on, when the department was first shaped, they set their own standards and motto: response time in 30 minutes or less. Over time, numbers kept improving, and it was not by chance. There is a lot of structure, effort, and constant learning and development going around in their team ever since it was established years ago. Their functioning rests on firm processes and meticulously prepared documentation. Indeed, they will often say that the most important thing for an efficient tech support team is good and organised documentation.

As a result of all this, the department can scale up and down with relative ease. Knowledge transfer mechanisms ensure that the expertise is not diluted or lost as new members join in. Learning, development and career opportunities are taken seriously, and it all contributes to great performance. Client satisfaction rate, measured in a survey, was 94 percent.

When successfully organized under the wing of a carrier billing company, tech support will ease many burdens from mobile network operators, that can pop up when they enter the mature stages of carrier billing. Refunds, opt-ins and opt-outs, questions, complaints, spikes in traffic, integrations - different day-to-day queries coming from subscribers directly or from companies that bill their services to subscribers’ plans, will necessarily appear. And having trained tech support handle this part of the business will be instrumental, especially in the long run.

Good tech support in a DCB vendor will also make life much easier for merchants, especially if they handle larger numbers of daily transactions, and hiccups occurring in any part of the system should be handled as fast as possible.

Centili tech support, which is distributed on working with clients, system, and in some cases both, is also responsible for the first line support, as well as integration and refunds. In such a constellation, firm routines and processes towards other departments like payment platform operations, development, platform integrations and finance is often key to a fast and satisfactory resolution of customer queries.

Proactive monitoring and alerting is another capability that not every tech support department will achieve in its lifetime. It is a significant organizational leap to grow from receptive to proactive, from purely reacting to acting and consulting - and it will not happen by chance. It takes a substantial organizational effort and planning to build this capacity, as well as great leadership and an unyielding vision.

Well organized tech support in carrier billing vendors will play an important part in vouching for security, as well.

Because DCB vendors are often business partners that develop the platform and payment flows, it is wise that the tech support is organized within the same company. Knowledge levels and transfer will be much higher, which will often translate into better service for customers, and into the capacity to consult business partners on many aspects of carrier billing operations and processes.