7 reasons why telcos should offer a self-service PBX to their SMB customers

1st August, 2022

The pace of change today means telcos can’t afford to stand still. Life under lockdown saw businesses of all sizes tapping into the potential of cloud-based communications, installing Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other forms of virtual communication to stay connected with employees and customers.

With the economic climate worsening, it’s more important than ever that telcos remain ahead of the game, ready to offer the solutions their customers need to help meet their business goals. Within the market, we need to make the cake bigger. It’s not about fighting for the same customer segments as all the other telcos. Remember there are big forces at play disrupting telecoms - IT legacy, commodity products and services, and consumer preferences and customer experience being a few.

By offering B2B products like a self-service cloud PBX for SMBs - something we offer at Telness Tech - telcos can expand the target customer segment and ultimately bring in more money and have a stronger competitive positioning. Take our customer, Telness, as an example. They offer traditional mobile subscription plans as well as a self-service PBX, and 50% of their customers have both.

There are seven good reasons why you should consider offering a cloud PBX to your SMB customers in order to grow your market share, differentiate towards competitors and ultimately increase revenue:

1 – Expand your customer base

For small and medium-sized businesses, probably the most attractive thing about a next generation cloud PBX is that it’s quick to purchase, configure and use as everything from provisioning to fulfilment is automated and the user experience is self service. But there are other factors at play here. By expanding your offering, you’re not only opening the door to more money, you’re also opening the door to a new customer segment. Nobody wants the hassle of working with two providers, and by taking all the functionality of a digital system and moving it into a virtual space, a cloud PBX eliminates the need for hardware and other equipment, saving money on installation and maintenance. This is your USP. At Telness Tech, we saw a 200% increase in mobile subscriptions with one of our customers, Telness after, just six months of launching our cloud PBX targeting the SMB segment.

2- Build your brand for resellers

Our research shows that around a quarter of consumers (23%) care about a company’s brand, and 96 percent say they’re loyal. By launching a branded cloud PBX, rather than reselling other solutions, you have the opportunity to build your own brand and, by offering the services and experience your customers need you can increase customer happiness, but most importantly, establish long-term loyalty.

3 – Branch out from the competition
Today’s telco space is crowded. Providers of all sizes are competing for business customers of all sizes. Most of these providers, though, are selling slightly different versions of the same solution to the larger customer segments.. A next generation cloud PBX will allow you to differentiate yourself from your competition by selling your own branded solution to an audience segment that’s traditionally underserved.

Businesses everywhere accelerated their transition to a digital first environment over the last two years – and it’s a trend that shows no sign of slowing. To keep up, telcos need to move fast. Fortunately, switching from legacy on-premise infrastructure to an automated cloud-based platform isn’t complicated. At Telness Tech, we can migrate your existing customers and services in a matter of weeks.

4 – Increase revenue

For resellers, the traditional revenue, where you’re paid per sale, is losing its shine. Percentages are shrinking, and the incentive to sell isn’t what it used to be. It’s worth considering moving toward a recurring revenue model instead. By investing your time and expertise in helping your customers use their cloud PBX in growing the business, in exchange for a share of their revenue, you’ll quickly increase your profitability. If you’re a telco looking to invest in a cloud PBX for your SMB customers, this will save you OPEX thanks to its self service nature. You can save up to 80% on operational personnel by launching a next generation PBX service on top of the Telness Tech platform.

5 – Reduce operational expenditure (OPEX)

Running on old software and on-premise hosting is expensive, and telcos have little choice but to set high price margins. Migrating to a digital-first solution such as a cloud PBX, however, automatically cuts costs. Automation and self-service considerably reduce the need for operational staff and infrastructure. At Telness Tech, we can cater to everyone since we offer full scalability of the solution.

Automation allows you to invest the money saved on OPEX on growth, innovation and other customer satisfaction efforts instead

6 – Increase customer experience and happiness

Sometimes, investing in the right technology is as much about people as it is about business. Essentially, intuitive, self-service solutions make for happier customers. Since a cloud PBX is managed by the customer themselves rather than the service provider, both onboarding and administration are seamless and simple. A cloud PBX can also help reduce churn, our data shows that by using the Telness Tech platform, customers can achieve a 60% reduction in churn. This is further proved by the stats that Telness Tech has an impressive 125% net customer retention compared to an industry average of 20% churn (in Sweden).

7 - Tap into the heavily underutilised, but steadily growing SMB segment

The SMB segment has been historically underserved by telcos all over Europe despite the size and growth of the segment. After the pandemic, we’ve seen a further increase in this segment and the need among these small businesses for digital, self-service solutions that are easy to purchase, use and administrate is bigger than ever. In the UK there are 5.5m SMBs (0-49 employees) employing 13m people while in the Netherlands there are 1.2m SMBs and growing year over year. This is a customer segment that is characterised by lean organisations that do not have the time or resources for costly and cumbersome digital tools. They need mobile plans tailored to their needs along with a simple PBX that includes functionality such as voicemail, answer groups and IVR.

With the right digital solutions in place, your employees will have much less of a manual burden to contend with than when using the legacy infrastructure. More agile and free to make a difference, they’ll work more efficiently, and deliver the experience your customers desire.

And it’s a logical move. After all, by freeing up money and time to invest in innovation, your business, and your people, you can continue to offer your customers the service they want, whenever they want it.

To know more how a next generation cloud PBX can transform your business, contact us on —>sales@telnesstech.com