QoS vs. QoE, Part 3: It’s All About The Customer

Posted by Interop Technologies on 8/18/16 3:34 PM

Wireless consumers face an overwhelming and ever-expanding array of telephony options—carriers, handsets, plans, add-on services (such as messaging and WiFi Calling), OTT apps—all of which affect the quality of their calling experience. A customer’s good experience is key for ensuring their loyalty to their current carrier, and loyalty is the primary means for carriers to prevent the dreaded ‘churn’.In a market like the United States where wireless device penetration is approaching 100% and every new subscriber acquired by one carrier signifies churn from another, the ability to monitor and manage the quality of the customer experience (QoE) is especially important.

QoS vs QoE Part 3.pngOur industry has been grappling with the idea of QoE for several years now, but only recently have we begun to define what it means and how we measure it. The main challenge is that QoE is almost entirely subjective—it represents a consumer’s overall perception of value based upon their personal experience and expectations, as well as external factors, including access network and environment (home, work, car, etc.). An acceptable call over an OTT app like WhatsApp may be perceived as equivalent or better than the best HD call over LTE simply because one of the callers can’t afford either the required hardware or wireless plan. And receiving a poor quality call over a 2G/3G connection while hiking in the wilderness has a better QoE than no call at all.

Effective QoE is about working to evaluate every part of the call experience—from devices to apps to networks—and working to improve each one individually, as well as how they interact together. Surveys, self-serve apps, and other feedback tools are critical for creating an ongoing dialog with customers so that problem areas can be quickly identified and addressed. And Quality of Service (QoS) will remain an important tool for evaluating the technical aspects of a call, but it will be just one of many in the QoE toolkit.

For more on QoE and its role in keeping customers happy, sit in on the QoS vs. QoE panel (Session 103) at the CCA Convention in Seattle on Sept. 21 where Arthur Toy, our Product Manager, will be speaking.