{"id":16378,"date":"2021-08-26T19:06:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T13:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cigniti.com\/blog\/?p=16378"},"modified":"2021-11-19T16:23:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T10:53:07","slug":"quality-of-experience-5g-measuring-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/quality-of-experience-5g-measuring-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality of Experience \u2013 Measuring the new dimensions of the customer experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
In our first blog in this series, we threw down the gauntlet and challenged you to envision your future positioning with 5G adoption and what it means for your Digital Assurance strategy \u2013 are you going to be a leaper, a leader or a laggard?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In our second blog on the topic of 5G Digital Assurance, we are going to go beyond suggesting you dip your toe in the water and start to evolve your thought process, by introducing the importance of Quality of Experience (QoE). A term, or a discipline if you will, that is getting more usage outside the world of infrastructure and networks. If you are not familiar with it, you surely will be in the coming months.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before we get to\u00a0QoE, I want to\u00a0reflect\u00a0to\u00a0Cigniti\u2019s\u00a0latest 5G webinar, in which Rashmi Varma, Founder & CTO of Innovate5G, made a simple yet profound statement \u2013 \u201cExperience is the metric of our time\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the worlds of digital and information technology in which there is seemingly a never-ending list of metrics, KPIs and SLAs, that we use to track, report, and predict the usage and satisfaction (or lack thereof) of the customer experience. But certainly, we are still in search of the holy grail of customer experience monitoring<\/a> and prediction.\u00a0And that is what I love about Rashmi\u2019s statement \u2013 in simplicity and purity, it cuts through all the noise, static and complexity we have created around metrics.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If we were to see the forest through the trees \u2013 the trees being analogous to all of these metrics we collect and report on \u2013\u00a0we will need to evolve a set of metrics that\u00a0measure and (hopefully) predict what matters most: the customer experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So that brings me to this evolving metric that we are about to hear a lot more about – \u201cQuality of Experience\u201d. I know what you are saying \u2013 yet another buzzword in an industry that has an insatiable appetite for the latest and greatest buzzwords (e.g., \u201comni-channel\u201d, \u201cas-a-service\u201d, \u201chyper-automation\u201d, \u201cpersonalization\u201d, \u201cbig\u00a0data\u201d\u2026.shall I continue?). We love to hype and brand the latest trends, with each of us giving them our own unique definition with the intent to shape our differentiation. And if you are one of these skeptics who rolls their eyes with the advent and mass adoption of the latest \u201cterm of the day\u201d, I am with you.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But Quality of Experience, something that I have been hearing in increasing frequency over the last 12 months, is going to be different and it will prove to be more than \u201cjust another\u201d customer satisfaction metric. And with the pending adoption of 5G, get ready for\u00a0QoE\u00a0to be a term that takes on increased relevance in the day-to-day lives of IT, Digital and Marketing professionals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why do we need a new metric \u2013 or a new category of metrics.\u00a0The user experience has continued to evolve (and will continue to evolve at unprecedented levels with 5G), but a lot of the current day metrics we are using to aggregate and measure the customer experience have lagged the advancements of the technology and delivery mechanisms providing the customer experience. And as part of our Digital Assurance initiatives, don\u2019t we already have a plethora of processes, techniques and metrics focused on capturing the customer experience? Well yes, and no. At least not as we factor in the pending adoption of 5G.\u00a0QoE\u00a0is not a new term as it has been traditionally aligned with network performance and satisfaction measures \u2013 essentially an evolution from Quality of Service. But with 5G, and the integration of the network and the application,\u00a0there is no metric, or logical aggregation of\u00a0metrics that exists for that today. You have app performance metrics and you have network performance metrics, but how these two are married in a meaningful and intelligent way such that you are accurately capturing the end user experience.\u00a0It is for this marriage \u2013 of application and network \u2013 for which\u00a0QoE\u00a0will become THE relevant metric for 5G app providers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take your Uber experience for example. Remember the last time you were requesting your uber and first, you ran into connection problems, and then after securing your ride (and obsessively following it on the Uber-provided map on your phone) you see the tracking the car not making sense. It is going in the wrong direction, it goes from 5 minutes to 11 minutes, etc. Now of course, some of this can be attributed to an unreliable driver. But many times, this is a lack of sync\u00a0(latency)\u00a0between the app and the network. If you are like me, you blame Uber for a less-than spectacular user experience.\u00a0But,\u00a0it\u00a0is most likely the deficiencies of the network you are on. So how is Uber to make heads or tails of the true app experience of their users? This is a perfect example of the convergence of the app and the network…and how the Quality of Experience will factor into the Digital Assurance strategies for 5G!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With 5G our networks are becoming application aware and hence with 5G the customer experience will become entwined between the application and the network.\u00a0For Product Managers, or application architects or even marketing leaders, will they be able to delineate the difference between poor app performance vs poor network performance? How will it be measured and how will issues be pinpointed where the issues are when you have an application that\u00a0is\u00a0tightly integrated with the network in the\u00a0way\u00a0native 5G applications will be on a 5G network.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is no single measurement or series of measurements to capture the aggregate. And this will be the crux of the puzzle to be solved in the evolution of\u00a0QoE\u00a0as it relates to the critical mass adoption of 5G.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Would you be interested in a 5G offering that can measure\u00a0the totality of the\u00a0customer experience\u00a0along with\u00a0providing\u00a0a sentiment view on a given consumer\u2019s experience? An offering that can help you take a lead in the digital race by generating\u00a0real time\u00a0digital customer satisfaction score and ratings\/sentiment prediction?\u00a0Precise analysis, eloquent usage of collected data, and holistic approach are the virtues of\u00a0Cigniti\u2019s\u00a05G\u00a0Assurance<\/a>\u00a0offering to accelerate\u00a0the\u00a0digital customer experiences.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nConclusion\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n