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Fastest mobile operator in South Africa Cell C has partnered with network optimisation specialists AIRCOM International to empower its customers to play a direct role in enhancing user experience. By using AIRCOM’s Customer Experience Monitoring tool, Cell C customers will have the capability to report dropped calls, poor network signal and other issues to the operator directly through a dedicated web page.

AIRCOM’s customer experience monitoring tool enables Cell C’s mobile users to pinpoint any network issues on a map in order to highlight performance problems in specific areas. Once these issues are identified and solved by Cell C, it then has the ability to provide direct feedback to the users in question. This level of direct interaction delivers significant cost reductions by negating the need to contact existing, expensive call centre support facilities while driving customer loyalty, enhancing brand reputation and reducing churn.

The monitoring system also integrates with other existing AIRCOM tools (eg. ASSET) that Cell C currently has installed in its network and has been using since 2004. By integrating the monitoring tool with these other AIRCOM products, Cell C can enjoy a complete and comprehensive overview of its radio network, identifying and solving network glitches before they negatively impact user experience.

The Customer Experience Monitoring tool will give engineers access to fault data by location, by time and the type of fault. It will also mean that Cell C’s ongoing rollout of high quality HSPA+ enabled data services can be delivered as a direct result of more detailed network planning.

"We pride ourselves on the high quality user experience we deliver to our customers and remain committed to sustaining this level of service by all means necessary," said Steve Boiles, Executive Head of Networks Engineering of Cell C. "By adopting AIRCOM’s Customer Experience Monitoring tool, we are able to provide our customers with yet another line of direct communication back to us. This will ensure our high standards of customer care continue by enabling us to react to any unforeseen issues our customers experience as quickly as possible."

"Increasing demand amongst global mobile operators like Cell C for our Customer Experience Monitoring tool demonstrates their commitment to evolve with the changing needs of mobile consumers," said Graham Kemp, regional Managing Director, Africa, AIRCOM International. "Advancing mobile technology continues to bring fresh challenges to operators, encouraging innovation to ensure customer experience evolves in tandem with technology. Our monitoring tool is an example of this innovation. It puts mobile users in control and brings new levels of transparency and honesty between operators and their customers, strengthening customer loyalty, enhancing brand value as well as reducing cost and minimising churn."