In a hyper-connected, data-rich world, Nigerian telecom operators face a paradox: more data than ever before yet a fragmented understanding of their customers.
The current typical telco customer engages on numerous touch points — USSD, mobile applications, call centers, field agents, WhatsApp, and so on. However, enterprise companies with large amount of data continue to have siloed data, where billing, CRM, customer care, and marketing systems use different languages.
The outcome? Dropped customer journeys, lost upselling possibilities, and suboptimal churn forecasting. What telcos are in need of is a 360° view of the customer, a converged, real-time profile that captures a full picture of every subscriber.
Why Fragmented Customer Data is Hurting Enterprise Businesses
A study by McKinsey revealed that telcos lose over 25% of their customer base annually due to poor customer experience and lack of personalization. This is particularly alarming in Nigeria, where switching SIMs is easy, competition is fierce, and digital-first Gen Z and millennials expect frictionless service.
Telcos typically find themselves struggling with siloed information, which generates a whole set of operating inefficiencies.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, for instance, are likely to be filled with outdated information and missing key social and behavioural insights, thereby being less effective to deliver on personalized interactions. Similarly, actionable intelligence trapped in call centre logs remains unused to inform key marketing strategies or product development programs.
What does having a 360° View Look Like?
Achieving a 360° view of the customer in the enterprise companies mean integrating disparate data points into a single, comprehensive, and real-time profile. This involves moving beyond fragmented insights to a unified understanding of each customer’s journey and needs.
Imagine a scenario where:
CRM data instantly reflects a subscriber’s upgrade from prepaid to postpaid, noting the three-month milestone.
Network logs pinpoint specific instances of dropped calls in areas like Lagos Island, directly linking to a customer’s location and potential service issues.
Call center records are no longer isolated; they reveal a complaint about network quality filed just last week by that very subscriber.
Mobile app usage provides behavioral insights, showing the same user recently Browse for data bundles, indicating potential needs.
Support chatbot interactions flag the subscriber as a possible churn risk, based on their inquiries and sentiment.
When all these data flows collect in a single, dynamically updated profile, every team in the organization, from marketing to support to retention, gets real-time access to the whole customer view. Unified intelligence enables telcos to recognize issues proactively, personalize offers, and take customer satisfaction and loyalty to unprecedented levels. It is not such a far-off future anymore; it’s a critical and attainable reality for the modern telecommunications provider.
How to Unify Customer Data: A Practical Playbook
- Audit Your Customer Touchpoints
Begin by writing down all the channels and systems where customer interactions occur:
- CRM (e.g., Dynamics 365)
- Billing platforms
- Mobile apps & USSD platforms
- Call centre software
- Social media DMs, WhatsApp Business, chatbots
- Network management systems (for usage and location data)
Each of these holds a piece of the puzzle. The goal is to bring them together.
- Adopt a Unified Data Platform (e.g., Microsoft Fabric)
Traditional data warehouses can’t keep up with real-time ingestion across multiple systems. That’s where Microsoft Fabric comes in.
Fabric allows telcos to:
- Connect data from diverse sources via Data Factory.
- Store and unify structured and unstructured data in a lakehouse.
- Analyze and visualize data instantly with Power BI.
- Enforce security and governance with Microsoft Purview.
With a single platform, you can build a golden customer record — one trusted source of truth.
- Apply AI Enrichment and Predictive Insight
With your data now unified, now you can use AI models on that to:
- Predict churn before it occurs
- Suggest personalized bundles or offers
- Recommend the best time/channel to re-engage lapsed users
- Identify High Long Time Value customers
- They allow you to do this without extensive data science knowledge.
- Maintain Data Privacy and Governance
Nigeria’s Data Protection Act (NDPA) requires how subscriber information is gathered, stored, and used. Therefore, while centralizing customer information, make sure:
- Consent is accurately documented
- Sensitive information is masked/encrypted
- Audit paths are in place
- Role-based and monitored access
With Microsoft Entra ID, Defender for Cloud, and Purview, telcos achieve compliance at scale through data initiatives.
Single View of the Customer Business Impact
|
Metric |
Before |
After |
| Churn Rate | 22% | ↓ 14% |
| Upsell Rate | 9% | ↑ 22% |
| NPS Score | 36 | ↑ 52 |
| Service Resolution Time | 48hrs | ↓ 8 hrs |
| Campaign Conversion | 2.5% | ↑ 8% |
When the telecom operators unlock a 360° view of their customers, it has additive impacts on the business
Final Thoughts
In telcos’ possession lies the goldmine of data. The challenge lies in turning this into actionable insight that can be accessed in real-time, across departments, and in such a way that it will enable both business outcome enhancement and customer satisfaction.
By making an investment in an integrated strategy, fuelled by platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Dynamics 365, and Azure AI, Nigeria-based and global telcos can transform customer experience, minimize churn, and unlock new growth.
We assist enterprise companies in bringing data together, deploying solutions, and creating AI-driven decision systems.
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