It’s been five years since Motive became a part of Alcatel-Lucent. And while that might not sound like a long time, it is light years in terms of the evolution of communications technology and customer experience.

In 2008, the terms “customer experience management” and “CEM” were almost exclusively used by Motive. IPTV and VoIP were still in their infancy. There were not only far fewer smartphone users, those users owned very different smartphones than today’s powerful iPhone® and Android™ devices — which consumers today glance at an average of 150 times a day. In 2009, Motive was managing a total of 10 million devices. A year later, that had grown to 50 million.

Today, Motive manages 80 million fixed lines, 80 million fixed devices, and 70 million mobile devices. That totals a cool 230 million experiences. Along the way, Motive has grown from its origins (although we are still the market leader in fixed broadband device management, with a 23% market share) to become a leader in service and device management, for both fixed and mobile.

At an industry level, CEM is now a common industry term for a rapidly growing market. A $2.68 billion industry in 2012, the global CEM market is expected to reach $6.61 billion by 2017. That’s close to an annualized 20% growth rate.

Customer Experience Growth Trends

Mobile technology is now the center of customer engagement. Mobile broadband subscribers will exceed 3 billion by 2016. There are more than 1,000 different device types and its anticipated there will be 2.5 billion smart phone connections by 2015. Meanwhile the connected home has become an extension of the operator’s broadband network. Fixed and wireless technologies are now a fixture of the home. We frequently see 12 or more devices, including laptops, tablets, energy tracking devices, security devices, entertainment systems, etc., in addition to the extensive use of WiFi which introduces all sorts of new challenges. Motive is helping operators meet this ultra-broadband challenge with the industry’s most extensive device interoperability program (MotiveSmart) covering fixed, mobile and M2M devices.

But through the past five years, some things have also remained the same.

Despite the fact that technology has gotten exponentially more complex, consumers and businesses today still expect simplicity when it comes to customer care. And they still look to their trusted service provider to solve all problems with their communication service, even when third party devices and applications are involved.

Another thing that hasn’t changed: Motive’s understanding of the market trends and industry drivers. Research indicates that price is no longer an effective differentiator for operators. Consumers increasingly join or leave operators due to the customer experience – from the personalized services provided to meet consumer’s lifestyle needs to how quickly service agents can resolve a service problem. We know that 3 out of 4 customers spend more after a positive experience and that 85 percent will pay more — up to 25 percent more — for a better experience. Conversely, we also know that 89 percent of consumers switch operators after a bad experience, and that 1 in 4 vents their frustrations using social media.

Motive’s CEM leadership has also remained steadfast. Only last month Frost & Sullivan, the global consultancy that offers market research, issued its Product Leadership Award to Motive for Customer Experience Management. The award is given to “the organization with the best understanding of CEM” and cites explicitly that Alcatel-Lucent (through Motive) provides “the most comprehensive suite in the industry.”

Although it’s timely to reflect on the past five years, it’s even more exciting to think about the future of CEM.

Self service is an increasing customer care trend as 75 percent of consumers today say they prefer not having to call a helpdesk. And the use of chat and other web communications enabled by technologies like WebRTC are making it easier than ever for consumers to take control of service issues to solve them when it is convenient.

More exciting still is the growing importance and integration of analytics in CEM. Network analytics can point to new types of personalized services that consumers will likely be interested in. Additionally, these analytics can be used to identify and address potential service issues BEFORE they happen. They enable operators to perform network and device health checks and automatically launch preemptive actions to resolve issues with devices, applications, systems and settings. As a result, subscribers never have to make a service call.

What else do we see in the Motive crystal ball? The growth of gamification (the application of gaming concepts like contests, ratings, and leader boards) being used to better engage call center agents; the growing impact of machine-to-machine (M2M) on customer experience initiatives; and the need to expand device management capabilities to support enterprise requirements.

Through all of these changes, Motive continues to innovate, preserving our start-up spirit (although we now have more than 250 customers) and we’ll still be doing what we always have – leading the industry in helping service providers optimally getting closer to their customers, optimizing their operations and being first to take advantage of new service opportunities.

To another great five years!