Telecom Billing Systems are a breakthrough in the technological world. In this rapidly rising industry, an efficient system is required to map the consumer usage of its services. The system should be very effective in turning the mapped data into a bill that can be presented to the customer.
Firstly, the services used by the customers need to be segregated. Then a detailed bill needs to be generated, giving a clear picture of customer usage. The billing department and the customer support have to work in unity to keep the customers happy. Let us find out how a telecom billing system works. It starts with customer application for a new account with the telecom company. The customer records are checked by the telecom company and then a unique customer ID is provided to the new customer. The customer account is then activated.
The unique customer ID will save all the usage records of the particular customer. The system will use the chosen tariff plan by the customer and update the bill as per the Call Detail Records (CDR). Long distance call charges and roaming charges will be added to the system once the outside supporting telecom operators send in the details.
Wireless internet usage data will be charged separately depending on the data usage tariff plan. Details like call duration, caller number, call start time and call end time will be recorded In the Call Detail Records of the customer. In a similar way, outgoing calls are also saved. These details are reflected in the bills as well.
Whenever a customer calls a customer support number, the call details are recorded. These details can lead to manual changes in the billing system, such as errors reported, discounts offered or description of the complaint for future reference. The complaint history of a customer and call history can help the telecom company in case it is needed in the future for solving issues.
Every month a computer generated invoice is sent to the customer in the form of a bill. Customers whose records show no payment processed for the earlier month/s are sent a warning message or their service will be temporarily deactivated.
A bill will be generated finally. It will be based on the Automated Message Accounting System, Interim Standard 124, Network Data Management and many such billing standards. The entire system costs are calculated depending on the money invested in the call center, the hardware and the software, the collections, the billing cycles, etc. Sometimes printed bill costs are also involved when the customer request bills through postal mail instead of e-bills. Printing costs are also involved for sending out communication mails to customers.
A very vital part of the entire telecom billing system is the Customer Relationship Management. Today more and more companies are entering the telecom market and there is a tough competition. If the customers are not happy with the customer service they have more options to look out for in the telecom market.
So, customer oriented services like multi-lingual support, real time billing, etc., are provided to the customers through the advanced telecom billing systems. Better billing options and support for popular applications are also offered to customers. We can surely say that telecom billing OSS systems are going to advance so much in future that customers will just have to sit back and enjoy the services.
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