Telecom billing is important, but product simplicity is paramount

Analyst James Crawshaw of Omdia pushes back on a recent Recon Analytics column that blames poor billing for customer churn and suggests better billing could significantly raise Net Promoter Scores. Crawshaw agrees telecom billing systems are often clunky and need work, but argues they are not the main reason customers leave.

He says customers are more likely to switch providers because of price, network quality, and how simple or confusing the products are. Complex bundles, obscure fees, and hard-to-compare offers do more damage to customer trust than the mechanics of billing itself. In his view, operators should fix billing where it is broken, but the real gains in loyalty and satisfaction come from simplifying products and making charges easy to understand in the first place.