Telecom operators leaving 40% of customer value untapped
Telecom operators around the world are leaving a large chunk of their customer value potential untapped, meaning they are falling short of customer expectations and at the same time missing out on revenue opportunities.
According to the Global Telecommunications Study 2025 from Simon-Kucher, a global commercial strategy and pricing consultancy, telecom operators are currently realizing just 60% of their full customer value potential.
Illustrating this, Simon-Kucher points at two key factors. First, in terms of customer satisfaction, operators lag other sectors – the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of telecom operators averaged 14 in the survey, compared to a range of 16 to 80 common in other industries.
Second, operators have seen their monetization performance drop compared to 2024, with average revenue per user (ARPU) down 7% on the year previous.
Simon-Kucher’s study is based on feedback from more than 15,700 consumers across 31 markets, offering a representative global view on the domain.
“Our research shows there’s significant untapped potential within the existing customer base,” said Kajetan Zwirglmaier, Partner and Global Head of Telecom at Simon-Kucher. “Telcos that treat customer lifetime value as a strategic KPI will define the next era of growth,” added Alexander Zimm, a Senior Director in the Telecom practice.
To unlock customer value potential, telecom leaders should build strong capabilities around commercial excellence, ensuring that happiness, engagement, and loyalty are prioritized – and all tied to monetization levers.
Zwirglmaier: “By enhancing happiness, engagement, loyalty, and monetization levers, telecom operators can increase customer lifetime value by 11% to 43%. Refocusing on the base offers a clear path to stabilizing ARPU and building sustainable, profitable growth.”
The study highlights that operators who improve first-call resolution, deliver frictionless service touchpoints, create more compelling loyalty programs, drive targeted digital engagement, and expand up- and cross-sell initiatives can successfully convert customer satisfaction and interactions into measurable lifetime value.
To help operators develop their roadmap for capturing untapped customer value potential, Simon-Kucher has developed the HELP Framework, which stands for Happy, Engaged, Loyal, and Paying.
The HELP Framework provides operators with a standardized benchmark to assess performance across these four levers, using a 40-point scale based on metrics such as NPS, service interactions, app engagement, contract length, and ARPU. The framework’s insights guide the development of an optimal roadmap for capturing value – including how to prioritize improvement initiatives over time.
Setting priorities
At a time when operators are facing a wide range of strategic challenges and opportunities – and operating in an environment where investments must be weighed carefully – Simon-Kucher’s study emphasizes that customer value should be among the very top priorities.
“Many operators continue to emphasize acquisition strategies, but our research shows there’s significant untapped potential within the existing customer base,” said Zwirglmaier.
The study recommends that operators pivot away from expensive, volume-driven acquisition strategies – referred to as the “red ocean” – and refocus on existing customers, the untapped “blue ocean.”
