Why We Should Worry About QoE Instead Of Other KPIs?

Most Operators are measuring network parameters with probes to monitor and optimize the Quality of the Services. There are a lot of solutions in the market to measure and optimize this QoS. However, maybe this approach is not the best one to detect the Quality our Customers are perceiving. Quality of Experience measurement is the solution.

QoS Vs QoE

Try to putting yourself in the shoes of one of your customers which has a relatively old smartphone. Whilst watching videos on Youtube these tend to stop frequently when being reproduced. So the user’s experience is pretty bad and is most likely to blame the Operator for their poor connection. In the meantime the Operator has been measuring the client’s QoS and all the parameters give good results.  However the unhappy user changes Operator, and with the change acquires a new smartphone. The customer’s QoE is rapidly increased reaffirming their conclusion. The customer has become a detractor without there having been information to detect this.Let’s try to understand the difference between QoS and QoE with a simple example:

Therefore we should measure the QoE perceived by the user. Only with this measurement would we be sure to meet the requirements of our customers. We can anticipate and increase customer satisfaction and complement QoS measures.

So, What Is QoE?

QoE, or Quality of Experience is a measurement of customer satisfaction of experiences with  services (eg, browsing, calls, video streaming….). QoE focuses on the entire service experience; it is a holistic concept, similar to User Experience, but centered in telecommunications services.

In 2013, within the context of the COST Action QUALINET, QoE has been defined as:

The degree of delight or annoyance of the user of an application or service. It results from the fulfillment of his or her expectations with respect to the utility and / or enjoyment of the application or service in the light of the user’s personality and current state.

Therefore, this is the KPI that matters to the client: the perceived quality when using our services. For instance if the perceived value is low, the probability of churn will increase.

If we are able to measure it, monitor it and make it the most relevant KPI for the departments involved, we will have made a big change to the organization: the most relevant KPI in the organization will be aligned with the most important KPI for the clients.

This alignment will rise the probabilities of an operator’s success in reducing churn and increasing customer satisfaction in a very competitive environment at the same time as reducing OPEX, and prioritizing CAPEX.

Good News: QoE Can Be Measured

Mean Opinion Score (MOS) is widely used, to measure QoE. It is a metric commonly used in the domain of Quality of Experience which represents the overall quality of a system. MOS is a commonly used measure for video, audio, and media quality evaluation, but not restricted to those modalities. ITU-T has defined several ways of referring to a MOS in Recommendation P.800.1, depending on whether the score was obtained from audiovisual, conversational, listening, talking, or video quality tests. Other entities like IEEE also have several studies related to MOS.

To summarize in the end, MOS gives a numerical value of the perceived quality using a service, from 1 to 5, being 1 the worst, and 5 the best.though it’s a subjective measure, it is calculated from objective data, and can be calibrated using different techniques.

 

Download the  QoE optimization solution PDF to learn more about how to measure and optimize QoE for your customers.