Why Telcos Are Leaving 40% of Their Digital Value on the Table and How to Fix It

The global telecoms market is at a crossroads. After decades of chasing new customers and launching the next-generation network, growth has slowed not because the market is saturated, but because much of the customer value potential remains unrealised.

According to the Simon-Kucher Global Telecommunications Study 2025, operators are currently capturing only around 60% of their total customer value potential. That’s a staggering

40% of untapped opportunity hiding in plain sight, within the very customer base Telcos already own.

The study paints a clear picture: telcos are generating engagement, but not monetising it effectively. They are optimising conversions, but often at the cost of margin. And they are personalising customer journeys but only partially, and rarely in real time.

So where exactly is that 40% of value going and how can forward-thinking Telcos reclaim it?

The Conversion Paradox: Growth at the Expense of Margin

For years, digital marketing teams across the telecom sector have had one clear north star: increase online conversions. From plan upgrades to device purchases to add-on services, the goal was simple, move more traffic through the funnel.

But in the race to improve conversion rates, many Telcos have leaned heavily on broad-based incentives and aggressive discounting. The result? Conversion numbers go up, but profitability goes down.

This is the conversion paradox: every percentage point gained through blanket discounts can erode the very margins that sustain growth. It’s a short-term gain that leaves long-term value on the table.

Simon-Kucher’s research confirms that this price-pressure cycle is unsustainable. Nearly half of consumers globally (43%) have already reduced their telecom spending, while expectations for value and personalisation continue to rise. Telcos are caught between the demand for better deals and the need to protect margin, a delicate balance that traditional marketing levers can no longer manage.

The Hidden Cost of Static Offers

Traditional offer systems based on fixed segmentation or pre-defined campaigns, treat all customers within a segment the same way. But in reality, intent varies moment to moment.

One customer might be browsing casually. Another might be ready to buy but needs a small nudge. A third might be price-sensitive, but only in certain product categories.

By serving the same offer to all three, Telcos risk one of two outcomes:

• Overspending on customers who would have converted anyway, or

• Underserving those who needed a personalised push to buy.

Either way, margin and conversion both suffer.

It’s not that Telcos lack data, they have some of the richest customer data sets in any industry. The problem is real-time decisioning: knowing how to act on that data in the precise moment when it influences customer behaviour.

From Data to Decision: The Real-Time Opportunity

The study highlights that while most operators have made major strides in digital engagement, few have translated that engagement into tangible revenue.

The opportunity lies in using real-time analytics and AI-driven personalisation to bridge this gap, turning engagement moments into monetisation moments.

At Now Interact, we’ve seen how Telcos can unlock new profit layers by using intent prediction and dynamic offer logic. An approach we’ve built into our platform, Smart Offers.

Instead of relying on static rules, Smart Offers uses behavioural data to:

• Identify which customers are most likely to convert,

• Determine which offer type will trigger the best outcome (discount, value-add, reassurance, or no offer at all), and

• Deliver that message at the right time, in the right channel.

  
  

The result is a measurable uplift in conversion without margin erosion, a crucial distinction for an industry under mounting profitability pressure.

Case Example: Smarter Conversion, Stronger Margin

In one recent project with a leading European Telco, Smart Offers was deployed across digital channels to personalise promotions based on customer intent. Within eight weeks, the operator saw:

• +9% increase in online conversion,

• –12% reduction in promotional spend, and

• +7% uplift in average order value.

These results weren’t achieved by offering more discounts, but by offering smarter ones, selectively.

The technology identified where an incentive would genuinely change customer behaviour and where it would simply give away margin. In other words, it made the Telco’s existing traffic work harder and more profitably.

Reclaiming the Missing 40%

To unlock the remaining 40% of customer value, Telcos need to evolve their digital playbook. The next phase of growth won’t come from chasing more traffic or cutting prices further. It will come from precision conversion, knowing who to target, when to act, and what to offer. This means moving from:

• Generic campaigns → to real-time personalisation

• Volume-driven metrics → to margin-conscious optimisation

• Offer saturation → to offer intelligence

The leading operators of 2025 will not just engage their customers, they will monetise engagement intelligently, profitably, and sustainably.

The good news? The building blocks are already in place. With solutions like Smart Offers, Telcos can activate their existing data, make every customer interaction count, and finally close that 40% value gap.

In the end, the question isn’t whether Telcos can afford to invest in smarter digital conversion, it’s whether they can afford not to.