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Everything Everywhere

How to EnterCompany: Everything Everywhere, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Entry Submitted By: Blueprint
Company Description: Everything Everywhere is the largest mobile network operator in the UK with around 28 million customers. It operates under both the Orange and T- Mobile brands and currently only offers its services within the UK.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Back-Office Customer Service Team of the Year

Nomination Title: The Device, Products and Networks Best Practice team

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Everything Everywhere is a leading telecommunications companies running two of
Britain’s biggest brands – Orange and T-Mobile. Our contact centres serve
almost 30 million customers, and we get around one million smartphone queries
a month.

Smartphones allow customers to do much more than ordinary phones and that
means more questions. In 2010 the Device, Products and Networks Best Practice
(DP&N) team was challenged to design a support model that reduced the amount
of times customers called and improve the service for those that did. The team
identified Advisors’ confidence in this area was low and first call resolution
was poor, especially for BlackBerry calls, where 38% of calls were
escalations.

Training
The DP&N team designed new training and online reference material for Orange
Advisors that was developed with RIM, the BlackBerry manufacturer,
guaranteeing Advisors the most accurate information.

To help boost confidence, the DP&N team also secured live devices so Advisors
could get hands on experience of the phones and take them home for two weeks.
Rather than the usual e-learning training modules, the DP&N team arranged for
every single Advisor to have two full days of classroom based BlackBerry
training and over 1,800 Advisors, onshore and offshore, completed the training
last year. The results justified the significant investment in people:

•Blackberry transfers reduced from 38% to 1% of second line support escalations.
•Customer satisfaction 5% above target.
•Employees gave the training a Net Promoter Score (how likely customers
are to recommend Orange) of 91% and an understanding rating of 84%.
•First call resolution 20% above target.
•£20,000 per week saving in reduced calls.

In 2011 we deployed exactly the same approach for T-Mobile Advisors and
although the results are still bedding in, the feedback from Advisors gave the
training a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 94%.

Smartphone VCCs
In the second half of 2010 the DP&N team developed the BlackBerry virtual
contact centre (VCC) concept, which routes BlackBerry customers directly to
specially trained Advisors – a global first. On the spot support from RIM also
means any query can be solved with one phone call.

RIM provided the training and sent their own experts to floor walk and support
Advisors during the VCC launch. They still provide constant support online
through BlackBerry Messenger, where Advisors can post queries, receive an
instant response from RIM experts and share best practice. None of this would
have been possible without the strong relationships the DP&N had established
with RIM which resulted in:

•+35% NPS customer rating – double the average.
•Customer satisfaction 5% above average.
•First call resolution 10% above average.

In 2011 the DP&N team built a second VCC, applying the model to Android
phones. These VCC Advisors are experts in Motorola, Sony Ericsson and HTC
Android phones and are producing fantastic results – 91% customer satisfaction
rating and 36% NPS.

By working with manufacturers, customers and employees, the DP&N team designed
a unique and innovative solution to a climate driven problem.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:


Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Ian Semple is Head of Design – Devices, Products and Network. It’s the team’s
responsibility to deliver the best handset and product experience for our
customers and Customer Advisors. This means developing tools, support material
and training content. Ian has led the team for two years, moving from his
senior role in business customer service and having held similar roles in
Virgin Media, NTL Cable and Wireless and NG Bailey.

Ian’s proudest achievement has been taking away the fear of smart phones and
their perceived technical nature for our front line Advisors by delivering a
structured support programme that continues today.