Do the Right Thing

Talkmobile is a MVNO operating on Vodafone's network, based in the UK.

Briefly describe the nominated department: history and past performance (up to 1,250 characters):

WHO WE ARE

Founded in 2007, Talkmobile is a mobile network operator within Vodafone UK. The UK-based central team and Egypt- and India-based contact centers are the team entering (Appendix-1). Our target audience is the 'Tech Neutral' - those lacking confidence in tech and needing more support. To them, a mobile phone is just a necessity.

Typically 10 years older than average mobile users [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION], 'Tech-Neutrals' favor SIM-only deals offering unlimited UK calls/texts for £10 per month or less. They particularly value simple, human-centric customer service (Appendix-2). Getting this right is crucial: without above-the-line spend or agencies, we rely on peer-to-peer recommendations.

Past performance

Notorious for overcomplex products and impersonal service, mobile providers frequently make it hard to speak to a human. In 2022, Talkmobile was no different: Trustpilot rated us just 2.2/5. But in 2023, we achieved a huge milestone, driving our Trustpilot score to 4.7 in just 18 months (Appendix-3).

Performance objectives for the past year

Mission accomplished? Alas, no. We had to achieve our strategic business growth objective by improving the three Cs:

• Contacts.
• Complaints.
• Churn: [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]

(Appendix-4.)

 

Outline the department's achievements since July 1, 2023 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 1,500 characters):

Our 'Do The Right Thing' initiative

To fulfil our objectives, we chose to empower, equip and inspire our contact center team to do the right thing for our customers. That approach became our Do the Right Thing program (Appendix-5).

ENGAGE: We gathered and utilized employee suggestions to show how they were actively improving the service.

ENABLE: We upgraded internal IT and enhanced self-service options for customers, ensuring they were on the best tariff, etc.

EMPOWER: We tore up the scripts, redesigned reward structures, and cross-skilled employees so customers weren't bounced around in transfers.

The initiative has been embedded in every part of the organization. For example, our recruitment and learning & development center on 'Do The Right Thing' behaviors and rewards recognize behavior over output; quality is assessed on fairness, transparency, and ensuring the right customer outcome.

Achievement 1: ideas So far, we've seen:

357 suggestions by frontline employees.

226 implementations of suggestions for action. Achievement 2: Turning ideas into action

One example was a simple email to customers on porting day: this instantly cut 10,000 calls per year. Great for customers, and us.

(See Appendix-8 for more idea implementations.) Achievement 3: Maintaining Trustpilot scores

Change brings risk of negative impact, yet our 4.7 Trustpilot score was maintained for the entire period under review.

This has boosted employee morale, customer experience and commercial performance (see next section).

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 1,500 characters):

Significance TO OUR TEAM

Empowering frontline colleagues has not only delivered far smoother/more reliable customer services via employee feedback implementations, but has also boosted our employee engagement scores (Appendix-7).

Significance to customers

Even without major budgets, our ideas (Appendix-8) are improving customers' lives. Also, listening to customers via agents has seen us delivering the service 'Tech Neutral' customers want: we're the only mobile service provider to answer every call with a human (Appendix-9).

Our customer satisfaction with agents is now among the industry's highest, according to LivePerson research (Appendix-8). [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]

Significance to our strategic [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] goal

Thanks to changes implemented through Do the Right Thing (cause and effect rationale: Appendix-11), customers are contacting us less. When they do, they're happier with the outcome, improving our customer retention and increasing new business from referrals.

[REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
(Appendix-12)

[REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]