NACCM 2009: TELUS Case Study

TELUS is the largest telecommunications company in Western Canada, and the second largest in all of Canada. Krista Sheridan presented a case study of TELUS’ journey to delivering the optimal, executive supported experience blueprint for their small business market segment.

TELUS realized it had the opportunity to:

• Develop cross functional support for Customer Experience Management
• Align customer and business definitions of success
• Create an experience plan that everyone could understand, articulate, action, and measure
• Effectively allocate resources – time, money & people
• Win in their markets

To give you an idea of how ambitious this project was, they had to “renegotiate” their budget four different times and the project took several months longer than anticipated. Here’s what they did to achieve this ambitious effort:

They Stuck Their Neck Out

• They started asking“How can we improve” instead of just “how are we doing?"

They Sold The Dream

• They asked stakeholders, “What if we could help you be successful? What if we could help you understand metrics? Helped our customers stop going through a trial & error process.” That got tremendous buy-in.

They Got Specific

• They constantly measured what worked and what didn’t.

They Made the Rounds

• The team talked to stakeholders and customers, formally and informally, to find out what their issues were.

They Kept it Relevant

• When speaking with the various stakeholders, they had to show them the WIIFM: what’s in it for them. They explained why is loyalty important and how it contributes to the success of the company and all it’s parts.

They Leveraged The Buzz

• When the positive buzz started to happen, they spread it around to create energy and excitement about the project.

In addition to learning what made their internal teams tick, they also spent a great deal of time learning as much as they could about their customers. One innovated initiative was taking four days talking to customers ONLINE, then evaluating and prioritizing what was important to them.

Through that process, they learned how important the emotional connection is for their customers. They further realized how important it is for them to treat their customers as people.

Armed with a great deal of information, they rated each touchpoint (12 total) and ranked them in a “Triage Triangle” – which is a way to prioritize by how much impact a touchpoint has.

Some AHAs they learned:

• They were right about which touchpoints were important, but not how they were important or how to deliver.
• They didn’t need to differentiate their touchpoint strategy among Small Business groups
• They did not have to adjust their touchpoints to the maximum level in most cases.
• They could actually increase customer satisfaction AND reduce costs. For instance, they found that 25% of interactions were desired to be online – a way to increase satisfaction for those that want that service which is less expensive for the company to manage.
• Communicating their commitments and carefully managing customer’s expectations throughout each interaction enhances the experience at little to no cost.

The results of their efforts have been success in creating:

• A cross functional team – sales, marketing, operations
• Customer centric scorecarding
• Outcomes linked to compensations
• Improvements to business processes on track
• On-track customer feedback and showing improvement
• A coveted “seat at the table” with business unit partners

Krista’s final tips included:

Borrow from marketers – WIIFM Rules!

• Each stakeholder as his own needs and wants. Answer WIIFM to gain their support.

Sell the dream

• Customer experience improvement can be a long road – get them excited!
• Build the Emotional Business Case.
• Don’t just think about dollars and cents.
• Help stakeholders realize the outcomes of working with you.

Go Grass Roots

• Get others to help you sell your idea across the organization.

It’s a 3-legged marathon

• It's a marathon, not a sprint. A 3-legged race requires you to be in step with each stakeholder and go at the right pace.
• Slow down, listen. Address concerns.

Great Service & Cost Savings are Possible

• Focus on the right things, not everything.
• Figure out what makes the most difference.
• Realize that what’s important to your customers may not always make sense to you.