NTA Regional Award Winner, Partnership and Collaboration; Telefonica O2 UK and Blue Sky Performance Improvement
O2 Staff Pledge To Stay Connected With Customers

The UK's third largest telecommunications company has invested large sums of money to ensure they stay connected to both staff and customers alike.

O2 has a customer base of 18 million but because of the fierce competition within the industry, keeping hold of the customers has proved difficult. While analysing performance, the senior management team at O2 discovered the poor engagement of staff and bad customer services practices were impacting on customer experience and loyalty.

To change the behaviour of staff, O2 invested almost £400,000 towards the implementation of an innovative training programme. Called 'Stay Connected', the programme was devised by training specialists, Blue Sky Performance Improvement.

Blue Sky Performance Improvement is a leading UK consultancy specialising in creating results driven and sustainable performance improvement solutions for sales, service and leadership environments. The consultancy was tasked with delivering a course that would motivate and improve the performance of O2's customer retentions team.

"Within the 'Connected World' business vision, the senior team at O2 wanted to move staff from a 'dependence' to an 'interdependence' driven culture" says O2's Ian Hayhoe. "The programme set out to change attitudes, behaviour and eventually the culture within the operation."

In March 2008, with careful consultation with O2, Blue Sky Performance Improvement began a two day course, training 400 people in a space of eight months. In total 121 sessions took place within the workplace.

Trainees were first asked to phone their competitors and experience being a customer. The next step of the programme involved inspiring trainees to enable them to make a conscious choice to change behaviour. Once this topic was explored, tips on how to achieve change were discussed. Other topics covered by the course included techniques and skills to engage and excite customers, understanding the principles of emotional engagement and removing personal barriers when dealing with customers.

Blue Sky kept the training fresh and innovative by introducing themed rooms. In addition, Big Brother-style diary rooms where trainees could give their feedback on the course were created.

Ninety-six per cent of the customer retention team attended the course and because O2's learning and development department have been trained to deliver the course, the company can continue the programme at its convenience. Of those who attended the course, 97 per cent rated it. And 10 weeks after the learning took place an improvement was realised. This has resulted in fewer customers switching to another telecommunications provider. In fact since the beginning of the training, O2 has recorded a 7.4 per cent reduction in the number of customers leaving the service. What's more, customer satisfaction has increased from 38 per cent to 65 per cent, despite difficult trading conditions.

Sarah Sargent, Head of Bury Customer Service adds, "Looking at our customer satisfaction figures and employee engagement results, it was clear that a significant transformation was needed in our retentions team if we were to truly turn our customers into fans of O2. This meant tackling the culture and behaviours that had historically driven some strong sales results but at the expense of giving customers confidence and trust in us as well as the service they deserved."

Ms Sargent says since the course began many benefits have been seen. "I am not sure which transformation gives me the greatest pride now," she says. "It could be looking at the re-energised team buzzing with a whole new enthusiasm, seeing the managers actually co-operating and wanting to co-operate, or finally beating Vodafone to the top spot on the customer loyalty league table."

O2 is involved in delivering services to the London 2012 Olympic Games.