Senior leadership engagement
Engaging the TELUS team is at the heart of delivering exceptional customer experiences and it starts with our leadership team. In 2011, senior leaders from across the organization participated in a three-day leadership forum. A significant focus of the forum was placed on what we need to do as an organization to further realize our Customers First culture in alignment with our number one corporate priority to deliver on our future friendly® brand promise to our clients. To help us progress in this regard, the forum also focused on quality across our people, networks, systems and processes. Additionally, we examined the importance of collaboration by the entire TELUS team to ensure we are consistently delivering an exceptional customer experience. Each of the participants committed to building an individual action plan with measurable objectives, to strengthen each of the following three priority areas within their area of responsibility:
- Delivering on our brand promise – the future is friendly® – and our Customers First commitment to provide the best client experience in the industry as measured by our customers’ likelihood to recommend our products and services
- Approaching the client experience as one team, leveraging collaboration with our customers and one another as a competitive advantage. Identify and optimize our functional interdependencies in serving our clients and establish a discipline of regularly learning from the insights of frontline team members in our own team and from the teams we interface with
- Elevating quality and reliability in the eyes of our customers through initiatives addressing the stability of our broadband, video and wireless networks; the performance of the systems that support these networks and our frontline teams; and embracing a culture of high quality.
To further strengthen the commitment made by senior leaders and ensure accountability, comprehensive action plan reviews will be conducted across the company to accelerate our progress and determine next steps as we work to achieve our client L2R targets.
Closer to the Customer
Over the past two years, as part of our commitment to putting customers first and achieving leadership in the likelihood of our clients recommending our products and services, TELUS brought together senior leaders and frontline team members to generate greater awareness and understanding of the experience our customers have when they interact with TELUS.
The first one-day event, which built on an existing frontline experience initiative of the Customer Solutions team, realized many benefits and became an annual event called Closer to the Customer (C2C). Some business units, such as TELÙS Customer Solutions (TCS), have also introduced their own regular C2C events. In 2011, nearly two thousand TCS leaders participated and then shared their experiences with their teams. More than 40 process or policy changes were implemented as a result, contributing to the significant seven per cent improvement last year in our consumer market L2R score.
C2C events will continue in 2012. In fact, Human Resources (HR) will leverage the success of these events, introducing their own C2C event where leaders will spend half a day with a frontline colleague in an HR operational area with the aim of enhancing the customer experience.
TELUS Sales and Support tool
To adopt a Customers First culture, it is important for team members to better understand the importance of customer experience, and have the tools to make improvements. After receiving feedback from team members during frontline forums TELUS launched an internal feedback mechanism called the customer-to-team member (C2T) tool. Since then, the tool has grown in popularity and helped team members across TELUS solve unresolved service issues for clients and fast track sales referrals.
In 2011, C2T was renamed the Sales and Support tool (SOS). This name better reflects our commitment to deliver on our future friendly® brand promise through resolving issues and providing products and services that meet our customers’ needs. SOS is an online tool made available on the TELUS Intranet where employees can submit escalations for clients with unresolved service issues through our regular in-store, online and phone channels, with guaranteed follow-up within two business days. Employees can also use the tool to sign up friends, family or any potential customer to learn more information about our wireless, home telephony and entertainment products and services.
Since its launch in May 2010, SOS has helped team members address more than 3,700 service issues and fast track sales referrals for clients.
Personal Performance Objectives
Supporting the cultural change required for TELUS to become the most recommended company in the markets we serve is not just the responsibility of our senior leadership team; every team member within the organization has the ability to influence customer experience in a positive way. In 2011, we set the objective for 2012, that most team members will focus a minimum 50 per cent of their annual performance objectives on supporting the client experience. This focus will drive accountability while in a few years supporting each member of the TELUS team in understanding their role in achieving our goal of becoming the most recommended company across our markets.
Customers First Champions
Reinforcing the positive behaviours that support making our customers’ experience better is an important part of driving toward the delivery of the best customer service in our industry. In September 2011, we developed our Customers First Champions (CFC) program which recognizes team members who consistently support, advocate and advance a Customers First culture by going above and beyond to deliver an exceptional experience – each and every day. CFC provides an opportunity to highlight and celebrate customer experience wins and share examples of what exceptional looks like within our organization. The program year runs from July to June. In 2011, we announced our first inductees into the CFC hall of fame with a total of 65 champions announced by March 2012.
Growth through continuous improvement
In 2009, the Process Improvement Centre of Excellence (PICoE) was created and now has a corporate-wide focus, supporting every business unit within the company. TELUS takes a holistic approach to process excellence that includes using various methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, as well as a strong focus on change management and project management capabilities. Process improvements driven by this team resulted in $65 million in cumulative annualized savings from 2009 to the end of 2011.
saved $65 M
TELUS achieved the following standings at the Americas’ Process Excellence Awards: Best Process Improvement Project Under 90 Days (top six), Deployment Leader of the Year (top four) and Master Black Belt of the Year (top four). The Process Excellence Awards present an ideal way to publicly benchmark and recognize your process excellence business results. We were also recognized as one of the top 10 best places to work through the iSixSigma’s Best Places to Work competition. Best Places to work recognizes how well companies foster a supportive Six Sigma culture.
own.it
In 2009, TELUS introduced own.it, a problem-solving methodology that engages frontline team members in brainstorming activities regarding business challenges to help drive rapid resolution through 90-day initiatives to improve customer experiences. In 2011, own.it targets were embedded across the organization and results tracked at the corporate level.
The 2011 Pulsecheck results indicate that own.it and other work process improvements are making a difference for team member engagement. Team members are identifying and resolving obstacles they face and improving customer interactions.
The success of own.it is highlighted by the milestones we achieved in 2011. Through the execution of 74 own.it sessions, financial benefits of almost $11 million were realized, with additional benefits expected through ongoing projects and initiatives. The problem-solving sessions engaged more than 750 team members and led to the implementation of numerous process improvements in support of strengthening our clients’ likelihood to recommend our products and services. For example, own.it initiatives led to a better appointment re-booking process and call transfer reductions.
The use of own.it at TELUS has received international profile, being recognized at the Global Process Excellence Awards for the past two years.
Healthcare solutions
In January 2008, TELUS and Emergis came together to create a powerful new enterprise, called TELUS Health Solutions, designed to serve the healthcare sector. We provide professionals with solutions to support the delivery of the highest quality of healthcare. Our solutions include electronic patient records, allowing practitioners instant access to everything they need to know about a patient, and pharmacy solutions designed to empower pharmacists with leading edge tools to deliver pharmacotherapy and wellness counselling.
TELUS Health Solutions is a leader in telehealth, electronic health records, remote patient monitoring, mobile home and community care, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. Our solutions give health authorities, providers, physicians, patients and consumers the power to enhance decision making and improve health outcomes for Canadians. TELUS Health Solutions is transforming how information is used across the continuum of care from hospital to home with solutions that foster collaboration, drive prevention and empower care teams and patients. TELUS Health Solutions is Canada’s leading Healthcare IT Company as cited by the Branham Group for five years and for being honoured as the ITAC Health Company of the Year (2008) and Health Transformation Company of the Year (2009). For more information about TELUS Health Solutions, visit telushealth.com and telushealthspace.com.