Rogers Communications Inc.A vision to improve Rogers Customer Experience

Abhishek SharmaRogers Communications Inc.

Table of Contents1 Baseline and approach2 Executive Summary3 Assessment of current CEX state5 Low employee engagement score

Behavioral tests for internal roles Internal social media tool

9 Customer complaints related to misleading terms & conditions Improving information flow to

frontline employees11 Misalignment between CEX strategy

and corporate strategy Lack of an aspirational CEX vision Benchmarking across the industries

14 Next Steps15 Appendix

Baseline and approach

Rogers is the largest Canadian communications and media company from more than a decade

However, the company has seen its market share eroding to new competitors as well asincreasing threat from regulatory changes set to benefit telecom players from US

Rogers could maintain and improve its leadership position through improving CustomerExperience in an increasingly competitive industry

Improve Customer Experience

Increasing Employee

Engagement

Decreasing customer

complaints in 2 key areas

Setting a goal for Customer

Experience

1

Executive Summary

Recommendation 1: Increase employee engagement through increasing internal employee movement within

the organization internal social media tool and customer issue

discussion board Recommendation 2: Improve information flow to frontline employees

Recommendation 3: Benchmark Rogers across the industries for CEX

goal setting

2

Assessment of current CEX state at Rogers

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Churn Rate comparison overall

Bell Rogers Telus

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Customer Grievances to Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom services

Bell Rogers Telus Linear (Rogers)

Takeaways: Churn rates suggest our

rates match Bell, but trend isnegative

Worst among big 3 telco’s

Takeaways: In Customer grievances, we

are lagging behind Telus by anincreasing delta

Second among big 3 telco’s

3

Assessment of current CEX state at Rogers

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Churn Rate comparison overall

Bell Rogers Telus

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Customer Grievances to Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom services

Bell Rogers Telus Linear (Rogers)

Major steps since 2010 Customer Measurement Program Customer Experience Officer Journey maps Understanding CEX ecosystem Career Zone – internal job site

Value of CEX orchestrated tomanagement and employees

CEX strategy aligns with thecorporate strategy/vision

Curriculum for CEX training

4

Lower than competition’s Employee engagement score

Rogers CSR 2013 report suggests a strong link between employeeengagement, leadership effectiveness and organizational success

Our Employee engagement score has been inconsistent since 2011.Kenexa, a company specializing in employee engagement surveys,suggests 76% is the best-in-class external benchmark

However, Telus has employee engagement score of 83%

5

3 Key indicators among no. of factors that affect employee engagement

Regularly survey, measure and analyze employee attitude andengagements

Company enables each employee to collaborate and engage withcoworkers

Company empowers customer-facing employees to make decisionson the behalf of company

Company recognizes and rewards outstanding employeecontributions to company success

Employee know what skills they need to be successful Employees are encouraged to advance their careers with the

company Employees have flexibility in their work schedule Company offers formal programs for employees to manage health

and wellness, build financial security, take care of family, and enjoytime off from work.

6

Behavioral tests for internal roles

Different job profiles need different levels of Empathy, the basicskillset required for Customer Experience

Identify the levels of empathy through Gallup StrengthsFinder,the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, the Myers-BriggsAssessment tests, or any other similar behavioral test

Identify the high performing teams and individuals, then scaletheir empathy scores

Encourage employee movement within the organization basedon matching of the behavioral skills along with the competency

Keep the test voluntary, not mandatory: leverage peer pressureand appreciation reward process

7

Internal social media tool

Create an internal version of Facebook for the employees toshare the customer issues and stories

Crowd source feedback and resolution option internally byallowing reps to post individual customer comments and postson social media channel

Empower employees from outside of customer rep teams torespond customer issues directly on external posts

8

2 Key areas of customer complaints that cover 37% of our complaints

Key Takeaways: We are 2nd last in misleading

terms and conditions, as well aslast in communicating 30-Daycancellation policy

There is likely to be a strong linkbetween misleadingcommunication and customerhappiness

I hypothesize that the benefit wegain from not informing customersdoes not exceed the benefit fromproviding better customer serviceand reducing churn.

Source: CCTS Annual Report 2013-20149

Improving information flow of systems might make the most impact

Issue Resolution

The information is not readily accessible by customer representative

Improve information flow of backend systems and align incentives of IT with new development that facilitate easy accessibility

Customer representatives are not incentivized to provide this information rather to retain the customers

Add layer of incentive/appreciation on successfully avoiding the issues

There could be confusion in the process on which step the information should be shared

Streamline the process flow and provide constant training on avoiding potential issues

10

Misalignment between CEX and Corporate strategy

BusinessTerms

How Rogers define it

Unique Value Preposition

Mix of assets, culture of growth and innovation

Corporate Strategy

Rogers 3.0 Plan : Accelerating growth and overhauling the customer experience

Customer Experience Vision

Customer Experience Strategy

• Dedicated 9,000+ employee customer experience division reporting directly to CEO• Simplifying commercial policies, processes, plans & systems• Promote web sales, web care, app self care

Brand Canada’s most dynamic communications and media company

Brand Strategy • Invest in & develop our people• Focus on innovation & network leadership

Key Takeaways:

Rogers corporate strategy has no connection with the customer experience strategy

Customer Experience Vision statement is missing, and hence we don’t have a goal to aim for

11

Lack of an aspirational CEX vision

Customer Experience is a competency more than a function, and it needs constantrefinement

Goal setting requires comparison

Comparison requires standardized data and metrics

Industry competitors might not be our guiding star as they might be only marginallyahead while we need a 10-20 year goal to progress toward and envisioned future

Source: Top 10 Customer experience questions answered, Forrester 2015

X

12

Benchmarking across the industries

Benchmark Rogers against Telus as well as other Customer Experience leaders outside of the industry

Example: FedEx surveys competitors’ customers in addition to its own to understand emotional reactions to experiences that correlate to business results

John Deere benchmark itself against best-in-class CX organizations like Disney to formulate set of decision factors

0

1

2

3

4

5

Rogers Telus Disney Kroger's

Sample CEX Maturity Modeling Data on a scale of 0 to 5

Some Techniques for benchmarking:

Forrester Customer Experience Index, IBM Kanexa, AON Hewitt, JD Powers

13

Next steps

Validation of hypothesis that the benefit gained from notproperly informing customers does not exceed the benefitfrom informing and providing better customer service andreducing churn.

Select behavioral technique to measure and analyzeemployee attitude and engagement

Setting up meeting with Senior Management to set acustomer experience vision in line with corporate strategy

Select the benchmarking measure and choosing the rightCEX leaders to benchmark against

14

Appendix

i. Customer experience strategy is about competition

ii. Rogers competition and its falling market share

iii. Customer experience is important to Rogers

iv. Rogers account page against competition

v. Align CEX strategy with the brand promise

vi. VOC along with VOE

15

Customer Experience strategy is about competition

“Strategy is about competitive advantage. Without Competitors, there would be no need for

strategy, for the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain –as effectively as possible– a sustainable edge over its competitors.”

-Kenichi Ohmae

16

Rogers Competition and its falling market share

Current Competition: Telus Bell Wind

Near Term Competition Apple Verizon AT&T Comcast Vodafone Orange Netflix Skype Vonage Google Nest Labs

37% 34%

2006 2014

Wireless national market share by Subscribers

Rogers Others

17

Customer Experience is important to Rogers

Since there is a relationship between Customer Experience Strategy and Business Performance

Loyalty Incremental purchases

Lower churn Retained revenues

Lower customer attrition Costsavings

Word of mouth Cost savings inMarketing

Through growth in revenue as well as cost reduction, Rogers

can leverage customer experience as a source of competitive advantage

against current and potential competitors

18

Rogers Account Page

19

Cablevision’s account page (CEX leading practice)

Rogers customer portal homepage says what company wants tosay: “Buy more”, however this isnot what most customers wouldlike to hear at point in time

Cablevision broke that trend withthe 2013 redesign of its customerportal, Optimum.net. Subscribersnow have access to all of theproducts and services Optimumprovides right from the homepage.

20

Align CEX Strategy with the brand promise

Customer Experience and Brand strategy are linked, therefore:

Create a brand promise and customer experience strategy in tandem. Find out what expectations Rogers customers have for their brand and develop a customer experience strategy aligning with the brand promise

Best Western Hotel UK rebrandeditself as “Hotels withpersonalities” and then deliveredvalue with its CEX strategyfulfilling the brand promise

21

Voice of Customer along with Voice of Employees

Voice of the frontline employees

Internal social media platform“Voice your customer” –employees discuss issues andideas for CEX improvements,voting on ideas from their peers aspart of contests, Subject MatterExperts take the winning ideasand determine to fund for fullscale development

Shift the focus of call center repsfrom average handle time to first-call resolution

22

The presentation was prepared for Rogers in order to address growing concerns about the customer experience at Rogers. The analysis is transferrable to any of the other big telecom firm in Canada.

I am a recent MBA graduate from the Rotman school of Management - Canada's best business school by mulitple ranking agencies. I am seeking a career in strategic change and implementation, or management consulting broadly. Please check out my linkedin for my qualifications.

Please feel free to write me at: abhishek.sharma15@rotman.utoronto.ca

Abhishek SharmaMBA-2015, Rotman, University of Toronto