- April 10, 2023
- Posted by: Gopal Krishna
- Categories:
Can Customer Experience (Cx) drive business?
I got curious to know if there are any companies who owe their business to Cx. Not surprisingly, there are companies representing different industries and geos. I chose 3 X 3 Matrix; 3 Companies & 3 Cx business strategies. One, Cx as strategic differentiator in a big boys banking industry. Two, Cx as key business enabler in a crowded mobile services market. Three, Cx as a turn-around strategy to survive in a telecom world.
I am very excited to be writing about Sprint which used Cx as a strategic lever to turn-around the company.
Dan Hesse took over Sprint CEO role in 2007, US. His mandate is clear, to turn-around the company before it goes bankrupt. Dan chose ‘customer is king’ philosophy as the fulcrum of turn-around strategy. It means to simplify everything so it’s easy for customers to stay with Sprint – “Simply Everything” campaign was launched in 2008. Also, he focused on employees so they can be change makers to live by ‘customer is king’ philosophy.
Between 2005 and 2008, Sprint consistently ranked last among major mobile operators in J.D. Power & Associates’ customer service surveys. In later part of 2008, Sprint has turned-around from ‘worst to first’ customer Service Company between 2008 and 2012. Industry recognized Sprint’s customer satisfaction improvements:
- The 2013 American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Sprint as the most improved company in customer satisfaction, across all 47 industries studied, during the previous five years.
- Sprint was recognized by Forrester by having the highest improvement in customer experience across all industries by earning a 15-point jump.
- D. Power recognized Sprint as #1 in customer satisfaction for mobile with a 17-point improvement.
Let’s look at key Cx principles Sprint adopted in order to turn around the company.
Customer is King Philosophy
Sprint focused on few things that a telecom service providers must do i.e. improve network, bundle simple but attractive offers (plans, pricing & phones) and improve customer service. Let’s look at how Sprint leveraged Cx principles to ‘turn-around’ the company.
5 Customer-Centric Habits:
- LISTEN – Understand What Customers Value, Act on Their Feedback
- THINK – Make Smart, Fact-Based Decisions
- EMPOWER – Give Employees Resources and Authority to Serve Customers
- CREATE – Produce New Value for Customers and Company
- DELIGHT – Exceed Expectations, Be Remarkable.
Customers First. Premium Customers Foremost.
In its efforts to focus on improving Customer Experience, Sprint came out with initiatives for both premium and non-premium customers – The Right Plan Promise, Sprint’s Simply Everything, Read Now.
As a way of saying thank you to their premium (loyal) customers, Sprint rolled out benefits especially for the premium customers like; Early Upgrades, Just Because Perks, Fist to Know / First to Buy, Accessory Discounts, Courtesy Plan Check.
Employee Empowerment & Culture
Cx Metrics Driven Compensation – Dan understood that a Cx culture cannot be fostered unless employees are with him in this journey. Among the top 3 priorities – Cx, Branding, Conserve Cash – Cx is treated as number 1 priority. From the beginning, Cx metrics are clearly defined and employees are measured, recognized, rewarded and compensated as per these metrics.
Digital Ninjas – Sprint has a voluntary social ninja program where about 3000 employees on their own time, like evenings, go to Web sites, Facebook, Twitter as well as Sprint.com, and they answer customer questions. They’re trained to identify themselves as a Sprint employee and they can provide information, and correct misperceptions.
Technology Leverage (Cx Systems)
- Agent Desktop Solution (call center) i-Care presents agents with a single and intuitive interface for managing all customer interactions. At a deeper level, it takes a customer-centric view of information and systems so that agents have access to all relevant information when processing a customer enquiry.
- Adobe Marketing Cloud – On-the-go and in-store experiences. Insights gained through Adobe Analytics guide how mobile is transitioning customers to in-store experiences. Sprint has implemented Adobe Analytics in interactive, digital displays and tools at select retail locations. With Adobe Analytics, Sprint is able to connect the customer journey from mobile, to retail check-in, browsing, shopping, and interaction with retail staff. In addition, Sprint can connect point of sale, closing the loop on our customer’s digital experience providing retail attribution to the digital space.
Cx Strategy Business Impact:
- $2 billion in savings just from customer service operations
- $1 billion savings in operating costs
- Focused on Customer advocacy instead of just Advertisement; better retention and acquisition.
The challenges for Sprint are far from over. While Dan has turned around the company from shutting shop, Sprint has roped in Marcelo Claure (Brightstar Founder-CEO) as the new CEO in August 2014. Marcelo’s task is to fix the Sprint as a stand-alone business; stemming subscriber losses and returning to profitability.
