**The following article appeared within a sponsored supplement to Strategy.

In a market dominated by just two players, what makes the difference in attracting customers? ‘Technological advancements and pricing are easily duplicated,’ says Lorraine Genereux. ‘That’s why we bank so heavily on the quality of customer service, in every interaction.’

Genereux, Director of Customer Service for Bell Mobility, can back up the boast that when it comes to service the company goes above and beyond the call. In 1991 Bell Mobility won the Award of Excellence from the International Customer Service Association, making it the only Canadian company to ever earn the honour.

Genereux and others in Bell Mobility will tell you that the company doesn’t strive to be the best service organization in the wireless industry; its goal is to be the best service organization in the world, period.

‘We concluded early on that our real competitive advantage would be in our people and the quality of customer service,’ says Bob Latham, the company’s second president. ‘Many companies will say that, but few will implement it. Part of that is creating a culture where people want to work. In fact, one of the senior executives at our competitor has said that they had a terrible problem keeping people because they wanted to work for Bell Mobility.’

Bell Mobility’s team of customer service representatives (CSRs), which now numbers close to 200 after several dozen recent hires, take anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 calls a day. That’s more than the total number of customers in Bell Mobility’s early days. Today, instead of keeping files on Rollodexes, as they did in the early days, CSRs have individual customer data at their fingertips on computer.

As throughout the history of Bell Mobility, Genereux says training CSRs in technical skills, and ensuring that they have people skills, is not enough.

‘You have to give them the power to make the right decisions,’ she says, noting that the Bell Mobility culture is not one of red tape and bureaucracy. ‘I think we give a little more latitude to our people to ‘break the rules’ in order to satisfy the customer. They do what it takes to resolve a problem right then and there.’

Proactive Calls

Handling incoming calls is the reactive aspect to customer service, and Bell Mobility places a premium on the proactive side.

A few weeks after becoming a subscriber, every new customer gets a call from a CSR to welcome them and thank them for choosing Bell Mobility. On an annual basis, these customers also get an anniversary call to see what Bell Mobility can do to make life easier for them, and to advise them of new services.

Every month, customers who have a greater than average number of problems, such as a high number of disconnects, are automatically flagged and called. These customers don’t always call a CSR because they are unsure of what kind of quality to expect from cellular service.

‘Frequently, the problem is with the hardware,’ says Genereux. ‘By making the outbound call, at least we help identify the source of a problem the customer may not have even realized.’

Based on usage reports, Bell Mobility’s system can also automatically flag discrepancies between what kind of use is expected given the particular customer plan, and actual use.

‘We have a rate migration plan,’ Genereux notes, ‘where we call customers to suggest a plan that might make more sense to them and save them some money.’

Each month, an independent research firm also contacts 100 new subscribers and 200 longer standing ones to assess their overall satisfaction with Bell Mobility. Topics covered include not only customer service, but technical service, billing, and support material.

A component of every employee’s compensation is also tied to customer satisfaction. Each department incorporates a higher level of internal and external customer satisfaction in their service improvement plans, and individual objectives are directly linked to corporate goals.

Quality and Quantity

One of the ongoing debates in any customer service environment is the value of quantity versus quality. Obviously, you want to be able to handle as many calls as possible, and not leave customers waiting on the line and frustrated. On the other hand, turning over calls quickly is not a substitute for doing an outstanding job on each call.

Earlier this year, the Customer Service Department attempted to address this dilemma by adopting Phone Power’s ‘Advanced Performance Management Program’. It provides a quality and productivity matrix by which to evaluate the CSRs.

A formula was developed to assess how many hours out of their day the CSRs should be on the line, and how many calls an hour they should be handling during those hours (taking into account the fact that some periods of the day are slower than others).

‘More than that, we’ve established guidelines for what’s considered a ‘quality call’, using criteria such as the CSR’s knowledge and whether it was a positive and memorable experience for the customer,’ explains Genereux. ‘It’s not enough just to be productive.’

Certain CSRs and managers have been certified to evaluate the quality of calls, based on the set criteria. A team of evaluators, using the same standards, continually monitor a sample of calls handled.

‘This way, we can draw attention to and correct problems with quality,’ Genereux says. ‘At the same time, if your quality is high and your productivity is low, maybe you’re having trouble navigating through our information systems, maybe your typing skills could be better, or maybe you’re giving the customer too much information. Whatever the issue, we can now better identify it and improve the overall level of service.’

Another way to boost service quality is through this year’s training from Kaset International, the Florida-based customer service training group. The CSRs have already gone through a course on Achieving Extraordinary Customer Relations, and more courses are to come.

‘One exercise was to have everyone fold a towel,’ reports Genereux. ‘We each folded it a bit differently. The point is we all have different ways of doing the same thing, and there’s no right or wrong way. Each customer we deal with is different, and has his or her own way of viewing an issue and responding to us. Our job is to connect with them and see the world through their eyes. That’s how we achieve empathy, and make sure we’re serving them as they expect.’