Bell’s making it simple. The telecommunications giant has created the position of SVP customer experience and invited long-time Bell Canada employee Ellen Malcolmson to conduct a review of ‘what is required to deliver the kind of seamless and simple customer experience that our customers want and we need to deliver.

‘We consciously called it customer experience versus service because we believe experience goes beyond,’ says Malcolmson. ‘The goal is to be easy to do business with every single day.’ That will include, for example, proactively sending e-mails containing more detailed product information in lieu of customers having to re-call Bell every time they have an additional question. [See Biz feature on page 11 for more on Bell’s strategy for customer experience.]

After 23 years with the company, Malcolmson is certainly primed to take on the new role, which brings together many divergent departments in the company, including marketing and product development. ‘My relationship with marketing is quite intimate,’ she says. ‘I talk with them every day as well as the folks who run the call centre and product areas.’

Malcolmson has held a string of senior management posts in various areas of the company including SVP Bell Mobility customer service, VP operator services and VP management services. Most recently she was head of operations, responsible for building, maintaining and operating Bell’s networks in the area of wireless, data and Internet.

‘What’s really key is the evolution of our thinking,’ she says. ‘We’re [now] thinking about business from the customer’s perspective.’