Baptism by fire

When 2degrees launched its mobile services in August, customer service representatives found themselves at  the sharp end of an unexpected surge in call volumes. Sarah Putt finds out how they coped and what’s on the horizon for agents at this ambitious start-up company.After six months of preparation, agents in the 2degrees contact centre were desperate for the company to  launch its mobile services. But when launch day arrived on August 4th, they were overwhelmed by the call  volumes.Chief customer operations officer Venkat Subramanian says the combination of unexpected high level of  interest, and the selfservice option on the website portal getting shut down after launch, put call volumes at 3-4  times what had been forecast.Subramanian says it settled down after the first four weeks, when the website became fully functional again  and the initial buzz had died down. But at the time the 80-seat centre was operating at full capacity and agents were well aware that they had to live up to the “credibility and foundation that’s been laid with the brand”.While comedian Rhys Darby was seen prancing through fields in the television adverts, claiming to represent a  company that was about connecting people easily and simply, it was down to the contact centre agents to  make sure they delivered one-onone with customers.Did they have strict Average Handling Times so they could get through the calls quickly and efficiently?Quite the opposite, according to contact centre manger Richard Fuli; they used the opportunity to explain to  customers what 2degrees was all about. “In the first four to six weeks we focused on sharing a compelling reason as to why we joined 2degrees to our customers, because that was really important to us.”There are no scripts at 2degrees and agents, after just three weeks’ training, are on the phones. “It’s about  building the relationship with the customer; it isn’t just about answering the calls,” says Subramanian.It helps  that most of the agents they hired, from the almost 300 applications they received, already had some  telco experience.Subramanian has previously worked for Vodafone India as the associate vice president for service processes,  when the company had just bought the Hutchison network and it had 40 million subscribers. He says while  there aren’t the volumes of subscribers in New Zealand, the challenge for him is being part of a start-up in a  market with over 100% penetration (4.6 million mobile connections were recorded in New Zealand last year).Fuli has 12 years of telco experience, most of it with Vodafone. He spent three years as a contact centre  manager, and prior to joining 2degrees managed the relationship between Vodafone and its outsourced partner Salesforce, on behalf of the latter.(Vodafone experience appears to be highly valued at 2degrees; for example the group sales marketing offi cer  Larrie Moore, as well as the marketing and promotions manager Trent Harnett, are also ex-Vodafone.)The  starting agent salary is between $38,000 and $42,000, but Fuli has noticed a lowering of salary expectation  brought on by the recession.As for metrics, while Subramanian says high service levels underpin the contact  centre operation, it’s too early to really gather much intelligence from them. “It’s a baby that’s just beginning  to crawl,” he says.Fuli says they measure the usual: Grade of Service, First Call Resolution and Average Handling Time. He says they follow a standard service level of 80 calls answered within 15 seconds. In the  afternoons and early evenings, if call volumes are down, agents will do callbacks to ensure the customer is  happy with the service.Self service through the web portal – now that it’s fully functional – is an important  part of the customer service strategy, but Fuli says they’re careful not to “thrust it upon our customers”.It’s the same with the IVR; Subramanian says it’s relatively simple, but customers can call zero at any time to go  directly to an agent. However he points out that simplicity in delivery is easier when there is only a very simple  product offering – standard mobile calling and text rates.To test this, TR phoned the freephone  number a few times and tried out some of the IVR options, and never discovered more than four options in any one pathway. We also phoned fi ve times to check out the 80/15  service level and every time the call was answered by an agent within 10 seconds of pressing zero, and once  within a second.The centre handles just voice calls and emails, with voice about 90% of the interactions. It will soon be taking  over the interaction of social media forums and answering queries on Facebook, Twitter and Geekzone.Currently that responsibility is shared between the 2degrees marketing team and head of corporate  communications and public relations, Bryony Hilless.The 2degrees Facebook page has almost 20,000 fans, and on Twitter there are over 2000 followers. Hilless  says customers feel comfortable using these forums, so it’s important to be able to respond to them in the  space in which they feel most at home.She says the “sheer volume” of online activity means you could spend all day simply responding to issues  raised on the websites. “It can become such a time-consuming medium, but it’s another way to keep in touch  with customers, so it’s important forthe contact centre to jump on there and start responding.”Subramanian says he fi nds the level of social media activity is unique in New Zealand (“There is a very involved bunch of customers here.”). His thoughts are echoed by Fuli, who says “it’s a very honest channel”.Neither is concerned that an agent could write something online that might publicly discredit the company, and  Subramanian says they would initially select their most experienced agents to respond on social media  sites.Fuli says another upside in taking over the social media sites is that it will enhance communication between  company HQ and the contact centre, which are housed in separate locations.“It helps to drive communication internally as well; it’s a natural transition to have all the social media sites  come into customer service roles,” he says.Hilless says the contact centre is considered a valuable resource for fi nding out what customers want in the  ongoing decisions about product offerings. Every month the senior management team – including CEO Eric  Hertz – attends an open forum at the contact centre.Subramanian says the agents they’ve hired are attracted to being part of a start-up company that is taking on  Telecom and Vodafone, creating a ‘David vs Goliath’ mentality that keeps them motivated.