- Service improvements starting to pay off
- Independent tests confirm the trend
- First-ever promotional campaign for customer service
One year after Deutsche Telekom’s service units were combined under one roof, customers are starting to see real benefits – they’re spending less time waiting in queues on the hotline, are relying on service technician appointments with greater confidence and find their concerns are increasingly being resolved after just one contact.
The number of complaints has also dropped significantly over recent months. “While we’re certainly very happy with the progress that’s been made, we’re not resting on our laurels. After all, we want to offer perfect service to all our customers,” emphasizes Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, Service Director at Telekom Deutschland GmbH. “We know it’s a marathon rather than a sprint, and we won’t stop until we’ve achieved our goal.”
Resolving customer issues at the first point of contact
That’s no easy task with 75 million customers and 270,000 contacts each day. “Even if just one in a thousand cases goes wrong, that’s still too many for us. We are fighting for every single customer and take every single concern seriously,” explains Abolhassan. All efforts are focused on first-contact resolution. “As far as possible, we want to resolve our customers’ issues in just one contact. That is the primary aim. To achieve this, we are testing and establishing new ways of working and are continuously training our teams,” continues the head of service. By the end of the year, Deutsche Telekom also wants to be able to say with certainty whether a technician will be coming out in the morning or afternoon on the agreed day. This timeframe is also to be reduced further over the coming year. Using the “Mein Telekom Techniker” (My Telekom Technician) application, customers already enjoy a new level of transparency regarding the arrival time of their technician.
Independent tests have confirmed that Magenta Service is on the right track thanks to the steps it has taken. Last fall, Focus Money declared Deutsche Telekom “Service King” and in March the company was awarded the “tested customer satisfaction” quality seal by certification body TÜV Rheinland. Also, at the beginning of August, the German IT magazine connect revealed Deutsche Telekom as its hotline test winner (the company came third last year). Deutsche Telekom was the only broadband supplier to be described as “very good”. Abolhassan is keen to point out that “these external awards motivate us to keep on going.”
First-ever promotional campaign for customer service
All the positive developments in service have led to something brand new at Deutsche Telekom – a TV and online campaign dedicated not to the network, or products, but to customer service. The Group aims first and foremost to improve the public’s perception of its service, since it often comes off much better when its quality is judged on objective terms rather than on subjective impressions.
Three TV ads are being used to tell a story about little ways that customers experience service. They tackle typical preconceptions head-on and ultimately shatter them completely. Comedian Ralf Schmitz takes the lead role in the ads. Adopting a likeable persona, he mimics a grouch – who identifies with the viewer – to ultimately show that not all is as it seems. “We are deliberately having a bit of a laugh at ourselves. But we’re doing it in a way that ensures the viewers and our customers feel they are being taken seriously,” says Head of Branding, Hans-Christian Schwingen.
The new advertising campaign is being launched on September 1 and will run initially until the end of the year. The TV ads will be screened on channels with a wide reach and will also go online.
Credits for the new campaign
Created by: DDB, Hamburg
TV production: KIEFERNÜMANN GmbH, Hamburg
Director: Sven Bollinger
Music: BLUT GmbH, Hamburg
Media: Mindshare, Frankfurt
Visit Deutsche Telekom’s booth in hall 21a at the IFA trade show in Berlin from August 31 until September 5 to experience our products and services live. Deutsche Telekom’s entire presence at the trade fair is carbon-neutral – all CO2 emissions generated in setting up and operating the booth are fully offset by carbon-reduction projects abroad.
