Loyal customers in turbulent times?
No problem!

Mobiltel was established in 1994 as a joint-stock company. It was the first mobile operator in Bulgaria. Currently it is owned by Telekom Austria. As the largest telecom operator in Bulgaria Mobiltel was first player on the market with digital mobile network.

CHALLENGES THE MANAGEMENT FACED WITH

Year 2010 was the ’Year of changes’ for Mobiltel. The company has decided to change some of their processes due to broadening their service portfolio. One of them was the billing system. Unfortunately, this was not a smooth transition. Mobiltel’s clients experienced huge problems with their bills which were not adequate and in time. Moreover, the company failed to give exact information to its customers what exactly will happen – how the new system works and what does the change mean for them. The number of dissatisfied customers increased drastically.
People started depositing complaints at the Commission for Consumer Protection. Retail shops also experienced major problems because of queues of complaining clients. As a result, the servicing time per client increased immensely.
Several factors, such as market stagnation, improved service quality and increased activity of the competitors, and the newly imposed government regulation, made the market situation even more challenging. Mobiltel’s sales force was pushed by these obstacles to hard sale more than ever. Customers’ needs were not in focus. With the passing years, without noticing the tendency, the company had started falling behind its main competitors in Customer Experience Index.
At this moment, Mobiltel realized several needs the company had. Leaders found important to focus on retail shop employees so to make them more efficient in servicing customers, handling complaints and selling. Thus, producing more satisfied and loyal customers.
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Rene Tomova
Head of Retail Division

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[one_half_last][blockquote3]“DEVELOR TEAM BROUGHT A LOT OF VALUE TO THE TEAM AND ME PERSONALLY. I HAVE TO SAY THAT THEIR WORK WAS INDISPENSABLE TO THE ORGANIZATION AND PROBABLY WE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE THE RESULTS WE DID WITHOUT THEIR INVOLVEMENT…..”[/blockquote3][/one_half_last]

The development process

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Develor consulting team was focused on two main priorities: develop sustainable solution, which will bring continuous improvement in Customer Experience Index and create a measuring system for the performance and skills development of retail shop experts.
We’ve decided to use Kirkpatrick Four Level methodology for creating the development program going through the entire process and involve all the key stakeholders – Shop Assistants, Shop Managers, Zone Managers, Regional Managers and the Retail Director.
The 5-step Develor solution for Mobiltel:
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1. GOAL SETTING AND COMMITMENT

   Definition of S.M.A.R.T. business goals in relation to Customer Experience and building engagement in Regional Managers towards the project. This was performed via Management workshops based on Develor Value Chain methodology with Kirkpatrick planning and measurement.

2. IDENTIFY CRITICAL BEHAVIORS

   Design employees’ ideal critical behaviors during servicing clients – in a series of workshops in mixed groups with all key stakeholders. Definition of the stakeholders’ responsibilities in order to support the change. Identify of shop assistants’ development areas.

3. CHANGE MANAGEMENT

   Develor consultants observed and measured how desired changes could be implemented into the shops – both as a development plan for the employees and as organizational changes in the daily routine of Shop Assistants. We also created change management plan for the Pilot project implementation (included 10% of the stores).

4. FULL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND SUPPORT

   Create full implementation plan and support the Ambassadors during the roll-out in the entire retail network.

5. PILOT PROGRAM PREPARATION

   Define the responsibilities and develop the skills of the internal team of Customer Experience Ambassadors, authorized to implement the project. Develor consultants and trainers performed on-the-job coaching for the Ambassadors.

The result

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Mobiltel decided to focus on retention of its clients and to create cross-‐selling opportunity for the enlarged portfolio of services. One of the steps towards achieving this business goal was to improve the “customer experience” index related to and measured in retail stores of the company.
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As the result of the project Mobiltel improved significantly the Customer Experience Index with 10% – see the comparison between purple and green columns on the first graph.
Develor succeeded to pass the responsibility and the leading role in the project to the business challenge owners – Shop and Regional Managers. Actually, our client’s initial request was for a training program for the Shop Assistant position – huge project involving more than 1000 employees. With a few times smaller budget we achieved:

• Requested business results (measured by independent agency);
• Development of Customer Experience Ambassadors – building a large pool of talented and highly engaged employees;
• Mobiltel’s main competitor in relation to CEI kept its performance, but now is trailing.
• Actually from the very last position in the race, currently Mobiltel has the leading position.

Currently Mobiltel has the highest Customer Experience Index in the industry and also in comparison to other retail chains.
The good news is that results of the H2 2012 CEI survey kept the same tendency.