We’ve spoken before about our ardor for T-Mobile’s customer service. Yes, we know, we don’t have the same experience as the company’s subscribers. Most subscribers are calling for a problem, and sometimes that problem can’t or won’t be solved. In our case, we’re usually calling to confirm information or to clear up something written on their website. From our experience, though, T-Mobile has among the most friendly, knowledgeable customer service staffs in the industry — though that might not be saying much. Yesterday, we read more about the secret of their success. Behind every great department is a great man or woman. In T-Mobile’s case, that woman is Sue Nokes. She is in charge of the entire customer service department, and she’s quite the popular one at T-Mobile’s customer service headquarters.
Hundreds of screaming, chanting people are standing in front of the building, bedecked in a wild array of hot-pink clothing (T-Mobile’s signature color) ranging from T-shirts to cowboy hats to feather boas. They’re waving signs, holding up camera phones, and generally acting like starstruck teenagers. One guy’s wearing a fuchsia bathrobe; another, in a fluorescent-pink wig, is screaming, “We love you!” over and over.Most people view their bosses with a bit of disdain. Nokes, however, is beloved by her 15,000 employees. Can you imagine loving your boss so much that you’re willing to dress in a hot-pink bathrobe awaiting her arrival (we certainly love our boss that much)? It’s unfathomable in most of corporate America, but for T-Mobile, it’s become the norm. The most amazing part of it all: T-Mobile ranked dead last in customer service in 2002 (according to internal surveys), which is actually what prompted Nokes’s hiring. About 12 percent of employees didn’t show up for work each day, and turnover rate was over 100 percent per year. Surely this would be more than a mild undertaking for anyone. Nokes rose to the challenge. T-Mobile has now been ranked best in telecommunications customer service by J.D. Power & Associates six times in a row — three years, as the survey is biannual. You need to look no further than the paragraph describing Nokes’s reception to understand how they’re able to accomplish this. We’d like to quote two paragraphs that we feel best illustrate Nokes’s luster:
Nokes quickly gave workers their own seats and asked for $17 million to bring salaries up to the 50th percentile. She also overhauled the training process (reps now go through 132 hours of training and team meetings each year) and began hiring based more on attitude than experience. She also created a standard set of metrics to measure reps on, tracking call quality, attendance, and schedule reliability along with the speed of the call resolution. … To motivate employees in what has long been considered a dead-end job, Nokes promised when she joined that 80% of promotions would eventually go to existing employees. By August 2007 that number had hit 82%. Her team also created a new “rewards and recognition system ” in which high performers – using the new metrics – were rewarded with trips to Las Vegas or Hawaii and prizes. Today absenteeism is at 3% annually and attrition is at 42%. Employee satisfaction – at 80% – is the highest it’s ever been.So she paid them a livable wage, trained them adequately, tracked their progress, and promoted them when they deserved it. Gee, you think that might go a long way in employee satisfaction? Every wireless company — especially TracFone — needs a Sue Nokes to overhaul their customer service department. We’re glad this article was run, and were more than glad to summarize what Sue Nokes means to customer service. [CNN Money]]]>