Telco Industry: Culture Change Case Study

Overview

In 2006 an Australian telecommunications organisation was undertaking a project which would change the way they operated as a business and how they serviced their clients. To support this project, they partnered with Maximus to implement a full scale culture change program to ensure they developed a service excellence culture.

Client objectives

To create a culture that supported the consistent delivery of excellent customer service organisation wide. The solution needed to span across multiple client facing and back office functions, across varying levels of the organisation. The solution meant that ultimately the organisation would move away from a differentiation model based on price to one based on value and service.

 

The solution

To ensure the change was established and embedded, Maximus designed a solution that allowed the organisation to:

  • Establish interactive forums whereby employees and managers were able to discuss the current approach to client engagement and the changes required
  • Improve each individual's understanding of the current vs the desired culture
  • Gain commitment from all employees to embrace the new service excellence culture
  • Educate managers and individuals around the skills required for service excellence

The program was delivered over a nine month period. Due to the complexity of the roll out of this type of solution, Maximus partnered closely with key client stakeholders to integrate systems, processes, people and environment issues into the solution. A number of different programs were rolled out across the organisation.

 

Outcomes to date

    • Improved communication across entire business regarding change and the individuals role in embedding the culture change
    • A more consistent approach to customer service across entire organisation and less reliance on price differentiation
    • Marked improvement in customer service levels, which in turn played a part in the client retaining a contract worth more than $11 million a month.

Feedback from business stakeholders

From day one, the Maximus team have demonstrated a sound understanding of our business and extensive experience in applying valuable theoretical frameworks to the “real world”. Their expertise and insight enabled us to move from a place of inconsistent service delivery to higher returns through excellent service. Maximus has partnered with us to create a change solution that is increasing our peoples’ proficiency across the board and I am convinced that Maximus continues to be committed to our success.