Vodafone to create X Squad

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hio77

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#2315184 11-Sep-2019 18:16

xpd:

Ever had a helpdesk staff member try to talk to a NOC staffer ? ;)

I'll be honest, i've seen it go both ways. i more typically see Us and them mentalities elsewhere.. maybe our NOC folk are just good at handling that conversation though.

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antoniosk

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#2315239 11-Sep-2019 20:25

boosacnoodle:

Jason has said that it will be measured on FTF (first time fix).

Who signs off that an order was fixed first time? the customer or the call centre?

Its sounds like some sort of executive resolution team with authority to spend money rather than ask permission - but they still need to coordinate other people, which can be hard work even when you're all in the same building.

Hope it works though.

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matisyahu

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#2315336 12-Sep-2019 01:44

Question time:

1) Who decides whether something is a complex issue - I assume that there is a filtering where the low hanging fruit and those that aren't able to get fixed by them are then escalated to this X Squad?

2) Are we going to see more investment into fixing their spaghetti mess that is the billing system so that one can completely management ones account with Vodafone from a single login; broadband, telephone, mobile etc. from a single login? I ask this because to make this sustainable you need to have the facilities to peel of those common requests to be handled online by the customer themselves thus leaving the call centre staff to deal with the issues that cannot be addressed through self service.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

robjg63

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#2315409 12-Sep-2019 09:02

Company sets up helpdesk/support team.
Business grows and people say they are great.
Pressure comes on the business from the accountants.
Let's slash costs in the customer support area - these companies offshore can do it for peanuts.
Slash and burn of local support staff who actually know how things work.
Financial bottom line temporarily improves.
Customers who have to deal with the 'streamlined' support get angry and frustrated.
Customers get annoyed enough to complain on forums (geekzone?) And leave the company for another supplier.
Someone in the company finally notices an increasing amount of negative press and diminishing customers.

Process returns to line one. (Vodafone just at this step again)

Spark and Vodafone have both done this before several times and will do it again - Enjoy it while it lasts.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

deadlyllama

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#2316436 12-Sep-2019 10:51

matisyahu:

Question time:

1) Who decides whether something is a complex issue - I assume that there is a filtering where the low hanging fruit and those that aren't able to get fixed by them are then escalated to this X Squad?

Yeah, with my recent experience with my stepmother's VF issues (she's on the old, non-DHCP cable modem setup) and CSRs who knew nothing about this and couldn't give me the settings for her router... what would it have taken to get my call escalated? Will it impact CSR KPIs if they escalate too many issues? The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as always.

The providers I've been with over the last 5 years don't have A teams and B teams, they answer the phone with people who have answered my complex questions straight away, in one instance putting me through to a network engineer.

Geektastic

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#2317576 14-Sep-2019 09:59

X Squad? Ninjas?

Somebody at VF watches too many movies...!

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antoniosk

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#2317604 14-Sep-2019 10:25

Geektastic:

X Squad? Ninjas?

Somebody at VF watches too many movies...!

Have to admit when I first saw this, I thought of Deadpools X-Force team....

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Antoniosk

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#2317633 14-Sep-2019 11:17

antoniosk:
Geektastic:

X Squad? Ninjas?

Somebody at VF watches too many movies...!

Have to admit when I first saw this, I thought of Deadpools X-Force team....

Ha!

nickb800

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#2317690 14-Sep-2019 12:17

matisyahu:
2) Are we going to see more investment into fixing their spaghetti mess that is the billing system so that one can completely management ones account with Vodafone from a single login; broadband, telephone, mobile etc. from a single login? I ask this because to make this sustainable you need to have the facilities to peel of those common requests to be handled online by the customer themselves thus leaving the call centre staff to deal with the issues that cannot be addressed through self service.

They've been mass migrating HFC costumers off the old TelstraClear billing platform in the past few months (in Kapiti). Pushing them onto CPE VoIP and Vodafone TV intro too. Contrast this to March 2018, when new customers were put on the old billing platform. I think this means that change is actually, really, finally happening. Will still take a while though.

Being Vodafone, they screwed the migration up of course - didn't highlight to customers that they had a new account number and different account to pay into - so many folk especially elderly ended up having their accounts cut off due to non payment.

Anyway - migrating off the TCL billing platform and having CSRs that can operate multiple billing platforms is exactly what geekzone has been calling for for years. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear otherwise

quickymart

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#2317837 14-Sep-2019 17:21

So they'll be helping with everything? By everything I mean DSL,cable, fibre, mobile, landlines, calling cards, domains (do they still do the last ones?)

freitasm

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#2337913 16-Oct-2019 08:16

Just received:

The first Vodafone X-Squad team is celebrating launch day, with the first team of 12 people based in Auckland ready to solve complex technical issues for customers. Over the coming months more X-Squad teams will be coming online to assist customers.

Antony Welton, acting Customer Operations Director, said: “I’m pleased to report the first X-Squad is up and running. By the end of October we’ll have four X-Squad teams, split between our North and South Island headquarters. These technical customer service experts have been handpicked for their people skills and ability to solve complex problems.

“Starting now, customers who have problems that our front line agents can’t solve will begin to be transferred to an X-Squad case manager. It’ll likely take us until February to hit full capacity but we’re pushing ahead as quickly as possible.

“Our aim is to make solving complex issues as radically simple from a customer perspective. The X-Squad is made up of multi-skilled experts empowered to deliver next-level care for the trickiest of problems. Once they get transferred to the X Squad, Vodafone customers will get dedicated case management all the way through to a fix.”

The pilot for the X-Squad was a specialist group named the TLC Team, based in Auckland. Antony explains: “The knowledge our TLC Team has gained over the past few months has been invaluable in guiding the X-Squad strategy and we’ve been encouraged by the consistently positive customer feedback the team has received.”

The X-Squad was announced in September and is an initial $10 million investment over the remainder of the financial year. Once fully formed, the X-Squad will comprise multiple teams of selected and skilled New Zealand-based agents from Vodafone and our partners Tech Mahindra and Probe, located in Auckland or Christchurch.

As well as case management, the X-Squad will actively monitor for any patterns that might be a systemic problem, and feed insights into other teams responsible for root cause fixes.

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Geektastic

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#2338464 16-Oct-2019 22:07

Do they live in an X-Cave? Or a Fortress of Xactitude? Is there a special uniform? Handshake? X-Ray specs? 😎

dfnt

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#2338536 16-Oct-2019 23:09

I imagine they’ll be inundated with calls given their scripted 1st level help desk won’t be able to resolve anything

quickymart

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#2338540 16-Oct-2019 23:20

The feedback I've had on their new! improved! call centre so far isn't exactly what I'd call positive, sadly.

sittingduckz

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#2338626 17-Oct-2019 09:29

Geektastic:

Do they live in an X-Cave? Or a Fortress of Xactitude? Is there a special uniform? Handshake? X-Ray specs? 😎

You can call them direct on the red X-odaphone

Hopefully there are no tights involved with the uniform

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

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