Nwahs
09-22-2007, 01:53 PM
Behind T-Mobile's customer service success - October 1, 2007 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/10/01/100398840/index.htm?postversion=2007092111)
Behind T-Mobile's customer service success
She's blunt. She's flashy. And customer-service chief Sue Nokes is T-Mobile's secret weapon in a cutthroat industry.
By Jennifer Reingold (jreingold@fortunemail.com), Fortune senior writer
September 21 2007: 11:57 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Marry me, Sue!" We've just pulled into the parking lot of Albuquerque's Jefferson Commons call center, home to 800 T-Mobile USA customer-service representatives, and outside there's mayhem. 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.
All this booty shaking and flag waving might seem a bit extreme, given that technically today's event features a middle-aged woman on a routine visit from headquarters. But this isn't just any suit: It's Sue Nokes. She's the flashy, feisty spark plug of a woman who runs sales and customer service at T-Mobile USA, the fast-growing $17 billion subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
In that capacity she's in charge of more than 15,000 employees around the U.S. Why the rousing welcome? Well, it has something to do with her outsized personality, an inspiring, wacky combination of Rosie O'Donnell, Evita Perón, and Auntie Mame.
But mostly it's a result of her lifelong belief that making the customer happy is a lot easier to do when employees actually like their jobs and feel that what they do matters. "Sue's zeal for always putting the customer first is absolutely infectious," says René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.
Serving a hot lunch to your employees, as Nokes usually does on her site visits - or repeating, like a mantra, "You are No. 1, and the customer is why" - could easily come across as meaningless corporate doublespeak. But not only does Nokes pull it off, she seems to have a blast doing it. "I'm just a kid from downstate Michigan who knows where I come from," she says. "I didn't start out wanting to be Sue Nokes, SVP of anything. It just happened because I did what I loved."
Customers seem to love what she does too. Ŕ la Southwest Airlines or Nordstrom, T-Mobile's heavy service focus, led by CEO Robert Dotson, has become a key differentiating strategy, along with an emphasis on the "young and social" and smart branding.
More.... (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/10/01/100398840/index.htm?postversion=2007092111)
Behind T-Mobile's customer service success
She's blunt. She's flashy. And customer-service chief Sue Nokes is T-Mobile's secret weapon in a cutthroat industry.
By Jennifer Reingold (jreingold@fortunemail.com), Fortune senior writer
September 21 2007: 11:57 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Marry me, Sue!" We've just pulled into the parking lot of Albuquerque's Jefferson Commons call center, home to 800 T-Mobile USA customer-service representatives, and outside there's mayhem. 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.
All this booty shaking and flag waving might seem a bit extreme, given that technically today's event features a middle-aged woman on a routine visit from headquarters. But this isn't just any suit: It's Sue Nokes. She's the flashy, feisty spark plug of a woman who runs sales and customer service at T-Mobile USA, the fast-growing $17 billion subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
In that capacity she's in charge of more than 15,000 employees around the U.S. Why the rousing welcome? Well, it has something to do with her outsized personality, an inspiring, wacky combination of Rosie O'Donnell, Evita Perón, and Auntie Mame.
But mostly it's a result of her lifelong belief that making the customer happy is a lot easier to do when employees actually like their jobs and feel that what they do matters. "Sue's zeal for always putting the customer first is absolutely infectious," says René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.
Serving a hot lunch to your employees, as Nokes usually does on her site visits - or repeating, like a mantra, "You are No. 1, and the customer is why" - could easily come across as meaningless corporate doublespeak. But not only does Nokes pull it off, she seems to have a blast doing it. "I'm just a kid from downstate Michigan who knows where I come from," she says. "I didn't start out wanting to be Sue Nokes, SVP of anything. It just happened because I did what I loved."
Customers seem to love what she does too. Ŕ la Southwest Airlines or Nordstrom, T-Mobile's heavy service focus, led by CEO Robert Dotson, has become a key differentiating strategy, along with an emphasis on the "young and social" and smart branding.
More.... (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/10/01/100398840/index.htm?postversion=2007092111)