Rogers CEO Joe Natale says more effort must be given to improve customer service

Rogers’ new CEO Joe Natale says the company must take an “end-to-end” approach to make a meaningful improvement to its customer service. On April 19th, his first day on the job, Natale said there was “definitely more to do” in terms of addressing the issue.

Five weeks later, he’s now stating that “there hasn’t been enough of a concerted effort” to make improvements in this area. “I think there’s been some reasonable progress in what I would call the various ‘silos’ of customer service — looking at improvements in terms of retail stores or the call centre – but, in this business, you really have to look end-to-end to drive the needle on customer service,” Natale said at a Scotiabank investor conference this week.

Rogers has been tackling this issue for some time now, with previous CEO Guy Laurence executing his Rogers 3.0 plan during his three-year tenure with the company.

As it stands, public perception of the customer service of the company has been improving, but shows it still needs work. The most recent Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications (CCTS) report indicated Rogers accounted for 13.5 percent of wireless complaints, while rival Bell racked up 31.8 percent of the complaints.

In addition, every year, marketing information services company J.D. Power releases a study on Canadians customer service satisfaction from carriers across the country. In its 2017 findings, Rogers placed last on the list. Ultimately, the firm found that two-fifths of Canadians said good customer service led them to pick their carriers.

In another recent study, published by the University of Victoria on brands that Canadians trust the most, Rogers came in at the 290th spot out of 294 listed companies. This made the company the second-lowest ranking carrier after Bell.

Going forward, Natale said he has some ideas for how he wants Rogers to improve customer service, stating he wants employees to work in different parts of the business — such as in sales, installing services or customer support — to help them become more well-rounded and offer better service. “That focus, that mentality, I think, is not as ingrained as it could be,” he said. “There’s a real opportunity on that front.”

Natale also said he wants to focus on controlling costs at Rogers, which will help manage expenses and put funds towards directly benefiting the customer experience.

Source: The Globe and Mail