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As Canada’s fastest-growing security and automation company, TELUS is proud to nominate Caroline Kaspo for the Customer Service Executive of the Year. Caroline has dedicated over 20 years of her career at TELUS, with one guiding principle: to deliver exceptional customer experience with industry leading outcomes.
In December 2020, Caroline joined the Customer Experience Evolution team, as the Director of Commercial Security Customer Experience, supporting a diverse portfolio of teams and programs.
One of the programs Caroline has transformed since 2020 is our Commercial Security Retention Program. In 2020 the monthly customer churn was 1.3%. Although these results are still favourable to the average churn rate of 3% in the security industry, she was determined to evolve the program. She worked with her leadership team to incorporate new retention strategies and implemented innovative support systems including the ‘Wolfpack”. The Wolfpack supports additional retention activities and enhances performance through call observation packages, retention huddle led content, live power coaching, job aids and follow up with outlier programs. These efforts resulted in a world class churn rate of 0.99% in 2021, and 0.79% in 2022. For 2023, she has set additional targets and is currently trending at 0.69% churn.
Caroline has also been a key stakeholder in our Social Media Escalation Reduction Program. At the end of 2020, the average volume of social media escalations was 91 per month. She was essential in supporting this program to actively reduce escalations through weekly meetings where complaints were reviewed, trends were identified, and action plans were established to close the gaps and prevent future escalations. In 2021, the average volume reduced to 24 per month, in 2022 it further reduced to 13 per month, and in 2023 the average is trending at 9 per month. Caroline’s insight and contribution have made this program a success, with an infrastructure in place to be a self-sustaining program.
Caroline directly supports our Event Response Program (ERP). Following a real-life event and response from our monitoring station (fire, burglary, or medical incident), a member of this specialized team contacts the customer to verify their safety and offer support above and beyond the industry standard. In the event of a fire, this team arranges and pays for hotel accommodations and provides gift cards to cover basic necessities. For customers who have suffered property loss, or are the victims of a crime, they provide complimentary virtual counseling sessions through our partnership with TELUS Health. Gift baskets or flowers are sent to customers, to delight them following a medical incident or intrusion. In its first year (2020), the team connected with 620 customers experiencing real life events. In 2021 the ERP expanded its scope and increased customer connections by 113% to serve and support 1,320 customers. In 2022 this grew to 1,828 customers, and we are on track to expand by another 20% in 2023. Since inception, this team has deployed over $190,000 in goodwill gestures for our customers. In 2022, this program was the recipient of three Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service: Achievement in Customer Experience (gold), Service Department Team of the Year (gold), and winner of the People’s Choice Award.
Caroline puts a strong focus on the health and well-being of her team members. She is a strong believer that a healthy team performs well, and is better equipped to offer customers exceptional service. Supporting over 150 team members, she has achieved a world class team engagement score of 87% in 2022. She led a career week showcasing personal development sessions, and potential career paths for frontline team members. Additionally, only 5% of her call center team has taken leave for mental health reasons, which is 15% lower than the industry standard. The culture, flexibility, leadership, and connections with her team is of paramount importance in keeping her team healthy.
Nomination Title: Caroline Kaspo
