StarHub Ltd - Contact Center of the Year
Company: StarHub Ltd, Singapore
Company Description: StarHub Ltd is one of the four major telcos in the Republic of Singapore,
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Contact Center of the Year (Over 100 Seats) - Other Service Industries
Nomination Title: StarHub sets the standard in Customer Experience
The nominated department is the Customer Experience Division, which is responsible for the operations, strategy and innovation of StarHub’s brand of service. Starhub is the 2ndlargest Telco in Singapore and in most recent years has become the benchmark brand for service quality.
Prior to 2019, StarHub did not have an established Customer Experience Division and as a result, no single unit was tasked to orchestrate key investments, processes and drive improvements to customer service and experience.As a result, before 2019, StarHub was known in the market as having one of the worst customer experiences and with the absence of an overarching CX strategy, it was no surprise that StarHub had a perception for subpar products (i.e. non-competitive rate plans, and TV channels), late deliveries, poor digital and app experience, long wait times at the call centre, broken promises for call backs and unhelpful and rude frontline staff.
However, all this changed in 2019, under new management, when StarHub focused on differentiating itself through unparalleled customer service experience. What was once an area that was grossly neglected and mismanaged, soon became the company’s focus and unique proposition to differentiate its services in a parity market.
Below is an outline of what the department has achieved as a result of its multi-year transformation programme:
StarHub hasincreased its NPS by 16.3% in 2020 and improved by 64% versus the previous year.
StarHub has successfully introduced CX transformation programs across different products and touchpoints and has improved in its Product and Channel NPS by11.2%in 2020.
In early 2020, StarHub has successfully made customer experience a key components in all employees’ score cards representing 20% of each individuals performance for everyone including the CEO.
StarHub’s Agent NPS has seen a sharp increase by 22.37 points from January 2019 to December 2020, while the company’s FCR (First Call Resolution) improved from 70 to 87 from June 2019 to December 2020. StarHub’s Agent’s NPS even peaked at 49.54, nearly double the telecommunication industry’s average score of 24 according to Satmetrix.
Through improved customer handling and processes, Service Levels rose from 66.1% to 95.5% from the month of January to May 2020.
Inbound call volumes also dropped by 53% in December 2020.
And, finally, StarHub was also recognized publicly as the #1 brand for CX in Mobile Customer Experience.This was awarded by an unbiased third-party agency, namely the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG), a non-stock, non-profit institute of Singapore Management University (SMU) in its annual survey of all players in this market. A testament over what consumer think about StarHub since the establishment and transformation of its Customer Experience team.
Our achievements are unique and significant, as they are tangibly felt by our customers and create long-term value not only for our customers, but employees and our shareholders too.
StarHub’s increasing NPS score is significant, as this is an indicator of Customer Loyalty and translates to long-term and financial growth for the company. StarHub has successfully linked NPS to financial value (i.e. revenue and churn), which makes this KPI unique and significant not only to customers but to shareholders.
StarHub’s transforming of it’s product experience, was unique in that it was done through the establishment of joint-programs that cut across all tiers of the organization. This was done via a monthly meeting with all Senior Leadership members and the CEO, called Customer Hour.
The improvement of Agent NPS and FCR (First Call Resolution) meant that calls were now handled effectively and efficiently and with the quality customers deserve.
By linking service levels to NPS, StarHub had successfully found the sweet spot ensuring customers are never unhappy with the duration of wait before connecting to an agent.
Inbound call volumes dropping means that customers have had less reasons to call, and that systemic issues that caused customers to call in the past were being eliminated.
As the#1 brand for CX. Means consumers of Singapore have unbiasedly selected StarHub as the brand they prefer. This is a culmination of all the hard work and dedication of the Customer Experience division in driving change and creating value.
Below are some supporting materials to substantiate StarHub’s achievements and claims:
CSISG and StarHub Press Statement as the #1 in Mobile and Broadband consistently from 2020 and 2021: https://www.starhub.com/about-us/newsroom/2021/july/highest-customer-satisfaction-scores-in-mobile-and-broadband.html
CSISG Report on StarHub’s YoY performance attributing these wins to a customer service team that is responsive to customer feedback: https://ise.smu.edu.sg/sites/ise.smu.edu.sg/files/pastresultdownoads/CSISG2020%20Q1%20Retail%20%26%20Infocomm%20Media%20Deck%5B1%5D.pdf
Publicly available documentation of StarHub’s commitment to customers’ experience in it’s latest investor relations presentation: https://ir.starhub.com