Telecoms giant keeping its staff happy and its customers satisfied

HAVING gone through several checkpoints, parked in an underground car park and then climbed what felt like a huge number of steps, I finally emerged, blinking, into the sunlight of the summer day.

Beneath me lay a perfectly manicured lawn in contrasting hues of green. Ahead of me was a huge silver building, its exterior split into reflective squares and simply emblazoned with a large white letter and a small white number.

To a newcomer, it could be disorienting. This futuristic landscape, where advanced communications technology holds sway, may have had all the hallmarks of a American novel by the likes of Don DeLillo, or even a science fiction writer like Philip K Dick, but it can be found in Yorkshire in 2010.

Welcome to O2. With 2,300 staff, its Leeds site, near the White Rose Centre, is the telecommunications giant's largest base in Britain.

The 24-hour contact centre, as it is known, is hardly the typical call centre. It is light, airy and the staff don't look unhappy. It is some distance from the characterisation of such places as the modern-day successor to cotton mills.

What, then, has happened? As Andy Smith, general manager for customer service, explains, they realised that the happier staff are, the better the quality of their work.

"We believe that if you can create happy people it will create happy customers because they will serve them better."

The pace of activity at O2's Leeds centre is fast, with 1,500 customer service staff – the rest are in network support, cash management, finance, markets and sales – dealing with the queries and demands of hundreds of thousands of consumers, business and corporate customers each week, so managers build in time each month for workers to have some fun, even at the busiest times, such as during the launch of the iPhone 4.

Mr Smith's staff are corporate customer service advisers. They are responsible for corporate customers – any business with more than 200 staff – and at each organisation they have a day-to-day relationship with an equivalent figure, while grouping into "buddy teams" means other advisers are there to step into the breach if needed.

This is how O2 stays in touch with its customers. Leeds manages more than 80,000 customer contacts per week and the firm, which also has contact centres in Bury, Preston Brook and Glasgow and about 13,000 staff in the UK, is trying to recruit one million "fans" by the end of next year, with each fan defined as a customer who gives the company a score of nine or 10 out of 10 in feedback.

To encourage this, Mr Smith has on his hip a Fan Club 1880 badge, marking the number of fans O2 has to make each day if it is to meet its target.

For those to whom a mobile remains a clunky black device used only to announce the fact that your train is

late, the idea of fandom may sound strange, but for the millions of customers who have ultra-modern handsets, BlackBerries and iPhones, and who need to be able to get onto the internet at any time of day, the quality of mobile service can make a major difference to the success of a business. It is with these people that Mr Smith hopes to find new fans.

"Turning customers into fans gives us the edge. You will tell your friends about it, take more services and spend money."

Mr Smith is responsible for customer service to 2,500 corporate customers, comprising more than one million mobile users, having started his life at O2 as a clerical assistant more than 20 years ago. He said it is this variety and chance to progress that means the firm can keep a high proportion of its staff.

"If you want a career that takes you around the different parts of a business, then we offer one on these sites. We feel we have the lowest churn in the industry."

Mr Smith said there is "no such thing" as a typical customer service adviser. Many are graduates, but it also attracts staff because of the chance to work flexible hours, and innovations, like a Starbucks concession at subsidised prices and a bus from the city centre to Arlington Business Centre, which helps it to compete with call centre employers nearer to the rail station

"It is a nice touch, which is about trying to develop a bit of a 'wow' about coming to work for O2."

Another such touch which is unusual is Mr Smith's tendency to consistently describe employees as "people" rather than staff, which he said is about not putting a "dividing line" between staff and management.

"It is just about doing the right thing – building a team spirit and a spirit with their team leader. Happy people equals happy customers equals happy shareholders. It only works when it all works."