Shentel
Turning customer service into a competitive advantage
Challenge
After acquiring two cable companies in southern Virginia and West Virginia, Shentel made a major investment to upgrade these markets with new, state-of-the-art fiber optics. Despite Shentel offering a better product than the competition, their marketing efforts were not producing new customer growth.
Research showed that consumers were very skeptical of cable companies. There had been a track record of companies entering their market with grand promises, only to exit very quickly.
Challenger Brand Solution
Brand Inside
Shentel had to create a deeper connection with the customer. So, we started with a new Brand Promise to be used in all of Shentel’s communications: “Always Connected to You.”
But first we needed to do some “Brand Inside” work to ensure that every interaction with a Shentel employee was an on-brand experience for the customer. An experience that would become a competitive advantage for Shentel.
The Brand Inside process involved the following:
- Identifying employees throughout the organization to act as Brand Ambassadors.
- Developing employee materials for the Brand Ambassadors to use to train their direct-report employees.
- Conducting countless workshops to identify “triggers” (potential points of conflict) and “moments of truth” (opportunities to provide meaningful impressions with customers).
- Conducting training sessions to educate on how to perform your job in an on-brand fashion, and how to convert detractors to brand cheerleaders.
- Getting leadership buy-in. We took the learning from the Brand Ambassadors and made a formal presentation to Shentel’s executive team.
Results
After educating and energizing Shentel’s employees, the enthusiasm spread like wildfire. We were welcomed into homes, and the results have been amazing:
- Employees were excited and invigorated.
- Net promoter score greatly increased.
- Brand awareness soared by 12%.
- Customer acquisitions exceeded goals.
- Shentel was named to Forbes 2014 list of 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America – the only cable company to make this list.
