DIRECTV Customer Retention & Sales Case Study 2007-2010

CASE STUDY: Customer Retention & Sales Location & Timeframe: DIRECTV, 2007-2010 In three years at its Huntsville call center, DIRECTV (DTV) cross-trained and thrice-promoted Tim Allston into a nationally-recognized and nationally-quoted customer service agent. The Challenge DTV, the nation’s leading satellite TV provider, hired Allston in January 2007, as an entry-level trainee in customer service. Here, his goal was to train in all aspects of customer service – i.e., billing, programming, technical support and ultimately, customer retention and sales – in order to merge his previous academic retention successes, now with commercial customer retention expertise. What Was Done After just 13 months of call center experience in billing, programming and technical support services, DTV promoted Allston from general billing/inquiries to technical support to finally the Customer Retention Group (CRG). CRG features veteran DTV customer service agents specially trained to retain dissatisfied customers; minimize their need to call back; and, where appropriate, sell/re-sell/up-sell/cross-sell DTV products and services – through aggressive listening, assertive questioning and utilizing all previous training and experiences. The Results As a result of executing his three years of DTV training, Allston was: • Credited with resolving more than 19,600 customer calls, and retaining 76-80% of customers; • Cited as the Top CRG Agent of the Week (April 2008), for achieving Huntsville’s best retention rate. His requested presentation, “The Tim Commandments of Customer Retention,” was later distributed nationally by DTV’s National Vice President for Upgrade and Retention; • Received an Exceeds rating in December 2009, by the Quality Assurance team, for its grading randomly a call in which, even though the customer chose to disconnect his account, Allston nonetheless handled the call and the departing customer in an above-average manner; • Selected in January 2010, by team supervisor as team’s “C-SAT (customer satisfaction) Champion”, the agent responsible for motivating their 16-member team in both pre-shift briefings and weekly team meetings, with information and inspirations promoting topflight, proactive customer service; • Cited as “The best of what this call center has to offer” by his manager, Allston served on a first-ever national CRG panel of 10 hand-picked agents for the annual 2010 Sales & Marketing meeting in Hollywood, California, as DTV decided that its 1,400 national sales and marketing professionals could improve their sales-closing results by hearing directly from CRG agents who interact daily on the phones with customers; and • According to Senior Vice President Ellen Filipiak, Allston’s panel presentation opening line, “CRG is like church: customers come to us with an expectation of being saved”, was text-messaged immediately across the country, declaring, “Tim Allston’s statement, ‘CRG is like church’, is now the new CRG paradigm, system-wide.” Document Outline

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