6 Questions on Customer Centricity with U.S. Cellular

**This post is part of a series with B/OSS Publisher Danica Cullins around pertinent industry matters, called "6 Questions." Invited responses to six uniform questions will be published regularly on the B/OSS website. Respondents will represent the full industry circle (service providers, consultants, solutions providers, etc.) First topic: customer-centricity. Please click here to see how other industry leaders – from such companies as TELUS and TeliaSonera – answered the same questions.

Respondent’s Name: Mike Irizarry
Respondent’s Title: Executive Vice President and CTO
Respondent’s Company Name: U.S. Cellular

1. What role do you play at your company in driving the focus on customer experience, and how does your company practice customer centricity internally?

I am responsible for all of engineering and the back office IT systems, and both domains directly impact the customer. What we regularly tell field associates, in both IS and engineering, is that every time a customer hits the send button, we have an opportunity to give them a positive experience or a not-so-positive experience. The performance of both of my groups is consistently reviewed at the board level and executive level to make sure they are performing in a way that meets and exceeds customer expectations.

In response to practicing customer centricity internally, one of the things that we do is regularly review customer feedback, both qualitative and quantitative, through regular surveys. We conduct these surveys in all of our markets every month with a focus on how customers feel about accuracy of the billing, quality of the phone, quality of the network, when they are roaming, making a voice call, a data call, etc. We track it – when it’s not going in the right direction and we see a decline we dig in, look at the qualitative data, the verbatims from the customers, and go attack whatever the problem may be. The associates throughout the organization, including me, in our performance appraisals and goals – the feedback and trends from the surveys are an objective that we’re held accountable to. And so it’s regularly reviewed and I believe that applies a filter in the action and behaviors we take to ensure that we are focused on the customer and practicing that customer centricity.

2. As a consumer, can you point to specific customer-experience examples that have impressed you and say how service providers could do likewise? (Provide company names, if possible, from your experience.)