Telus 2012 Annual Report Download - page 13

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TELUS’ current downtown offices to provide leasable office and retail space. The
commercial and residential buildings will be built to LEED platinum and gold standards,
respectively, and incorporate green initiatives. See MD&A Section 7.10 Transactions with
related parties for additional information.
In 2012, we made several small business acquisitions and related investments
complementary to our existing lines of business. This includes two acquisitions that
enhance our capabilities in respect of cloud-based EMR solutions; investments to
expand the number of international business process outsourcing call centre operations
to provide geographic and language diversity, and to obtain new business customers;
and the acquisition of additional TELUS-branded wireless dealership businesses to
ensure we provide a focused and consistent customer experience.
Investing in internal capabilities to build a high-performance culture and efficient
operation
Our key priority since 2010 is to focus on delivering an improved customer experience.
In May 2010, we created TELUS Customer Solutions by uniting two customer-facing
business units, business solutions and consumer solutions under the leadership of Joe
Natale, who was appointed Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer. This
reorganization was carried out to increase our ability to approach customers as one team,
with fully co-ordinated sales, marketing and customer care priorities while contributing to
operational efficiencies and cost synergies.
In June 2010, we introduced the Customers First initiative, an internal program that
brought all senior managers to the front line to listen to customers, learn from team
members and identify customer service improvement initiatives. In 2011, approximately
1,600 senior leaders and management staff interacted for a day with front-line team
members. Initiatives identified and implemented, such as improved interactive voice
systems and more flexible installation times, are leading to quality of service
improvements for our customers. In 2012, we collected more than 1,000 improvement
ideas from team members from all levels of TELUS as part of an extensive fair process
exercise. The insights gained led to the development of four customer commitments that
will underpin our internal goals to serve our customers better:
• We take ownership of every customer experience
• We work as a team to deliver on our promises
• We learn from customer feedback and take action to get better, every day
• We are friendly, helpful and thoughtful.
Since 2010, we have implemented an array of initiatives to help improve efficiency and
reduce costs, including: simplifying or automating processes; simplifying organizational
structures through consolidation of functions and reducing organizational layers, which
includes workforce reductions; consolidating administrative real estate and reducing use
of real estate space, which includes vacating certain locations; decommissioning
uneconomic products and services; leveraging both business process outsourcing and
off-shoring to TELUS’ own international call centres; improving practices and processes
to help reduce incoming call centre volumes; leveraging roaming agreements to more
than 200 countries for better rates and customer experience; and increasing
transparency on smartphone subsidies that allow customers to upgrade mid-contract.