Virgin Media 2006 Annual Report Download - page 16

Sales and Marketing
We use a variety of sales channels to sell our services to residential customers, including telesales, online and retail channels.
Telesales has been and will continue to be the single largest channel for Consumer product sales. We expect, however, growth in the
proportion of sales coming from online and retail channels.
Prior to the acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the Consumer business retail reach was limited to concessions and third party retail
channels. In 2007, Virgin Media will leverage Virgin Mobile’s retail experience to launch a series of Virgin Media−branded stores.
Virgin Mobile concessions within over 100 Virgin Megastores in the U.K. will also be rebranded Virgin Media and will offer a retail
point of sale for Virgin TV, Virgin Broadband and Virgin Phone services alongside Virgin Mobile.
These sales channels are supported by direct marketing initiatives and national and regional television and press advertising. We
use our residential customer database to identify the profiles of our customers so that we can design offers to match the needs of our
customers. As Virgin Media, we will increase the proportion of our marketing budget spent on marketing as we have the scale and
reach as a combined company to justify larger television and radio campaigns. Our offers will encourage customers to purchase new
services and upgrade their existing services.
Customer Service
We handle approximately 38 million customer service calls per year, and we service those calls through a combination of
in−house call centers and outsource partners. Our in−house call centers are located in the U.K. in Bellshill (Scotland), Manchester,
Sheffield and Dudley (England), where we employ approximately 2,300 call center staff. The call centers have been “virtualized” to
allow incoming calls to be routed to any of the four locations, allowing us to optimize call management.
Our outsource call center partners are paid on a pence per minute basis, and are tied directly to agreed service level targets being
achieved. Through our outsource partners, we have four more call centers which are also virtualized to optimize call management.
Two centers are located in the U.K. in Liverpool and Swansea, and two are located in India in Delhi and Pune.
Business
ntl:Telewest Business focuses on delivering the communications requirements of U.K. public and private sector organizations, as
well as those of other service providers. With the extended network reach enabled by the merger of NTL and Telewest, a wide
portfolio of voice and data products can now be delivered across the U.K.
While the Consumer division rebrands as Virgin Media, ntl:Telewest Business will continue to use the ntl:Telewest Business brand. Over the past 15
years, we have built significant brand equity through our strong relationships and sector−specific expertise.
Sales Channels
Our Business division sales channels are organized to address three distinct markets − business markets, the public sector and
service providers (formerly referred to as wholesale).
• Business Markets: This sales channel focuses on the requirements of the U.K. private sector, from small businesses to large,
national corporations. While growth has been predominantly delivered by managed services and wide area networks,
significant revenues are still derived from traditional voice solutions. The business markets sales channel is segmented by size,
with small and medium businesses supported by centrally located teams and larger organizations having regionally located
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Source: VIRGIN MEDIA INVESTM, 10−K, March 01, 2007