Wealth & Finance International - Business Awards 2015

Business Awards 2015 10 XLN Telecom Best SME Telecoms Provider – UK Customer Service Excellence Award - UK Driven by the mantra of, ‘Champion small businesses in every way we can. Treat customers fairly, and strive to find immediate solutions to any issues.’ XLN weighed in on what winning this award means to them and what they believe to be the keys to their sustained success. Company: XLN Telecom Address: 21-24Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4QP Telephone: 0344 880 5939 It’s great to be recognised by the industry for our continued effort to provide the services we do to our customers, and to help reshape and revolutionise our industry. Maintaining a high standard entails that every member of our staff, from CEO and founder Christian Nellemann down, holds to the belief that being the best means that we don’t just compare ourselves within our industry but we compare ourselves to the best in every industry. This means our team know what is expected of them. They know the Company Directors will roll their sleeves up and practice what they preach. This adds to our culture of working harder than the competition, knowing that it won’t be easy but it will pay off with a better experience for our customers. We know that if we treat our customers better than anyone else, they are more likely to become advocates of our busi- ness and recommend us to other small business owners. We ask ourselves everyday: “How can we make this product or service better for our customers and better than the competition?” As technologies develop and change, opportunities to build a better customer experience open up. We constantly strive to use technology to improve our customer service. Our industry is extremely competitive. We understand that every customer has a choice, and we are grateful they’ve singled-out XLN to be their sup- plier. It’s an honour to be recognised for putting them first. Our Trust Pilot rating has improved to great with a score of 7.6 out of 10 which far exceeds the nearest competition. We service over 130,000 small businesses in the UK with phone, broadband, energy and card payment solutions. We lead the industry in two major areas: price, where we guarantee we will not be beaten, and customer service, where we have world class KPIs. It is our understanding of the pressures of running a small business that really makes a difference. Our phone policy is an example of this, we answer the phone within 3 rings and have less than 0.5% abandoned calls and 88% first call resolutions. We know that small businesses simply don’t have the time to sit on hold and wait. Everything we do is focused on helping small businesses in every way we can. We call them our ‘Heroes of the Economy.’ They drive 99.1% of the UK econo- my, and we know that every pound we can save them is a pound that they can inject back into their business to help it grow. Standing shoulder to shoulder with 130,000 small businesses, our combined purchase power helps to create market leading savings. When those savings are added up across all of the essential services we offer, our customers can start to make some meaningful savings compared to the large companies who only focus on one category. It’s our belief that small businesses have been paying too much and receiving poor service for too long. And we want to change that. Small businesses drive 99.1% of the UK economy, so it’s hugely important that we do everything in our power to support them. We know that every pound that we save a small business, is a pound they can inject back into their business. This helps the business grow, and helps the British economy go from strength to strength. The better the economy, the more growth, and more growth means that customer base can grow, which in turn gives us more purchasing power. It’s a virtuous circle. London is a perfect base for building relationships and partnerships within the commodities sector and Sheffield has proven an amazingly rich talent pool, helping us grow our team - from service and sales roles, to support roles such as IT, training and HR. We hold CEO updates in both locations so that all employees hear and understand the company’s vision and mission straight from the CEO. We hold regular employee engagement meetings with staff representatives to understand the needs of our team, and how we accommodate them. This helps to create an atmosphere where we all take ownership and there is no ‘passing the buck’ or giving customers excuses. We are honest and open and encourage our staff to proactively bring new ideas/improvements to the table. Our industry, outside of XLN, is in constant decline in terms of customer service and overall customer experience. The industry simply does not invest in it. Everyone has a story about how badly they have been treated by their bank, or their broadband provider, or their energy firm. That’s why we’re on a mission to change all that for good. In the last year alone we have set up an entire new office in Sheffield with new functioning support and sales teams. We’ve doubled the size of our whole team. We intend to build on that in the next 12 months. We have the foundations firm- ly in place. Next year is about growing from strength to strength, looking at every way, no matter how large or small, we can improve our customer experience at every touch point.