Vodafone Tackles Everyone’s Biggest Bugbear with Just Ask Once Promise

You know what it’s like. You’ve been sitting on hold to customer care, after being pushed from department to department, telling five different people the same problem. The call ends and the next week you haven’t heard anything and you have to get on the phone again to chase… and the whole merry-go-round starts again.

UK telco brand Vodafone, part of VodafoneThree, is hoping to put an end to all of that with its Just Ask Once promise, a new proposition that should take the stress out of accessing customer support. It represents a bold transformation in the brand's customer experience. According to Vodafone, 'Just Ask Once' means that customers will see one person deal with their query until it's fixed. And if an issue can't be sorted straightaway, that customer service person will proactively message customers with updates, so they don't feel the need to chase. Putting its money with its mouth is, Vodafone has promised that if customers can't be provided this service, they can leave with no exit fee.

“At its heart this proposition is about making things simple and easy for the customer. We know some of the biggest bug bearers are waiting on hold, repeating the problem to multiple different people, and the need to chase for an update,” says Maria Koutsoudakis, brand director at VodafoneThree. “The service allows the customer to speak to a dedicated agent, through the My Vodafone app, and that same person will follow the query through from start to finish, removing these well-known issues. This required an end to end review of the operating systems that we manage our customer service through, from the technology that supports the agents and how agents workflow is managed.”

It’s a big unlock in terms of the customer journey and experience, and one that pulls together the whole business. But, says Maria, it builds on a customer-centric strategy that’s been at the heart of Vodafone's approach for some time.

“Putting the customer, the people and business of this nation, at the heart of everything we do has been a core pillar of our strategy for a few years now and a key driver of our growth,” says Maria. “We believe this will help set us apart for customers and future customers, and it will level-up customer care and give them what we believe is the most convenient and reliable support in the market.”

In order to communicate this promise, Vodafone has launched a new campaign featuring spokesperson Roman Kemp. For Maria, what’s most interesting about this campaign is the simplicity of it.

“It’s the simplicity of the campaign. It’s our first campaign where Roman Kemp appears without him interacting with other people,” says Maria. “We specifically chose to do this, so the execution reflected the simplicity of the idea – which is its simple and easy to get queries resolved. Every part of the execution is designed to leave the viewer, the customer, understanding what the message is, and having experience and advert which in itself is simple and easy to understand.”

Ultimately, the team hopes that this new promise, customer care strategy and campaign will level up the public’s perception of the brand. “We hope it will continue to build our reputation as a customer centric brand, who values their customers, and is easy, simple, and reliable to engage with.”