The Brief
Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment and communications business. However, in recent years, the brand has found that many customers are leaving or threatening to leave in search of a better deal. To address this, Sky enlisted the help of Yes&Pepper, an ideas agency, to create an effective solution for increasing loyalty among customers and reduce its churn rates.
The Method
Yes&Pepper decided to build this tool on the key brand values of Sky: entertainment, excitement and inspiration. Many customers were proud of their long-term relationship with the entertainment and communications service, however they were also interested in exploring better deals with other service providers. Improving the customer service experience was the main goal on Yes&Pepper’s agenda, and that could only be achieved through training and motivating Sky’s front line staff (call centre, retail and engineers) to have quality conversations with customers. To pave the way for this level of service, Yes&Pepper worked across and with the Sky business to create a staff magazine entitled Sky Buddy.
This internal publication comes out six times a year and is also supported by an online version. The production values are of the highest order to mirror the quality of the brand’s offering. To entice the employees to read the magazine, Yes&Pepper first championed a member of the front line staff for each issue by making them the star of a cover that recreates a scene from a premier film or box set. Currently, the publication features hints and tips on reducing churn and having the best quality conversations with customers from its employees, alongside their names, job titles and photos. This portrays how much Sky values them and highlights their role in customers’ retention.
The Result
As a result, this strategy has helped create proud brand ambassadors among the Sky front line staff. Sky Buddy is now also used as the primary point of information for new starters across the business. Most importantly, Sky Buddy was instrumental in reducing churn down to less than 10 per cent, the first time it’s been that level for over 10 years.