Customer Experience

Loyal, satisfied customers are the soul of any enterprise, and especially so in the competitive and rapidly evolving telecommunications industry. This is why we strive to offer products and services that are easy and intuitive to use, and provide customer interactions as straightforward and hassle-free as possible.

Customer service is the essence of Bell Canada. We regularly measure customer expectations of our performance and implement improvements as quickly and as often as we can.

DELIVERING GALILEO

This is a company-wide program designed to save costs by simplifying and enhancing the customer experience. In the Residential segment, Galileo aims to unify the customer experience across all product lines and eliminate the costs of complexity associated with multiple systems and processes.

In the Business segment, Galileo aims to deliver to customers a streamlined service offer based on IP, thereby eliminating the costs of multiple data networks and related processes.

Our goal is to face customers as one company, offering a single point of contact and one source for all of our customers' communications - at home, at work, on the go.

More info on Galileo

2005 CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MILESTONES

Residential Segment

• Over 22% of households served by Bell in Ontario and Québec subscribed to three or more of our products (a combination of local wireline, Internet, video and long distance services), while nearly 60% subscribe to two or more products.
• 2.3 million customers enjoyed the benefits of a single bill for their wireline, Internet and video services, representing a more than two-fold increase since the end of 2004. At the end of 2005, we started migrating Bell Mobility customers who already receive a single invoice for their other Bell Canada services to One Bill.
• Launched two new services for Sympatico^TM Internet customers:
  • Emily^TM, an online virtual customer services agent who interacts with customers needing help
  • Internet Care, an online and phone support service for popular Internet-related products
• Over 50% of our customer service agents have access to OrderMax, our new order entry tool that allows customers to order any Bell product through any channel. The scope of OrderMax was expanded to include ExpressVu^TM and roll-out continues in 2006.
• Launched the beta site for our new bell.ca website to the general public. The new website enhances the customer experience through a simplified and consistent page layout, a single shopping process for any of our products, an improved search engine and easy access to online bills.
• Launched Privileges Program to recognize and show appreciation for customers who have several services with Bell. Provides direct routing to a dedicated team of customer service representatives whenever they call 310-Bell.

Business Segment

• 656 Enterprise customers were enrolled in Service Promise, our commitment to provide customers with a clearly defined and consistent level of service for delivering connectivity services.
• The Online Bill Manager tool, which allows business customers to create a single view of several sources of billing data for reporting purposes, was deployed to 65% of Enterprise customers at the end of 2005 compared to 15% in the same period in 2004.
• Bell moved up the ranks from 3rd to 2nd place* in being identified as an IT provider by small and medium businesses (SMBs), strengthening our position as Virtual Chief Information Officer to SMBs.
• The Community of Interest pilot project in 2005 demonstrated strong improvements in SMB customer satisfaction and revenues. In the pilot, sales representatives, technicians, and support personnel formed part of a single virtual team to better serve the customer.
• High Speed Help Desk enhancements were made and the order management process was simplified to reduce the time between order placement and installation.

*Source: From Bell Market Knowledge Centre's Market Tracking, a monthly telephone survey of 750 SMBs in Ontario and Québec.

More info on Customer Experience

QUALITY OF SERVICE

In 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) introduced the Retail Quality of Service (Q of S) Rate Adjustment Plan to ensure that telephone companies maintain quality service to customers as part of an evolution to a less regulated environment.

The 13 Q of S indicators mandated by the CRTC for retail customers include items commonly required to ensure access to telephone service in both urban and rural areas, such as repair appointments met, access to business office, out-of-service trouble reports cleared within 24 hours, etc. Telephone subscribers will receive an annual credit on their telephone bill when their telephone company's annual average result for a Q of S indicator is below the CRTC standard.

For the period January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005, the CRTC standard for several indicators was not met on an annual average basis as a direct result of a labour strike at our subsidiary, Bell Technical Solutions (formerly Entourage). Since this situation meets the criteria stipulated by the CRTC as an exclusion (i.e. force majeure) to the Q of S Rate Adjustment Plan, Bell Canada has requested that the CRTC approve its application of December 5, 2005 to exclude below-standard strike-related results.

Retail Vision

Retail Vision is the undertaking by the Bell Consumer Group (Residential market, Bell Mobility and BDI) to improve the average sales processing times in our retail stores by 50%, from 30 minutes per sale to 15 minutes. Improved processing times by management teams over an 18-month period greatly simplified the in-store experience, improved sales service and enhanced the customer relationship. Retail Vision has become the customer service standard in our retail outlets allowing Sales Consultants to provide optimal service to our customers.

CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS

The total number of customer connections increased 4.7%, or 1.3 million, to 27.9 million by the end of 2005. This was due mainly to a 21.4% increase in the number of high-speed Internet subscribers, a 14.9% increase in the number of video subscribers and a 10.5% increase in the number of wireless subscribers. Partly offsetting this subscriber growth was a 2.5% decrease in the number of phone lines.