It's Always About the Customer

“If there’s one thing we want people to know,” says Darrell Senior, director of the Fort Wayne Plant Service Center, After Hours Dispatch, and Buried Service Wire for Frontier Communications, “it’s that customers are our focus. We are really passionate about our customers.”

Every day, each customer service consultant in the contact center at Frontier Communications handles 30 to 50 calls. No two are ever the same, and each one deserves the same deliberate care as the last. A passionate commitment to customer service is the key ingredient that keeps things running smoothly.

“This is not a job for the faint of heart,” says Luke Stroh, director of the Fort Wayne Residential Contact Center. “Our people wear a lot of different hats.”

Dave Meier, manager of the Fort Wayne Commercial Contact Center, agrees. “Our contact center consultants have to reset after every single customer they talk to. It’s hard,” he says.

Calls run the gamut of topics, and Frontier consultants have to stay professional while multitasking. “You really have to be in tune with your customer to know how to respond,” declares Meier.

When necessary, consultants have been empowered to go off script to find the right solution for each customer. Senior explains, “In order to take care of the customer, we do what we need to do.” 

Even though it is the front line representatives who are often in the spotlight, a full cadre of back office and field support keeps them operating effectively. Those teams have to be just as customer-focused and responsive in order to ensure the positive resolution of each customer interaction. From scheduling and completing service, to credit checks and payment resolution, to management escalations, a single call may touch several different departments.

“There’s a lot of teamwork that goes into it,” emphasizes Senior, whose own dispatch team interacts regularly with contact center consultants, often while the customer is still on the line. “I like to see it as a transition where the contact center reacts to a customer’s needs and then reaches out to other departments.”

Once a call is resolved, follow-up is critical to the process. Lance Welker, manager of Collections for Indiana and Frontier’s Outbound Welcome Team, outlines next steps: “We call the customer three days after an installation to make sure everything is running properly, and again after the first bill, to ensure understanding and satisfaction.”

The desire to “get it right” that fuels every interaction stems from the fact that Frontier employees are part of the communities they serve. Not only are 100 percent of Frontier’s call centers located in the United States, they are also located in or near the markets where they operate, including a major facility in Fort Wayne.

“We take a lot of pride in the fact that when someone calls in from Indiana, they’re talking to an Indiana employee,” explains Stroh. “Our employees live here. They know people from the community. Their children go to school with customers’ children, so they want to go the extra mile.” 

This robust system of customer care did not evolve by accident. Internal teams meet regularly to proactively evaluate resources, analyze metrics, fine-tune processes and engage employees. At the end of the day, though, only one measure truly counts: customer satisfaction. 

“How we perform in the eyes of the customer is what will help us retain that customer,” says Senior. “We ask ourselves, ‘What did we do to make this customer feel important to us?’”

From the front lines, to the management staff, to the executive team, Frontier’s commitment to service runs deep. Managers often call customers or go into the field to ensure the satisfactory resolution of issues. “We don’t just manage from our offices,” stresses Meier. “Every one of us will pick up the phone to call a customer.”

As posters around the Frontier office emphasize, it’s always about the customer.

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