Rogers Communications CEO Guy Laurence today formally unveiled his plan to revitalize growth at the country’s largest communications firm. The strategy, dubbed Rogers 3.0, aims to improve the customer experience and use the company’s assets—which include everything from magazines (including, full disclosure, Canadian Business) to the Toronto Blue Jays, together in a more effective way. This afternoon Laurence held a roundtable to explain the issues he believed with the company struggles with, and how his plan will address them.
The reorganization is aimed at focusing on better customer service:
“We have neglected our customers over recent years. In some respects, it’s not a surprise. This is a pioneering company. This is a company that believes in innovation. And when you look at pioneers, one characteristic they have is they tend to neglect their home because they’re out there smashing down new frontiers…We’ve made many statements about the fact that we’re going to fix it. But one of the fundamental changes in the reorganization that we’ve done is that we’ve brought together all of the elements of customer experience—10,400 staff—into a single unit reporting to me, to change the way we serve our customers.”
Trying to improve customer service will also extend to business and enterprise customers, an area Laurence said had lacked some focus in the past:
“I believe that Canadian businesses are currently underserved by all operators. We are underrepresented in share, but in general, I believe there’s a number of services that are just not there that will increase productivity in Canadian companies. I’ve done this before in my previous job. In our reorganization, we have split out consumer from enterprise, and we believe there’s a growth story in enterprise.”
Finally, Laurence said Rogers’ stable of sports, broadcast and publishing properties will differentiate the company from its telecom peers:
“I believe content is the most important part of our mix…I don’t think there’s a piece of content we have today that can’t contribute towards the differentiation that we’re going to put toward the customers. I know you will instantly go to hockey, and hockey is of course our pride and joy, but let’s be clear. We’ve also got the Jays. I see many opportunities to use the Jays and other pieces of content to help us win the hearts and minds of our customers. Hockey will be a good example, on October the 8th, of how we deliver on using content across the company. I’m not going to tell you what we’re going to do. You’ll see.”
