With almost 400,000 private sector businesses[1] in the West Midlands, Vodafone UK is putting itself at the heart of the business community with specialist, local teams serving the area from early April this year. Vodafone will be organising its business account management, customer services and network teams regionally to ensure it is able to better service its customers where they operate.
The West Midland’s business population is thriving, 26,000 new firms launched in 2014 alone, with Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire reporting 45 per cent five-year survival rates for start-ups compared to the national average of 41.7 per cent.[2] The region’s businesses also employed more than 2 million people in 2015 and contributed almost £300 billion in turnover to the UK economy.[3]
Some 3,340 businesses in the West Midlands each employ more than 100 people with the majority of businesses in the region spanning a range of industries from Professional, Scientific and Technical to Retail, Production and Construction.[4]
To support the dynamic business landscape and the region’s private and public sector organisations, Vodafone UK is stationing dedicated teams of its business specialists in the area. Michele Metcalfe, Head of Wales and West Midlands Regional Business and her team will provide grass roots support based on local knowledge and Vodafone’s national footprint, to companies and public sector organisations. Vodafone experts will be based in and around Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Telford, Worcester and Hereford. Vodafone also plans to work with local enterprises by facilitating networking and business skills events in Vodafone’s high street stores and partnering with local industry and trade bodies.
Phil Mottram, Vodafone UK Enterprise Director, said: “We’re changing how we do business, putting more of our people where our customers are and where they run their businesses. We know that being able to respond quickly to our customers and being available when needed, is really important to organisations of all sizes up and down the country. Our new approach will enable us to do this better than ever before and see these local business advisers and support teams become an integral part of local business communities across the private and public sector.”
It was the launch of a highly successful pilot programme in Leeds last year, and the subsequent success with the deployment of regional teams with local knowledge to support smaller businesses across the UK, which led the company to identify and acknowledge the importance of going local when it comes to doing business.
“That pilot saw customer satisfaction rates significantly increase,” added Phil. “And we were able to get to know our customers even better and run or support events within local business communities. This move to work with SMEs, mid-sized and even larger businesses, as well as local public sector organisations within a defined local area, will see us become more responsive and help us to transform the relationship we have with our customers and enable us to become a trusted, local partner.”
To complement the new regional teams, Vodafone has also created a dedicated Major Business team which will operate across the UK. This team will support and service the UK’s largest organisations with a nationwide presence, as well as the public sector’s Central Government and Defence and Security organisations and departments.