EUROPE customer service reps , ux designer , programmer and texter ) working together to improve minor elements of the customer journey on a daily basis . By analysing customer behaviours , the team fix one ( sometimes tiny ) issue every day in what is a continual process largely left alone by management . The team has defined its own success KPI : happy website visitors .

Communication has been of critical importance , and this has come from the top . Bauersch adds : “ We launched a team day initiative several years ago , where teams can go and talk about trends in the industry and at Deutsche Telekom , and last year we focussed on digital culture , digitisation . There was a video message from us and discussions around how we can use new tools to improve customer service and why we start to sell our self services like products . As Gero mentioned , it starts at the top and it was important that we led those discussions .”

AI enhancement

The fourth and final major element of DT ’ s customer service digitisation involves the use of robotics and artificial intelligence to enhance processes .

Costing just € 6 an hour to run , the company already operates with 500 robots which have automated up to 90 percent of more than 20 internal processes , from screen navigation and data entry to copy and paste activities . At the customer facing end , DT ’ s first digital assistant is carrying out about 5,000 dialogues a week , helping customers to resolve problems without having to call a contact centre agent . The pilot chat bot has been successful so far , despite some initial caution from the likes of Weisenburger . “ In the early days we were not sure if our customers would be willing to use this , but it has been received very well . It is solving problems quickly and clearly .” But what if the robot cannot get it right 100 percent of the time ? Niemeyer

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