Top Manager in Discussion:  Frank Krause, CFO of Vodafone Hungary Zrt.

Vodafone Hungary Zrt. will soon have its first shop catering to English-speaking expats in Aréna Plaza. One of the key driving forces behind the change is CFO Frank Krause. We spoke to him about the reasons for the initiative and its prospects.

What gave you the idea of catering to the needs of expats living here?

Personal experience. At Vodafone we have a worldwide “customer day” when all our executives on every third Thursday in the month a customer-focused day, whether it be with a major client, a specialist retailer, in a shop or in the telephone customer support centre. On one of these I spent a whole day in our shop in Mammut. I soon observed a lack of English-speaking contact people and information materials. Of course all the sales assistants spoke a little German or English, but as soon as an expat client required more detailed help,
it became tricky.

What changes do you intend to make?

We will progressively furnish selected Vodafone shops that are highly frequented by expats with English-speaking staff, information materials and contracts, starting with our shop in Aréna Plaza.

Why there rather than in Buda?

For the simple reason that our Vodafone Outsourcing Centre is located in the immediate proximity of Aréna Plaza. Many of Vodafone’s roughly 300 employees who have close contact with many Vodafone companies in the world are expats. Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal are served from here and further countries will soon follow. The number of staff will increase to 500 and, naturally they will all have a Vodafone mobile phone. There is an increased need for English-speaking service in the nearby shop in Aréna Plaza, not least for our own foreign colleagues. Even before this we responded to that need in the shop with the relevant staff speaking foreign languages. In terms of this project, we were furthest ahead here. It was therefore an obvious choice to begin with that shop and to bring it up to the language level I envisage. Incidentally I know of friends and acquaintances who are willing to travel a little further to receive sensible advice in a language they understand. That won’t be necessary for long: our shop in Aréna Plaza is just our pilot project. Our most important shops for expats in Buda – in Mammut and in MOM Park – will soon follow suit.

One would expect that at an English-speaking international company like Vodafone it would be self-evident that English-speaking customers would not encounter difficulties…

That has been the case in the past, but only to a limited extent. For just under a year we have been developing it more widely.

Why was not so much care taken of foreign customers before?

During the development phase our focus was naturally fully on Hungarian customers, and as is usually the case it also required a struggle to turn towards “smaller” sectors. With our CEO György Beck,
myself, and my colleagues on the board of directors, expats now have a strong lobby. Another reason may have been that demand from expats in the shops has been low until now, but that is certainly related to the lack of information materials and language skills of the shop colleagues. However, once expats have realised that we can offer them effective help, then they will return and perhaps even tell their circle of acquaintances. That is why it is important for us to do our homework and to target expats with this level of service. It is important for customers to learn exactly where and how they can get in touch with us most easily and what specifically we can do for them.

Is the earlier neglect of this customer sector not related to the volume of the expat market?

No, I wouldn’t say so. We estimate that this is a market of over 100,000 people. Most of them are well-off, have an above-average demand for cross-border communications and are often in leading positions at their organisations. Particularly during a crisis period it would be a big mistake not to pay more attention to this attractive customer group. Expats are definitely important customers for us.

Nevertheless it first required a certain pressure from above. How did you manage to overcome internal resistance?

It certainly wouldn’t have succeeded with hierarchical methods, i.e. the “pressure from above” that you mention, and that is not our approach either. It was very important that we could make our case based on real experiences. Real-life scenarios are the most difficult to argue against. Taking this approach also prevented possible accusations that the idea was just a quirk of mine. It was then essential to remain on the ball; colleagues entrusted with implementing the project sensed that the issue is important to us. It is also important that all colleagues have an equal understanding of the goal and will in future act independently in their area of responsibility: trust plays a significant role in our company. If we are now increasingly focusing on expats, then for example, in the short-term, text messaging with them should ideally take place in English. That makes them feel more comfortable and avoids a lack of trust and unease. There are several other aspects like this which can’t and shouldn’t be initiated by the board alone. Nor is a top-down approach necessary because we have competent marketing and sales people for that.

What else has determined the success of the project in question?

The fact that I didn’t set about it with perfectionist demands. All too often even the best projects fail due to such an approach. In the case of our expat project it was important to break it down into simple, manageable and feasible subtasks. Contracts, price lists and brochures need to be translated. When hiring staff greater emphasis must be placed on English- and German-language skills. To overcome gaps in the language knowledge of existing customer service staff we have recently started to offer relevant language courses to our employees. In order that foreign customers will be able to instantly recognise who they can turn to in their native language, we will add flags of the languages spoken to the name badges of our colleagues working there, starting with the Aréna shop; a simple, but effective idea, that I observed our colleagues using in the Netherlands. As you can see all these are simple measures. Even if we cannot bring everything to the envisaged level straightaway, the main thing is that we have started. That is the most important thing. Existing shortcomings can then be progressively overcome. That is also the reason for initially concentrating on a single shop.

What else do you do for your foreign customers?

For a few months there has been the possibility of receiving help from an English-speaking colleague via our customer hotline. To do so you simply press the “9” button at the end of the announcement on our “1270” phone line and will be automatically put through to an English-speaking colleague. The queuing machines which give out waiting numbers in all Vodafone shops for some time have also offered German and English as menu languages. Another recent development is our red telephones, of which there is one in each of our shops. Foreign customers can call their given national customer service centre free of charge and receive help. The service, which was introduced last summer, has been very well received.

It sounds as though these things are not international standards, but are strongly tied to initiatives in the given countries.

Yes, that’s right. While for logical reasons almost everything is standardised on technical questions, local companies have a lot of room for manoeuvre in terms of sales. For example there are sometimes large differences in terms of rates packages, claims management and even marketing between the Vodafone countries, which of course is also down to local and cultural differences. That doesn’t mean that we don’t adopt methods that work well elsewhere. At Vodafone we live in a real best-practice culture. Many solutions are not imposed from above, but developed locally and adopted horizontally. On closer inspection of our Vodafone world there is a solution to almost every problem somewhere. You simply have to find it and – without false pride or attention seeking – be willing to adopt it. You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. There is nothing wrong with copying something that works well elsewhere. During my first six months in Hungary I had many people from Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany come to Hungary for the purpose of experience exchange and in that way I tried to use my previous Vodafone contacts here in Hungary.

I am surprised how strongly you – as CFO – are involved in the whole expat project!

That is certainly also connected to our very customer-focused Vodafone philosophy. Luckily we are not so large and bureaucratic that the highest management level runs the risk of losing sight of operative issues. For me, as CFO, it is natural to also advocate good ideas on the operative level or to take action to eradicate problems of which I learn. You are welcome to give my email address in your interview: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Readers who cannot solve a problem they have via our hotline or in our shops are free to contact me. That’s also what I’m here for.

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