Following consultation with the CWU, Consumer Service is rolling out new bonus arrangements. The Union has pushed to ensure that the bonus is simpler than previously and that members will be able to achieve on target bonus.

Background

Last year BT started reviewing the existing bonus metrics which were based on a basket of measures as they believed the bonus no longer reflected their Customer Care priorities.

The CWU have been in discussions with the company for a number of months and during this period BT Consumer agreed with the CWU to have been protecting our members’ bonus payments to make sure you received, at least, their on-target bonus.

BT is now rolling out the new arrangements. The CWU has ensured that There will be no change to payments immediately, and that BT will continue to protect your bonus at the current rate for at least July while they embed the new approach.

Let the CWU know if you run into any issues.

New Bonus Scheme

The bonus is much simpler than previous version and is based on only two metrics.

Eligibility and payments will be based on your First Contact Resolution (FCR) and Customer Satisfaction (NPS) performance and will set quarterly based on advisor performance.

FCR is the lead metric, weighted at 60% with NPS as the secondary metric, weighted at 40% and you’ll need to achieve at least Entry Level FCR to enter the scheme and be eligible for payment.

There will be four performance levels once you enter the scheme:

Entry Level: average performance of the top 80% of the advisorsGood Performance: average performance of the top 60% of the advisorsGreat Performance: average performance of the top 40% of the advisorsBrilliant Performance: average performance of the top 20% of the advisors

On target bonus will be awarded to all members that achieve or exceed the minimum level of performance (Entry Level).

The better your performance verses the minimum standard the more members will be rewarded.

An advisor must have a minimum of 30 eligible calls in order to be included for FCR bonus and 5 surveys to be eligible for an NPS bonus.

FCR eligibility will follow a transfer (providing it’s on the same routing platform) so the last advisor the customer talks to on their interaction journey will become eligible for evaluation.

Once a contact has been established as eligible the number will be monitored over the following 7 days to look for a repeat contact into the same mobile and broadband area. If the same number re-contacts within the 7-day window, the previous contact will be recorded as an FCR failure and the evaluation process starts again.

Issues Logged with Consumer

There a number of issues with the bonus that the CWU has logged with BT as follows.

Achieving On Target Bonus

Our agreements with BT specify that bonus arrangements should be achievable. As a result, we will be looking to ensure that the majority of advisors are able to achieve your on target bonus.

FCR – Definition of Repeat Call

The CWU raised concerns that FCR could disadvantage advisors as customer could ring back into any part of the business on other issues and this would impact advisors and also the period of the next call had an impact.

The company confirmed an inbound contact will be evaluated over a 7-day window to establish if a follow-up inbound interaction takes place only into the same product area e.g. mobile or broadband. So a call by a customer who called into mobile and then calls into broadband, will not count as a repeat.

However, if the same customer who has dealt with service then calls into sales within 7 days, this does count as a repeat. We have concerns over how this will operate in practice and discussions are continuing with BT.

If there are issues BT has advised members can have visibility and challenge FCR via the Performance Hub.

NPS – New Question Not Linked to Advisors

The Union remains concerned that the new bonus will use different NPS question to drive the bonus. At the moment the question is linked directly to the advisor. However, the new question below is not specific to the advisor, but the customer’s overall opinion of BT. It reads as follows:

“Based on your recent interaction, how likely are you to recommend BT to friends or family? Please score between 0 (unlikely) and 10 (highly likely)”

Our view that members could do everything they are expected to do but customers would still be upset if they did not get what they wanted, or they may score based on dissatisfaction with another part of BT.

BT Consumer provided historic data on this change that demonstrated there was no significant impact due to the change of question on the bonus outcome. As a result, we have agreed to review this on an ongoing basis.

If there are issues BT has advised members can have visibility and challenge NPS via the Performance Hub.

Moving On and Offline

It is clear that bonus will be impacted significantly if members are continually taken offline unnecessarily. Tania Caporaso (Director BT Customer Care) has assured us that if you are an online advisor that is your role and you should not be taken offline other than for business as usual training and coaching.

Team Element to the Bonus

We have pushed the idea that BT that should consider a team based bonus as we feel this would be more effective in a service environment. Consumer is still reviewing this for the future, and discussions are continuing.

Sick, Annual and Maternity Leave

The CWU is waiting to hear BT’s proposals for what will happen to bonus payments if members are sick or on annual leave.

The company has promised to agree how this will be handled with the CWU before anyone is impacted.

Next Steps

This is a big change in the way Service bonus has operated. Over the next month Consumer will be briefing the changes and hopefully your will get familiar with the new arrangements. Bonus earnings will be protected in July.

The bonus rules are being finalised and will shortly be shared.

As the new arrangements are deployed it is very important for all members to report any issues to their Team Manager as soon as they become apparent – also please let your local CWU know when issues occur. Real examples will strengthen our hand and help ensure we resolve your concerns.

Stand Together

There has been a series of bleak announcements from BT since the Covid outbreak. Attacks on redundancy terms; compulsory redundancy in Enterprise; unagreed TM1 grading in Connections; cuts to salary and allowances for all new hires in Consumer; cuts in offline work in Tech and Billing. On top of that there is the so called Better Workplace Programme which is designed to close sites.

There has never been a more important time to be in the CWU. We will all need to stand together in order to:

Fight for job securityDefend terms and conditionsDevelop proper career paths

Contact the CWU – Get Involved

If you want to get more involved in our campaigns or need assistance, please contact your local rep or Branch. If you don’t know which Branch you are in you can find out via www.cwu.org/contact-us.

If any of your friends or colleagues are not members of the CWU please encourage them to join us at www.cwu.org/join-us/join-online

Keep Safe

Nigel Cotgrove

CWU National Officer