When two enterprise companies come together, there are bound to be challenges. That’s especially true when they serve more than 100 million customers combined. And to complicate things, companies are still grappling with challenges posed by the enduring pandemic.
Such was the case with the merger of telecommunications companies T-Mobile and Sprint. When the union was made official in April 2020, the new company, now under the T-Mobile moniker, faced the daunting task of migrating its legacy Sprint customers to the T-Mobile network. Needless to say, this ongoing process requires a lot of customer support.
That’s where Rasha Alkhatib steps in. As a customer experience manager on T-Mobile’s customer loyalty team, one of Alkhatib’s responsibilities is to support these former Sprint customers as they transition to T-Mobile’s systems. By turning to Slack as their productivity platform – a central place for connecting people, information and tools – Alkhatib and her team have improved transparency, automated routine work and improved the overall customer experience.
Turning potential silos into seamless information-sharing
T-Mobile had already been using Slack as its productivity platform, but the combination of the pandemic and the merger made the platform even more critical for its service team. As the team found themselves triaging issues for an influx of new customers – while working remotely – Slack became their hub for collaborating and sharing knowledge. It’s also their go-to tool for keeping one another updated, which is one of Alkhatib’s core areas of focus.
‘A big part of my job is reporting what my team is working on to our manager,’ Alkhatib says. ‘We support around 1,000 people, so it’s very important for our manager to know what projects we’re on and where we are in terms of completion.’ With channels, digital spaces for collaborating, Alkhatib has an organised and transparent record of her team’s work, which she can surface to her manager as needed.
‘I always felt I was chasing after people, trying to get the information that I needed from them. Now everyone has become more productive and efficient. It’s a win-win.’
Automating work frees up more time for focusing on the customer
In March 2021, Alkhatib discovered she could automate the gathering and reporting of her team’s information with Slack’s Workflow Builder, a no-code tool for creating workflows. The first workflow she encountered was built by a tech-savvy colleague, so, while curious, she was also slightly intimidated. But after he walked her through the process, she decided to give it a go.
Alkhatib built a workflow that allowed her coworkers to easily access a shared document in Slack. Once it’s shared, they can update the document with their project’s relevant details and completion status. The workflow breaks down information silos and provides her manager with better visibility into how T-Mobile’s customers are being supported.
It also frees up precious time for Alkhatib so she can focus on more strategic work. ‘I always felt I was chasing after people, trying to get the information that I needed from them,’ she says. ‘Now everyone has become more productive and efficient. It’s a win-win.’
Building Slack workflows with ease, no coding required
While Alkhatib doesn’t consider herself a technical person, she says it was easy to build the Slack workflow. She created her first one in just 10 minutes. ‘One thing I really love about Slack is that it’s built for anyone,’ she says. ‘I did not know what a workflow was prior to March of this year. But it’s truly been a lifesaver for me, just how much it’s helping me be more efficient and productive.’
With her newfound confidence in creating workflows, Alkhatib is already embracing Workflow Builder’s flexibility to automate more processes for T-Mobile’s customer service team. For example, she recently created a new workflow for sharing peer recognition. Teammates simply enter the person’s name and a few details about their accomplishments in the workflow form.
Once the form is submitted, Slack sends the information to Alkhatib, who uses it to recognise her colleagues during their monthly all-hands meetings. ‘Obviously, recognition is very important,’ Alkhatib says. ‘And who does not want to feel valued or appreciated for their work?’
