About 1,500 people have already completed this introductory programme, says Björn proudly. ‘Shop staff, call centre staff - everyone who has customer contact and is under direct contract with VZ gets their baptism of fire here. We also invite the team leaders of external players to attend, such as call centres that work for multiple clients. This helps to really increase their involvement as well.’
Getting pumped for a flying start
Björn is the owner of the introductory programme, which he has put together from start to finish and always begins with the words: ‘Fasten your seatbelts!’ It is a programme that quickly becomes very playful and energetic, he explains. ‘So the aim is to get people pumped for a flying start, so that they are fully convinced by VodafoneZiggo’s vision and to ensure that they really feel at home at our company. The introductory programme takes four days to complete and kicks off here at the Experience Centre.’
Fully convinced by VodafoneZiggo’s vision
‘Fun and progress with every connection’: that’s VodafoneZiggo’s motto. ‘To be able to keep up with this as an employee, you have to understand what this means, both for you personally and for the customer.’ This is why the first stop in the Experience Centre is always the film in which employees explain what this motto means for them. Then I present myself by showing them a photo of me with my daughters. I am actually a donor father, with two children from two mothers, who are friends of mine. So I’m their dad but am not in their lives every day but every evening we still open up FaceTime and go through the day together. Without technology, this would never have been possible. This is what fun and progress with every connection means for me.’
After telling his personal story, Björn asks people to share what fun and progress mean for THEM. This sometimes leads to beautiful revelations: ‘Just recently, one female participant revealed she was adopted and had recently found out who her mother was. They now contact each other every day online. Another could be a fanatical gamer who now has friends all over the world. Everybody has their own story to tell. And when you connect this with our technology then you can really understand our vision. And when you understand it, you can convey it to someone else.’
What does our motto mean for society? ‘To answer this we enter a darkened isolated room, where a spectacular show demonstrates how technology connects the entire city and society. It’s an experience that always makes an impression on you, and one that completes the picture of the whole VodafoneZiggo vision and mission - from employee to customer to society.’
Playful, fast and exciting
Experience - that’s what Björn keeps focussing on the rest of the day. He continues with his programme in the Future Mapping Room. ‘The walls in this big room are magnetic, which I use to play a game about what our motto means for our brands and products. How is this reflected in Vodafone’s operations? And in Ziggo’s? And what are the advantages if you are a customer of both?
Do you also have a break during this busy day? ‘Of course we do - we have a nice lunch in the VodafoneZiggo restaurant, which is also a feast for the eyes. This is also a good time to experience all the other features of the Experience Centre. The hologram, the Internet of Things experience, the Mini ZiggoDome: they see and experience all this - and more.
In a brief workshop, we look in more detail at the products and services of Vodafone, Vodafone Business, Ziggo and Ziggo Zakelijk. What are all the things they have to offer? How do they relate to each other? And how do you connect them so that we get more ‘converged customers’, i.e. customers who use both Ziggo and Vodafone?
The final lesson
‘To round things off, we discuss the value of brands, again in a playful way. ‘What does a brand mean to you?’ We have a frank discussion about all the different aspects of this topic, but in the end it always boils down to the core issue: yes, you’ve guessed it, the experience. Just one bad experience as a customer and your whole image is ruined. This shows that in your contacts with customers, you play an all-important role, namely that for this customer, in your work it is YOU who is VodafoneZiggo. This, possibly the most important lesson of all, underpins the rest of the onboarding process - as well as your career at VodafoneZiggo.’
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