Three: Connecting directly to customers at home
As part of our 10 opinions for 2021 campaign we interviewed Paul Prior, Head of Digital at Three Ireland. Launched in 2005, Three is now one of Ireland’s largest leading mobile operators with 35.8% market share and 2.4 million customers (as of December 2019). At Three, they strive to provide its customers with a better-connected life through meaningful products, best in class service and a connected network experience.
Talking about digital, what was your biggest challenge in 2020? If there were no challenges, what were your biggest learnings?
The biggest challenge in 2020 was being able to respond quickly enough to the segments of users that would never have considered Digital as their primary channel. The biggest learnings we had was that some of the limitations we thought we had as a large enterprise were not limitations at all, we just needed the right catalyst for culture change – which our concern for customers during COVID-19 was. Luckily, the digital team was already agile, had excellent processes in place for delivering value quickly and worked in a culture that really cared about our response.
Where you are now, what do you think 2021 holds for you? In other words, what will your focus for 2021 be in terms of digital.
We are in an excellent place. We launched a new channel to the market called 3StoreConnect. This has allowed us to connect our staff in retail stores directly to customers and potential customers at home, so we can continue to give an in-store experience regardless of where our customers are. We launched 3OnAir which will allow us to engage our community in giving product demonstrations, and special discounts from the safety of their home. We also launched 3appointments within a week of lockdown, which allows our customers can now book appointments in our stores. For 2021 our focus from a digital perspective will be to continue to close the gap between digital and physical spaces (i.e. Phygical). We listened to the market with regard to the fact digital is becoming more and more essential to our connected lifestyles. It is no longer about one product or service but the combination of digital products and services that make up an ecosystem and add value to lives.
What company/companies inspire you in terms of their digital achievements? Why do you find it inspiring, and what initiatives do they do?
We take inspiration from a lot of sources. Our motto is to “forget everything you think you know, and be open to what others know”. We search wide and hard for people and organisations that inspire us; everyone from Bob Moesta and Clay Christenson, to Dan Cable at London business school and digitally native companies like B8ta, Amazon Go, ASOS, Alibaba, Adore Me, Birchbox, Casper, Outdoor Voices and Ikea amongst others. We seek inspiration from those who understand that Digital and Physical are complimentary; those who are looking at how customers want to hire companies from a digital perspective in the future and those that are actually enhancing people's lives.
Read about Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin Airport, Ibec, Samsung, VHI or learn more about the other opinions by downloading our report.
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