Christian Lauterbach – Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is a telecommunications corporation operating in more than 50 countries around the globe, with headquarters in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe. Christian Lauterbach works as a Senior Expert in Marketing Strategy Implementation and Market Research at Deutsche Telekom, with a special focus on the German market.

In his role as a strategic market researcher, he has a responsibility to ensure that the customer experience is an integral part of the company’s marketing strategy. Christian has been working with Deutsche Telekom since 2006. Starting in communication research, over the years he has witnessed and been part of the transition of Deutsche Telekom from a traditional telephone company into a service company.

SERVICE QUALITY AS A KEY DRIVER FOR BRAND GROWTH

When asked about the main drivers for Brand Growth, Christian described the particularities of the industry Deutsche Telekom is operating. “Telecommunication services are not as present in peoples’ life as classic consumer goods are. Our emotional links to the customer are experienced on smartphones or other devices like notebooks, PCs or TVs. Some simply say we are responsible for ‘where the cable comes out of the wall’ in our customers’ homes or offices. But instead of being the provider of a ‘dumb pipe’ we are aiming to be positioned as a ‘smart enabler’. This is reflected in our claim ‘Life is for sharing’, in German it is ‘Erleben, was verbindet’.”

“Our key objective is to turn our customers into our fans. Offering excellent service quality is our main ingredient for Brand Growth.”

Service quality refers to the network quality and the quality of our customer service, be it in the shop, on the phone or online. Deutsche Telekom is striving to offer an excellent network experience and best-in-class service. Therefore, we invest high amounts of money in our network expansion. We have established ‘After Customer Contact Interviews’ for our customer service. For both activities, we regularly win awards and seals of approval by external auditing organisations such as Stiftung Warentest or Connect.”

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR A TELECOMS COMPANY

“What is the ‘Moment of Truth’ for Deutsche Telekom? In my opinion, there is not a single ‘Moment of Truth’. I would rather describe it as a process with different entry points to excite our customers. For example, since the beginning of Covid restrictions, a lot of people started to spend more time in their homes. During the day they worked remotely in their ‘home offices’ and in the evening they wanted to indulge in entertainment at home, watching series or movies. All of a sudden they recognized that internet quality at home is a crucial aspect in their lives.” Christian further concludes, “For telecommunication services, there is rather that ‘mess-up moment’, i.e. when a network does not perform as expected, which is way more crucial than a marketed ‘Moment of Truth’ you would typically think of.”

TECHNOLOGY AS A KEY DRIVER

“Furthermore, disruptive technology is a key driver for Brand Growth for Deutsche Telekom. A great example is when Apple launched the first iPhone our market dynamics massively changed. Established players like Nokia vanished and new ones like Samsung showed up.”

“Deutsche Telekom partnered with Apple from the beginning, therefore we could participate in the success story of Apple’s disruptive new technology.”

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON A RISE

“An aspect which has become more and more important for our Brand Growth is corporate social responsibility matters. Deutsche Telekom is committed to preserving the environment and taking a stand on critical social developments. We help shape the present and the future and have already taken important steps in this respect: We support the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius and play our part in achieving this target through our own eco- and resource-friendly initiatives.”

Concerning critical social developments, Christian adds that such matters have been applied to the corporate communication strategy of Deutsche Telekom. “We are fully aware that our networks not only empower social interaction between people, they also enable the exchange of opinions about any topic you can think of. We feel a responsibility to make our attitude clear on how this should be done. In 2020, we launched the first major campaign against online hate speech called ‘Gegen Hass im Netz’. And we ensure even greater diversity among the actors in our campaigns.”

Christian concludes: “You will experience this even more in the future. We will link both topics, brand purpose and brand benefits, even more closely with each other. We as Deutsche Telekom have defined this as one of our guiding principles. We truly believe that the best network is also a good network.”

“We are fully aware that our networks not only empower social interaction between people, they also enable the exchange of opinions about any topic you can think of. We feel a responsibility to make our attitude clear on how this should be done.”