Taking experimentation on the road

To get wider input on generating new experiment ideas, Simon and the team run an experimentation roadshow. They ask different functions to share their most pressing customer challenges, and use this information to decide what experiments to run. This direct input from the wider business ensures that Sky’s service represents the true customer needs.

The experimentation team regularly visit Sky contact centres and sit with the teams taking calls from customers day in day out. By asking for agents' opinions on what they should be doing to improve the offerings, the team can run experiments on real time issues.

“No one knows more about customers than our call agents, because they speak to them every single day. We always show the agents the tests that we’ve run and how they’ve impacted the customer experience. Agents are excited about coming to us with ideas now because they see how it all works. Everyone’s being brought on the journey.” - Simon Elsworth, Senior Experimentation Manager, Sky

Having the ability to demonstrate quantified value in experiments taken from ideas from the business helps achieve buy-in from the wider organisation, from the executive team to contact centre agents. The experimentation team always circle back to the teams submitting ideas to talk through the results, explaining why certain ones worked, which didn’t, and what they learned. Highlighting the good results that came out of it and showing the agents how they’ve impacted Sky is key to creating an empowering, innovative environment.