U.S. Cellular head visits Knox; says company strategy is to “make life easier” for customers

U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon, left, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, center, and Regal Entertainment CEO Amy Miles at Women Today Expo lunch last week

Mary Dillon, the CEO of U.S. Cellular, visited Knoxville last week. Based at the company’s headquarters in the Chicago area, she primarily was in town to meet with the company’s 850 East Tennessee associates, but she also spoke to a business lunch as part of the News Sentinel‘s Women Today Expo. Held at the Knoxville Convention Center, the lunch attracted an impressive list of business and political leaders including U.S. Congressman John Duncan, Jr., Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, state Rep. Bill Dunn, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, City Councilman Marshall Stair, KUB CEO Mintha Roach, Regal Entertainment CEO Amy Miles, local First Tennessee Bank head Pam Fansler, Knoxville Urban League CEO Phyllis Nichols and more than 150 others.

U.S. Cellular's Molly McCabe and Congressman John Duncan

Dillon’s talk was an interesting combination of insights into U.S. Cellular, the wireless industry in general, and Dillon’s personal approach to life and health. Click here for a link to the News Sentinel’s coverage of Dillon’s visit by Carly Harrington. Here are some of her comments that caught my attention:

• With six million customers, U.S. Cellular is the seventh largest wireless carrier. Knoxville is home to its East Region operations, with 49 stores and a large customer care center located here. Under the leadership of Tom Catani, the East Region encompasses 10 states.
• Of U.S. Cellular’s customers, 31 percent currently have smartphones. “This is one of the fastest paced industries on the planet,” Dillon said. “And we have room for expansion as more people opt to get smartphones.” Interestingly, she noted that at the end of 2011, market penetration for digital devices was 102 percent. “There are more devices than there are adults,” she said.
• U.S. Cellular’s “major differentiator” is its culture, she said. When U.S. Cellular’s 9,000 employees participated in a voluntary survey, they overwhelmingly identified their number one priority as serving their customers. In East Tennessee, 100 percent of employees have identified “serving customers” as their number one priority for the past three years, she said.
• Dillon said that for the past two years, J.D. Power and Associates has dubbed U.S. Cellular a “customer service champion.” And also for the past two years, U.S. Cellular has been named the best major wireless carrier in a readers’ survey by Consumer Reports magazine, topping Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.
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  State Rep. Bill Dunn and Deanene Catani

  “There is no more important consumer product in people’s lives than their phones,” Dillon said. “If you forget your phone at home, you will go back and get it even if it means you will be late for a meeting.”

• In the wireless industry, customers fall into a variety of segments ranging from those who are extremely interested in having the latest technology to those who rarely use their phone and don’t use many of its functions. U.S. Cellular’s most important two segments fall midway between those two extremes. Those segments are called “family connectors” and “multi-tasking coordinators.” These are people, mostly women, Dillon said, “who use their phones to make their lives easier.” These two segments represent a third of U.S. Cellular’s customers.
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  Alan Carmichael and Kellie Szabo of U.S. Cellular

  Two years ago, U.S. Cellular launched its so-called “Belief Project,” which gives rewards to customers for using their phones. “We think it is better to give customers incentives to use your product rather than locking folks into contracts,” Dillon said. She showed two new U.S. Cellular ads that identify its competitors by name when comparing them to U.S. Cellular. The ads also emphasize that A.C. Nielsen has determined that U.S. Cellular’s customers are “the happiest customers in wireless.”

• U.S. Cellular will continue to emphasize its social media channels for communication, she said. “People love to have two-way relationships with companies,” she said. U.S. Cellular also is identifying its best customers and dubbing them “customer crew” members. They are incentivized to go out and recruit other customers to the company.
• She advised that in order to succeed, companies must remain “clear-eyed” at all times. “Celebrate what you are doing right,” she said. “But keep an eye out for what’s coming.”
• She advocates letting employees have flexible schedules when practical in order for them to maintain work-life balance. “Assume folks will do their jobs,” she said, even if they are not working traditional hours. She herself often sends e-mails late into the night, although she uses a program to make it appear as if they are sent during business hours.
• Personally, Dillon, the mother of four, says she is a fanatic about exercise and health; works long, crazy hours; and travels frequently. After their second child, she and her husband decided that he would be the stay-at-home parent, a situation that has worked well for them.

From left, Jackie Wilson, Mary Dillon and Molly McCabe

From left, Mintha Roach, U.S. Cellular's Jack Brundige and Phyllis Nichols

City Councilman Marshall Stair, left, with his father, Caesar Stair

From left, U.S. Cellular's Carter Elenz, Tom Catani and Tammy White of Leadership Knoxville

At the Moxley Carmichael table, from left, U.S. Cellular's Kristie Mifflin, Moxley Carmichael's Lauren Christ, and Carly Harrington from the News Sentinel.

Tami Hartmann, of Moxley Carmichael, and Michael Patrick, from the News Sentinel

Patrick Roddy of AC Entertainment chats with banker Pam Fansler.

The night before the lunch, U.S. Cellular hosted more than 800 of its employees at an “All Associates Gathering” at the Convention Center. It was part company pep rally, part dinner and part party. I snapped this photo, which continues to crack me up!

Tom Catani, in the 'Droid suit, poses with Mary Bogert, general manager of the Knoxville Convention Center, and Alan Carmichael. At the time this photo was made, we didn't know who was in the costume! Ha!

Note: U.S. Cellular, the News Sentinel, and the Knoxville Convention Center all are clients of Moxley Carmichael. But I would have written this blog post the same anyway! Just saying.