Correspondence: Kate Boothby, Institute of Direct Marketing, The IDM, 1 Park Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 0AR, UK. E-mail: kateboothby@msn.com

¹is a senior consultant for the IDM. Her roles have included managing the Education Department, advising a college about its marketing database and acting as a key architect for the IDM 's online digital marketing course.

Received 4 July 2007.

Abstract

Vodafone enhanced the 'welcome' moment of truth for their customers, resulting in short and long term increases in revenue. Vodafone built up knowledge about their customers and applied it to create an optimum match between existing products and customers' requirements. Tailoring the welcome experience for each customer established a sound base on which to build a profitable ongoing relationship. Vodafone empowered front line telesales staff, ensuring their effectiveness by implementing an ongoing training programme and improving access to customer and product information. The welcome call campaign approach was flexible and continuously evolving, applying each new insight to improve the sophistication of Vodafone's customer relationship management.