BT: doing well by doing good

An important element of this case study is how involved the employees became. Doing the right thing can have an impact well beyond the initial goals, a view echoed by Andrew Marsden, Category Director, Britvic:

'The old adage that managers are there to do things right but directors are there to do the right thing was never more applicable than to CSR. ... CRM can echo the values of the company to the benefit of the shareholder, can cement employee loyalty and commitment, and frankly do a great deal of good for the recipients: a three-way win.'

BT: PARTNERING WITH THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE FOR THE TSUNAMI APPEAL

Snapshot: BT's partnership with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) helped support hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia affected by the tsunami in December 2004, and boosted the company's reputation and social responsibility credentials.

Key Insights

• BT's approach to corporate social responsibility highlights how developing a coherent and consistent strategy can benefit both sides of a partnership.
• It can also have a significant impact on both customer and employee perceptions.

Summary

BT is a leading provider of communications solutions serving customers throughout the world. Its principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecoms services, and broadband and internet products and services. Group revenue in 2005 was £18.6 billion.

One of the major aspects of the company's CSR programme is its relationship with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a consortium of 13 UK humanitarian agencies. The value of this partnership was clearly demonstrated following the tsunami disaster.

Thanks to BT's efforts, DEC was able to keep its donation website working despite initially crashing because of the enormous number of calls. BT also supplied other forms of help, including sending skilled employees to the affected areas and helping DEC with its call centres. Over £350 million was raised (six times more than any other DEC appeal).

While not actively seeking PR coverage from the disaster, BT received record coverage worth over £7.5 million, reaching an audience of 43 million-plus – the most positive press coverage BT has ever received on a single issue. The company estimates that CSR performance accounts for over 25% of the image and reputation element of customer satisfaction.

BT and Corporate Social Responsibility

BT supports all major UK telethons, including Comic Relief, Children in Need and DEC appeals. It provides network management, telephony, call centres, volunteers, fundraising and PR. Using communications technology, BT can help raise millions of pounds through the telethons, doing so in the most efficient way possible through the telephone and online. Support of DEC is a key element of BT's CSR programme.

DEC, (supported by BT since it was established,) is a consortium of 13 UK humanitarian aid agencies. DEC disburses funds to member agencies best placed to deliver effective and timely relief to people most in need. BT's support of DEC is particularly important to the charity as it is its only strategic corporate partner.

The key objectives of this partnership are to:

• help DEC raise millions
• deliver strategic support
• set up call centres within 72 hours and recruit 120+ telephone volunteers
• enhance BT's reputation.

As the appeals are reactive to disasters, this is sporadic and so DEC's profile is not as high as that of other telethons. However, since the tsunami appeal, DEC's profile has been hugely increased. For example, in December 2004/January 2005 the tsunami appeal raised an incredible £350 million. DEC relies on broadcasters to donate air time to promote appeals, usually during or immediately after news programming.

BT has built systems to enable DEC to respond immediately to international disasters. The company is in constant contact with DEC, providing technological and strategic advice enabling appeals to run ever more efficiently.

Stakeholder research supports BT's strategy. In the autumn of 2005, for example, research found that 57% of stakeholders said they would like BT to donate products/services free to charitable causes. The three leading areas BT stakeholders believed most appropriate for BT to support are communication skills (36%), helplines (36%) and technology (34%), thus confirming BT's position in supporting telethons, and particularly DEC appeals.

BT internal audiences are also regularly updated. For example, in February 2005:

• BT Today (BT's internal monthly newspaper) gave over the whole paper to the tsunami appeal. This was sent to BT's 102,000 employees and 177,000 pensioners and placed in call centres reaching tens of thousands more agency people
• the intranet site included 35 items on the tsunami with 94,551 hits in December 2004 and January 2005
• BT Today produced a large follow-up feature in the February 2006 edition
• the support of DEC was cited in both the BT and DEC annual reports.

In addition, BT has employed its PR agency, Harrison Cowley, to coordinate the media with DEC and offer issues management. BT's partnership with DEC won the Overall Excellence Award at the Third Sector Awards 2005, in addition to winning the category of corporate sponsorship – the campaign has also been awarded a Big Tick by Business in the Community. This led to features on the partnership within marketing and national media.

A Quick Response to the Tsunami Appeal

After the tsunami appeal was launched on 30 December, BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland rang leaders at the top 20 FTSE companies while on a personal engagement abroad to encourage them to contribute, pledging a donation of £500,000 from BT. In addition, more than £100,000 was raised via internal fundraising, including payroll giving.

BT traditionally handles pledges to DEC through the telephone. The BT call centre that takes DEC pledges is usually set up within 72 hours. However, the centre for the tsunami appeal was set up in record time, within 24 hours and over a holiday period. BT also provided 150 volunteers to take calls. As BT does not profit from appeals, the company gives back monies made from each call. Given the huge volume of calls for the tsunami appeal, this involved a sizeable donation.

On the morning of the appeal launch, thousands of people logged on to the DEC website to donate. The provider that managed the site could not handle the unprecedented response and the site collapsed. BT stepped in following an urgent DEC request and within 4.5 hours had delivered an alternative robust solution, thus preventing the potential loss of millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of donors.

The cost of this eDonate platform, now a permanent solution for DEC, was more than £100,000, excluding the time of the technical team to set up and manage the system.

BT's contribution didn't end there, however. Two teams of BT engineers were dispatched to the tsunami area, to install four satellite earth stations to provide voice and data communications. This opened vital communication channels for aid agencies, local people, and for families and friends to make contact. Over 150 BT people were involved in this initiative, with a BT press officer sent to help with communications. The total cost of installing the satellite earth stations, including people and equipment, was £1.5 million.

Finally, due to the huge public interest in the tsunami, the DEC switchboard was jammed with calls. As the BT Tower call centre had been established, BT offered to re-route calls to volunteers, who were briefed and supervised by DEC staff. Without this support, DEC would have had to pay agency staff to handle the calls.

MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

There were a number of benefits to both parties from this appeal.

For DEC

• Over £350 million raised (six times more than any other DEC appeal).
• Over 1.7 million calls were taken.
• The tsunami killed around 200,000 people and washed away the homes and livelihoods of millions. Monies raised saved the lives of tens of thousands, and improved the lives of 3.6 million (DEC estimate); £112 million of the DEC fund provided clean drinking water, sanitation, shelter, food and medicine.
• The rebuilding that DEC agencies under-took with the cash raised was the equivalent of rebuilding both Birmingham and Glasgow from scratch. More than £190 million was set to be spent in 2006, including building 20,000 new homes to house 100,000 people.
• The DEC site broke a Guinness World Record for the most money donated online in 24 hours. Between 30 and 31 December 2004 the DEC website received 166,936 donations, raising £10,676,836.

For BT

• The appeal enabled BT to showcase its information and communications technology capability to a mass market during an extremely high-profile event.
• Sir Christopher Bland persuaded numerous top 20 FTSE companies to pledge cash.
• While not actively seeking PR coverage from the disaster, the company received record coverage worth over £7.5 million, reaching an audience of 43 million-plus – the most positive press coverage BT has ever received on a single issue.
• Awareness of BT working with the DEC, carried out by MORI (2005), increased to 34%, an increase of 21% from 2004.
• BT estimated that CSR performance accounted for over 25% of the image and reputation element of customer satisfaction. Further statistical analysis showed that a 1% improvement in the public's perception of CSR activities meant a 0.1% increase in the company's retail customer satisfaction figures. Customer satisfaction is at the heart of BT's business strategy.
• Opinion leader research in April 2005 cited BT's involvement as a positive story, countering the adverse publicity of rogue diallers, payphone maintenance and company break-up rumours.
• Employee research in January 2006 found that over 80% of BT employees were aware of BT's support for the DEC, an increase of more than 35% since the tsunami. Over 90% of BT employees felt more positive about working for BT because of its support.

The tsunami appeal had another, more widespread and longer-term impact: it provided the catalyst for the charity sector to realise the vast opportunities and benefits of receiving pledges online in addition to traditional methods.

BT's corporate values fit well with its work with DEC:

• trustworthy – 'We approached BT to take over our online donations platform as a trusted partner' – Brendan Gormley, CEO, DEC
• helpful – 'The online team personify helpfulness. They were in constant communication identifying areas for improvement and making me aware of potential issues I could not have considered' – Pat Willson, DEC
• inspiring – 'This is a Herculean effort and shows BT at its best, serving customers regardless' – Ronan Miles, BT employee
• straightforward – 'All support planned, promised, communicated and delivered to a very exacting timeframe over the holiday period' – Beth Courtier, Head of BT's Charity Programme
• heart – Chairman personally endorsed this value in recognising the efforts of BT people.

CARRYING ON THE GOOD WORK

BT has continued to learn from helping with appeals, including Niger (August 2005) and the Asia earthquake appeal (October 2005), with robust and regular meetings to discuss successes and learnings. For example, the donations website for the Asia appeal was set up in 1.5 hours, three hours faster than that of the tsunami. The number of people volunteering to work in the call centres has also increased as awareness rises. People that have left the business continue to volunteer, high-lighting their commitment to the cause.

To help DEC with its targeting, the company further developed its online mechanism and is now able to track donors by English regions, as well as internationally. This has provided more management reporting information to support DEC's efforts, allowing it for the first time to write and thank donors online and request support for new appeals. As a result, donor retention can now be monitored.

BT Global Services has also agreed to support international disasters as a key element in its new CSR strategy, complementing the UK lead. It will be specifically coordinating BT personnel and communications technology to the area(s) affected. And, because DEC is a UK charity and therefore does not have international recognition, BT Global Services has been looking to complement this UK activity by working with an international charity partner with an ongoing programme of fundraising and support.

Finally, the online platform has also enabled DEC to run appeals simultaneously. For example, the Niger and Asia quake appeals crossed over and people could donate to both simultaneously. The online platform was also being trialled by call centres with volunteers directly inputting data online from phone calls. This meant no paper records and a more efficient process.

This article featured in Market Leader, Winter 2006.