CASE 04 · OTIS
From Service Excellence
to Business Transformation
Turning customer commitments into a proactive, insight-led operating model — connecting Customer Care, Service, Sales and business performance.
Achieved within one year and sustained
Assigned portfolio
Despite >50% portfolio growth
In two years · 7-point MFA scale*
Days · Following process centralization
Executive Summary
Service Excellence was the catalyst. A different way of working was the result.
Otis Service Excellence was a company-wide program grounded in eight Customer Commitments. In Poland, I translated its principles into practical ways of working, combining Customer Care leadership with process improvement, customer insight and cross-functional action. The work expanded beyond service interactions into retention, contract governance, CRM, operational intelligence and commercial decision support.
My Leadership Contribution
Where I made the difference.
My role combined leadership of the Customer Care team with local Service Excellence coordination and the identification and delivery of wider operational improvements. I worked with Service, Sales, Finance, branch and executive leaders, and collaborated functionally with the EMEA Service Excellence lead.
01 · Translate & Embed
Made global commitments operational
Adapted the eight Customer Commitments to local needs, helped embed practical standards across functions and contributed to monthly EMEA implementation reviews.
02 · Lead & Develop
Changed how Customer Care worked
Shifted the team toward proactive customer engagement, coaching and actionable insights; designed an applied empathy and customer-conversation development program.
03 · Connect & Improve
Turned operational signals into decisions
Connected contact-center trends, complaints, callbacks and customer feedback to root-cause reviews, service escalations, retention actions and Sales support.
04 · Shape & Deliver
Extended improvement beyond Customer Care
Initiated or contributed to contract governance and centralization, risk-based retention and pricing analysis, and acted as Poland Business Leader for the EMEA CRM pilot.
Customer Care Transformation
From Reactive Support to Proactive Customer Partnership.
Service Excellence changed not only how customer enquiries were handled, but why, when and how we engaged with customers — moving from resolving issues to anticipating needs, creating value and building lasting relationships.
A fundamental shift in customer engagement
Responding to customer requests
Customer contact was primarily triggered by enquiries, problems or complaints. Resources were planned around incoming demand.
Anticipating customer needs
Shifted the focus to understanding why customers contacted us, preventing recurring enquiries and proactively sharing information that helped customers manage their business.
Building new capabilities and behaviors
Process and technical expertise
Training focused mainly on systems, procedures and the correct handling of customer requests.
Empathy, ownership and customer relationships
Introduced practical, scenario-based development focused on empathy, communication and proactive ownership, with continuous application and a six-month review of progress.
Turning customer insights into business value
Operational reporting
Contact-center data was used mainly to monitor workload, service volumes and individual cases.
Customer intelligence and prevention
Used customer contact patterns, recurring issues and service insights to recommend improvements and support proactive decisions across Service and Sales.
Making digital service part of customer engagement
Underutilized eService platform
The existing B2B platform offered predefined functionality, with limited team familiarity and little proactive promotion.
Proactive digital customer experience
Used customer insights to recommend new eService capabilities, enabling timely communication and easier access to relevant service information. Actively promoted the platform among customers and internal teams.
EXAMPLES OF CUSTOMER-DRIVEN ENHANCEMENTSProactive maintenance notifications · Complaint status visibility · Technical information supporting repair and modernization decisions
Elevating Customer Care’s role in the business
Operational support function
Customer Care primarily handled enquiries and escalated issues to other departments.
Trusted partner to Service and Sales
Strengthened cross-functional collaboration by providing customer insights, recommendations and early signals to support retention, service quality and commercial decisions.
People Development · Signature Initiative
Empathy in Action: Customer Conversations That Build Trust.
I designed a practical customer communication program built around real service situations, not one-off classroom theory. The team practiced difficult conversations, reviewed examples from customer interactions and tested new behaviors in everyday work over six months.
From training event to sustained behavior change.
Collect relevant call recordings and examples of challenging customer situations.
Role-play conversations and practice empathy, active listening and ownership.
Use selected techniques in live customer interactions and reflect on what works.
Revisit outcomes, identify effective approaches and discuss what needed adjustment.
Business Transformation
Customer insight became a driver of wider change.
Retention & Commercial Risk
Protecting the service portfolio
Used cancellation patterns and customer risk signals to support earlier intervention, contract recovery and stronger coordination with Service and Sales.
CRM & Customer Intelligence
Connecting customer information
Helped consolidate customer reporting previously spread across 54 Excel reports and multiple systems into one integrated CRM reporting environment. Served as Poland Business Leader for the EMEA Microsoft Dynamics CRM pilot.
Contract & Financial Governance
Strengthening operational controls
Helped centralize contract management under Customer Care ownership, strengthening process accountability and controls and reducing contract onboarding from approximately 30 to 8 days. The improvements also supported audit readiness.
Service & Commercial Decisions
Making operational evidence actionable
Connected complaints, callbacks, suspended units, customer feedback and portfolio analysis with service actions and differentiated pricing decisions.
Service Excellence Framework
One global framework. Local ownership.
The eight Customer Commitments provided a shared foundation for customer experience and employee behavior across the organization. I supported their translation into local operating practices and continuous improvement using ACE methods, value-stream mapping, root-cause analysis and regular reviews.
Leadership Perspective
Changing the way a team thinks changes what a business can see.
“Customer Care became more than a place where issues were handled. It became a source of early warnings, customer understanding and actionable insight for the wider organization.”
The experience shaped my approach to transformation: build capability within the team, use operational evidence to identify systemic issues and connect people, processes and business decisions to sustain improvements.