She's blunt. She's flashy. And customer-service chief Sue Nokes is T- Mobile's secret weapon in a cutthroat industry.
By Jennifer Reingold, Fortune senior writer September 21 2007: 11:57 AM EDT (Fortune Magazine) -- Marry me, Sue!" We've just pulled into the parking lot of Albuquerque's Jefferson Commons call center, home to 800 T-Mobile USA customer-service representatives, and outside there's mayhem. Hundreds of screaming, chanting people are standing in front of the building, bedecked in a wild array of hot-pink clothing (T-Mobile's signature color) ranging from T-shirts to cowboy hats to feather boas. They're waving signs, holding up camera phones, and generally acting like starstruck teenagers. One guy's wearing a fuchsia bathrobe; another, in a fluorescent-pink wig, is screaming, "We love you!" over and over. All this booty shaking and flag waving might seem a bit extreme, given that technically today's event features a middle-aged woman on a routine visit from headquarters. But this isn't just any suit: It's Sue Nokes. She's the flashy, feisty spark plug of a woman who runs sales and customer service at T-Mobile USA, the fast-growing $17 billion subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. In that capacity she's in charge of more than 15,000 employees around the U.S. Why the rousing welcome? Well, it has something to do with her outsized personality, an inspiring, wacky combination of Rosie O'Donnell, Evita Perón, and Auntie Mame. But mostly it's a result of her lifelong belief that making the customer happy is a lot easier to do when employees actually like their jobs and feel that what they do matters. "Sue's zeal for always putting the customer first is absolutely infectious," says René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/ 2007/10/01/100398840/index.htm?postversion=2007092111 - - T-Mobile-US on Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/T-Mobile-US _ _ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/T-Mobile-US/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/T-Mobile-US/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
