Back in May, Rogers’ new CEO Guy Laurence gave a stirring talk about his plans to restructure the company with a plan he called “Rogers 3.0.” The first part was to revamp management, the second step was to fix their poor customers service and the third was to kick-start the company’s slow growth. When he took over in December 2013, he began a campaign to travel all over Canada where he met over 10,700 employees, leaders of other companies and even political leaders to find out what Rogers is doing right and wrong. The results were his Rogers 3.0 plan shown below, which will be implemented over the next two – three years. At that time, Mr. Laurence said, “We’ve neglected our customers, and we’ve let our legacy of growth and innovation slip. The plan I’ve laid out will significantly improve the experience for our customers and re-establish our growth by better leveraging our assets and consistently executing as One Rogers.”
We haven’t really read about much in the way of price reductions…which is what the customers are really looking forward to receiving. Although, so far they have tried to ‘Overhaul the Customer Experience’ and tried to ‘Deliver Compelling Content Everywhere’ by announcing a new video-on-demand service with Shaw called Shomi and last week formed a $100 million content and distribution partnership with Vice. One of the more controversial things they have done is when they purchased the NHL rights for a twelve-year period for $5.2 BILLION.
One of the things Rogers did to maximize their return on their dollar was to sell the Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE for $200 a year for any subscriber from any carrier – something that is dictated by the Canadian Radio-television Communications Commission (CRTC). As a bonus for Rogers’ subscribers, they offered an online app called GamePlus, that also allowed them to see special camera angles that are not broadcast over the airwaves or cable, but only as an online experience. Needless to say, Bell is challenging the exclusion with the CRTC and Mr. Laurence called them the “crybaby Bell.”
Hopefully, the latest project, codenamed, “Strips” will not be quite as controversial as the GamePlus deal…an internal document our source was privy too stated:
“Rogers is launching a highly competitive and confidential project (code name: Stripes) in the coming weeks which will demonstrate exactly how serious we are about overhauling the customer experience – in a big way! Stripes will differentiate Rogers in the market and combined with Share Everything plans will provide the best value for money for our customers.”
Their source says it has something to do with combining “Share Everything + Stripes,” which could mean many things…does the word “Stripes” refer to the U.S. flag and be some type of roaming policy? The new program is expected to happen in mid-November and we will keep you posted if we hear anything new. Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know what your best guess is for “Stripe”…as always, we would love to hear from you.