BT Launch New Charter for UK Businesses and the Public Sector

UK ISP BT recently announced that it intended to become the flagship brand for their Enterprise and Global units, while EE would focus on their consumer packages (here). The operator has today unveiled a new Charter for its 1.2 million business and public sector customers, which sets out their blueprint for a new range of initiatives and growth.

In our experience, most customer charters tend to read a lot like idealistic marketing spin – packed with plenty of sound bites but little substance – and there is an element of that here too, which in fairness would be quite difficult to avoid since few deliberately set out to do the opposite and give customers a bad service. But we do also get some solid commitments, even though they may not all be of interest.

Broadly, BT’s Charter consists of a new set of commitments to provide its Enterprise customers with a springboard for growth – “delivered through a greater focus on innovation, world-class cyber security, a new suite of digital services, customer service improvements and purpose-driven goals“.

Rob Shuter, CEO of Enterprise, BT Group, said: “Our new Charter reflects the priorities that our 1.2m business and public customers expect to see from BT. We’ve listened to their feedback and based our Charter on four key promises – that we’ll lead the way in innovation; we’ll be trusted experts in our fields; we’ll be easier to do business with; and we’ll continue to put purpose at the heart of our business.”

The new commitments outlined today include the following highlights. We won’t go into more detail for fear of boring people.

BT’s Charter Commitments – Highlights

➤ Investing almost £100 million over the next three years in BT’s ‘Division X’ unit within Enterprise – to accelerate the development of customer solutions which integrate emerging technologies like 5G, IoT, Edge Compute, Cloud and AI. These new solutions will transform and modernise key industries like manufacturing, health, port operations, transport and logistics, driving positive business outcomes and fuelling the UK economy.

➤ Launching sophisticated cyber defence and assessment tools which are not currently offered by other UK network providers – starting with its Safe Security cyber health check tool which is available to larger UK corporate and public sector customers today, with smaller customers set to benefit over time.

➤ Developing inclusive tech to boost broadband speeds for small firms not yet served by fibre broadband. BT will launch the first service in the UK which fuses fixed and 4G speeds together to uplift broadband speeds for thousands of small firms currently using copper lines.

➤ Delivering the fastest installation and repair times in the industry for ultrafast business (or Ethernet) connections – which underpin the operations of mid to large corporates and public sector bodies.

➤ Forming a new partnership network for small firms – giving customers access to exclusive offers across broadband, mobile, digital marketing and connected devices, plus other benefits, with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) confirmed as BT’s first launch partner.

➤ Pioneering a new suite of smart business tools which combine the best of BT and EE to make it easier for small businesses to run and grow their business. This new portfolio will build on the recent launch of BT’s Digital Marketing Hub – the new all-in-one advertising platform which gives small firms all the tools and support they need to reach millions of potential new customers.

➤ Stepping up its free digital skills programme to reach a further 350,000 small business and their employees by the end of March 2023.

➤ Accelerating sustainable initiatives to support customers’ Net Zero journeys – including the removal of all single use plastics and using recycled materials for new BT business product packaging and devices by the end of March 2023.

Elsewhere, BT said they also plan to streamline the online order experience for customers (i.e. reducing the number of online checkout steps to a single page checkout experience by the end of June).