Star employee and Vodafone Hero for 2010, Kevin O’Neill has just returned from a fun-packed, all-expenses paid, weekend in London where he joined other Vodafone Heroes from operating companies around the globe to celebrate this achievement.

Global Heroes was launched by Vodafone Group to recognise and celebrate high-performers and role models of The Vodafone Way. On a quarterly basis, Vodafone Group and its operating companies nominate top individuals or teams who consistently reach high performing levels and are role models for their peers. The top 28 Global Heroes for the year are then chosen.

The Heroes’ stories are diverse and range from innovative network solutions to simplifying internal processes to improving customer experience. Kevin O’Neill found new and better ways to support Vodafone’s customers through the development of a new email support model. Kevin took the initiative to suggest something very different from the usual e-mail support business model.

“Kevin proposed a radically new way of managing the customer services email channel with a ‘work from home’ model,” said Martin Gregory, Head of HR at Vodafone Malta. “This enabled him to reply and manage emails in real time in a way that Vodafone could offer a dedicated email support service. Previously the response time could sometimes be as long as 3 days. Kevin now provides support over public holidays, weekends and every other day until midnight. The average response time is now 15 minutes. 85% of cases are resolved within this time and the remaining 15% are generally resolved on the same day. Needless to say, customer feedback has been outstanding. Kevin treats the service as if it is his own personal business, replying to customers in real time – a true Vodafone Hero!”