Store Manager Of The Year 2012

Why Store Manager of the Year?

We know Store Manager of the Year is one of the best ways for anyone to boost there career in the mobile industry, but don't just take my word for it. Here are some of the UK's top mobile bosses explaining why people should enter Store Manager of the Year.


 
Jacqueline Kelleher, director of retail sales, Three
‘Retail is one of the most demanding parts of the industry so the hard work, flair and commitment of store managers deserves recognition. Store Manager of the Year highlights the quality, drive, character and leadership skills of the people that are both the engine of sales and the face of the brand.
‘Our store managers aspire to be the best on the high street and work day in and day out to deliver a great experience. Good luck to everyone that gets involved.’


 

 


Andrew Coull, VP of retail, Everything Everywhere
‘We want to give our customers the best service possible, and competitions like this feed our passion to do that. We encourage our store managers to step up and be recognised for the great work they do in bringing the Orange and T-Mobile brands to life.’









 

Srini Gopalan, consumer director, Vodafone UK
‘Giving our customers the best service in the market is absolutely central to what we do at Vodafone UK, so a well-respected competition like Store Manager of the Year is a great opportunity to highlight some of the stars we have in our retail universe. The competition has always been popular with Vodafone staff and I would expect it to be so again this year.’



Richard Baylis, general manager for retail, O2 
‘Store Manager of the Year is a brilliant way to showcase the talented leaders in our stores, and an opportunity to recognise their leadership qualities and great management skills. Year on year the competitiveness between our regions gets stronger and when people take part it creates a lot more energy and excitement in our teams.

‘We’ve got some truly outstanding leaders so I’m hoping someone from O2 will be crowned Store Manager of the Year!’




 

Nick Fisher, COO, Phones 4u
‘Mobile’s Store Manager of the Year competition is a great opportunity for store managers to demonstrate their quality and skills. In the past this has been a fantastic opportunity for Phones 4u to showcase the talent, knowledge and passion shown by our team members, and to celebrate great people doing great work.’






Matt Stringer, UK MD, Carphone Warehouse
‘The Store Manager of the Year award is always eagerly anticipated at Carphone Warehouse as it gives us the opportunity to highlight the exceptional skills of our store colleagues and the important work they do for our customers.

We have enjoyed great success in the competition – winning the last three Store Manager of the Year awards – and have complete confidence in our representatives once again this year. We are proud of all of our participating colleagues and wish them the best of luck in the competition.’

To Find out More about Store Manager Of The Year click here

EE Stores launch U24 for Orange customers

Orange has announced U24

The deal will see those who're 24 and under receive extra calls, texts and mobile data on top of their current price plan at no extra cost - specifically, users will get 1GB of free Internet, while calls and texts to other Orange and T-Mobile numbers will be free of charge.

The offer is supported by an app - Android, iOS and BlackBerry - that helps users to identify which of their family or friends are on T-Mobile or Orange contracts, so they know who they can call and text for free.

U24 is available to new and existing Orange pay monthly and pay as you go customers. However, there is a slight catch for those on PAYG: they must top up at least £15 each month.
 
“Whether they’re going away to university, or starting out in a new career, with U24 there hoping to make life a little easier, providing them with an extra mobile data allowance and the potential to call and text over 27 million people as often as they like - all for no extra charge”.

 "Unlike the banks, who can often secure a customer for life by offering incentives such as free overdraft facilities, mobile customers are more familiar with switching every couple of years to get a new handset or better deal.

To Find out more about Orange U24 click here and it will take you directly to the Orange website

Who has the 'Best' banking App?

Who has the BEST Banking APP?

The best thing about smartphone apps is how quick and easy it is to access information. This might be a bit of a mixed blessing when it comes to making impulse purchases on Amazon and eBay of course, but it has to be said that they’re damn convenient.
Banking might not be the sexiest or most glamorous subject in the world, but keeping tabs on your finances is important and thankfully there is a fine selection of apps to help you do it.

First Direct

Sadly this is only for iPhone owners at the moment, but with this app you’ll be able to make payments to existing payees and transfer money. You can also view your account balance and the last 20 transactions you made.
In order to use this First Direct app you’ll have to be a customer of the bank and be registered for Internet Banking, and of course, you’ll need an iPhone (using iOS 3.1 and above).

Santander UK

Only available for the iPhone and iPad at present, but so long as you’ve registered and logged onto the Santander Online Banking service at least once, you’ll be able to use the Santander UK app. You can view your account balances, transfer funds between them, pay existing payees, amend and cancel pending payments, find your nearest branch and view your latest transactions.

HSBC

The HSBC Fast Balance app is available for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. With this app you can check your balance and the last six transactions made with your account, so it's slightly limited. If you own a prepaid mobile phone, you’ll also be able to top up your credit using the app.

Barclays Pingit

Barclay’s Pingit is a free app on Android, BlackBerry and iOS which allows you to view your balance, locate ATMs and transfer money. You can send up to £300 per day to friends, family or make payments. You’ll also be able to receive up to £5,000 from other Pingit users, and you can register three additional phones to receive money on your Pingit account.
If you aren’t a Barclay’s customer, you can still register and the bank will set up a Pingit Wallet account on the app which you can use to transfer money.

NatWest

Available for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices, you’ll be able to check your last six transactions, transfer money between your accounts and pay bills. You can pay or transfer cash to existing payees from your Online Banking, check your balance and find the nearest branches and ATMs. Pay-as-you-go top ups to boot, but you’ll have to be an existing online banking NatWest customer to use the service.

Lloyds TSB

The Lloyds TSB Mobile Banking app is free to download and available via the Apple App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Store.
You use your account’s existing Internet Banking login details to access it. You can view account details like your balance, transaction history, ISA and credit card accounts and make transfers between your Lloyds TSB accounts, manage your overdraft and view your mortgage balance.
There are also handy things like a branch and ATM finder and useful Lloyds TSB phone numbers.

O2 Signal Issue resolved With compensation

O2 CEO promises compensation 

to 7.5 million Customers

The giant O2 outage of the last two days is over, with CEO Ronan Dunne saying he's 'embarassed' and will make it up to the 7.5 million customers who were hit by the 2G and 3G blackout.

Dunne made a public apology in a Sky News Interview, where he also said an investigation was ongoing into the cause of massive outage.

About a third of O2's 20-plus million customers were affected, and Dunne said he would make it up them 'in an O2 way'. London's Boris Bikes were also out of commission for a while, as the docking stations use O2's 3G network.

O2 has had a service status page up all day today updating customers on the state of repair – 2G service came back on in the morning while 3G returned in the early afternoon. At around 5pm, O2 announced via its Twitter feed that the problems had been rectified and customers will be compensated for the misery of the outage.
Its first tweet said: 'Now the network's back, we remain focused on identifying the root cause of the incident. We want to restore confidence and trust.'
This was quickly followed by: 'For those customers affected by the lack of service, we will be doing everything we can to make it up to them in an O2 way.'
We're wondering if that means free or discounted tickets for upcoming events, although this would have to be for nationwide events rather than just concerts at the O2. Knocking some cash off the monthly bill would be welcomed by many, we're sure.

Dunne added in his interview: 'I'm a customer myself and I know how important service is. This shouldn't have happened and I'm going to make sure that it doesn't happen [again]. But it's a really complex system we operate – [we deal with] 125 million calls a day, 120 million texts a day.'

If you have been effected by this and want to talk to let off some steam then please leave your comments below and share your experiance with the world