If you have outsourced all your customer contact and switch service providers, it involves quite a few complexities. For mobile operator hollandsnieuwe, there was a particularly high stake, as their customer service was rated as above average. And immediately after the switch, the company also wanted to significantly expand its product range.

 

Hollandsnieuwe was launched by Vodafone in 2011 as a price-conscious mobile provider with a digital-first strategy. This places the brand in the ranks of 'mobile virtual network operators' such as Youfone, BudgetMobiel, Simpel, Simyo, and Ben. Quite soon after the launch, the customer service process was fully outsourced; that is why there were fewer than 10 employees at the start. The ambitions were high: 100.000 new customers within a year. Since its inception, the brand has focused on consumers looking for simple subscriptions. Customers only pay for their usage and maintain insight into their costs. In a crowded telecom market with an ever-increasing number of options, Hollandsnieuwe opts for fewer extras. But with the high quality, speed, and service that people are looking for.

Good customer reviews

Fifteen years later, hollandsnieuwe has grown into a successful company with more than 750.000 customers. That growth has also resulted in good ratings for customer service. Recently, hollandsnieuwe scored highly with both the Dutch Consumers' Association, as in the election for the Most Customer-Friendly (Telecom) Company in the Netherlands (2026).

That recognition is all the more remarkable when you consider that the VodafoneZiggo brand unilaterally relocated the entire customer service operation from one outsourced contact center to another. The initiative for this lay with, among others, Cindy Jansen, product owner of the agile team for 'Care'. That team focuses on renewal and innovation within customer service.

Not an ordinary supplier switch

“We were looking for a service provider with a vision for the future,” says Jansen. “Our customer service is fully outsourced, which makes it extra important to have a good partner. For us, therefore, this was not a classic supplier switch, but a choice for a partner that fits the next phase of hollandsnieuwe: more propositions, more technology, more data-driven improvement, and a vision on AI.”

At the end of 2024, the decision was made after a thorough selection process. Naturally, partnership and a good cultural fit topped the list of requirements. Jansen: “We drew up a longlist and visited a number of service providers. The shortlist then consisted of three service providers, to whom we asked a large number of questions. We carefully weighed the answers. In doing so, we looked at cultural fit – the DNA, so to speak – as well as costs and security, and physical distance. Proximity was important to us: given the dependency, we literally wanted short lines of communication.”

Change – with locations in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, among others, at the time – was the only service provider that came up with the proposal to set up a new dedicated location in Utrecht, a stone's throw from VodafoneZiggo's headquarters.

What stood out in the conversations?

“Personal interviews with the three shortlisted candidates yield a lot of information. You evaluate this within your team, which included representatives from multiple disciplines such as procurement, CX, partner management, and of course, management itself,” Jansen explains the process.

Ultimately, it came down to two service providers whose scores were very close. “Then you mainly look at what stood out within our team during the conversations. For example, how players talk about their vision for the market and the future of customer contact. Whether they have thought this through carefully. How they view the development of their revenue model now that AI is on the rise. How you treat employees. With whom can you build a future that is uncertain and changing rapidly? Change stood out with a strong vision. And as mentioned, opening a location in our neighborhood weighed heavily.”

In terms of AI applications, Hollandsnieuwe had already undertaken the necessary steps itself up to that point. “Our chatbot had been active for ten years. Moreover, together with another supplier, we had implemented a voicebot. We were already doing automated summarizing as well,” Jansen lists. “AI naturally came up extensively in all discussions – the new partner, for example, would need to be able to work well with our existing AI suppliers.”

A quick onboarding

You can map everything out and write it down in advance: how do I want to organize it? Reality is often just a bit more stubborn, according to Jansen.

“We were very satisfied with the onboarding period, during which the office was set up, technology was transferred, data flows were configured, and new employees were trained. Naturally, you have discussions about the transition period beforehand. You want to keep that as short as possible. We met the timelines proposed by Change. Perhaps that pace was typical for Change, but we experienced it as a rapid transition, even though we are a scale-up within a corporate. That pace – moving over in one quarter – is a boost for both of us.”

The contract was signed at the end of December 2024; on April 1, 2025, customer contact went to Change.

In the middle of the intervening preparation period came Erik Tigges Joined hollandsnieuwe as Cluster Lead Customer & Technology. Tigges has ultimate responsibility for operations and technology, which also includes business support focused on continuous and structural improvement. This team also handles second-line customer inquiries. In both cases, there is close collaboration with Change.

Building a new operation, expanding the proposition

The period after April 1st, when we were truly live, was quite a challenge, Tigges recalls. “You don’t have the perfect customer service operation in place from day one. There was the usual dynamic of building a new operation. The partnership proved itself during this period by quickly addressing issues. Around September, we saw that the operation was clearly in order and that the key lessons learned had been incorporated.”

While hard work was being done during the summer, hollandsnieuwe was working in the background on a significant expansion of its proposition. The company, until then a 'mobile only' provider, wanted to enter the market with internet and TV. Tigges explains: “Internet and TV is a completely different ball game than mobile: there is much more involved. Think of different and, above all, more technical questions from customers. How do you maintain your customer service level when you expand your proposition? In the summer of 2025, we started talking to Change about this.”

Expansion of the Change work package

Hollandsnieuwe was able to launch the new offering on April 14, 2026, a year after starting at Change. This meant a substantial expansion of the work package at Change. “With internet and TV, the dynamics for the employees also change. We have transformed from a mobile provider into an FMC player: fixed mobile converged. We can now offer our mobile customers the option to purchase internet and TV from us,” says Tigges.

“Sales and service are now moving closer together,” adds Jansen. The proposition expansion forces hollandsnieuwe to accelerate the professionalization of a number of processes. For example, making training courses modular and setting up e-learning. For the current colleagues at hollandsnieuwe, it was the first supplier switch, a good moment to bring a number of matters in-house and further professionalize.”

AI: accelerator or cost saver? – AI can be viewed as a cost-saving tool or as an accelerator, but as far as Jansen is concerned, one cannot exist without the other: “AI is a cost item itself, and certainly not a miracle cure; that is how Change views it as well. We ourselves have already done a lot of process improvement in recent years to reduce the number of contacts, but we have also signaled to our management that quality yields significant returns.”

Tigges: “Anouk, our virtual assistant, currently handles a substantial percentage of customer contacts. That can be increased even further, and that will happen in stages, also with the help of agentic AI. We are monitoring signals regarding the high costs of agentic AI, as well as the fact that it is important to be able to continue speaking to employees. I expect quite a lot will happen in this area in the coming years.”

Interaction performance management provides a framework

Hollandsnieuwe uses Interaction Performance Management (IPM), the concept of Change based on fact-based improvement. This helps not only with the continuous improvement of existing processes but also with the rapid improvement of new processes, such as those for internet and TV.

From the very first day of the launch, insights could be gathered regarding, for example, contact drivers, despite the low contact volumes surrounding the new proposition. This led to a stream of improvement opportunities for both customer contact operations and product management.

For the customer contact operation, this involves quality analyses – think of automated quality monitoring based on AI. Jansen explains: “All conversations are now converted from speech to text and then analyzed. Team leaders can review conversations together with employees and also access the actual conversations. That makes it much more accurate than a sampling approach.”

Input from customer service representatives

In addition, employees play an active role in continuous improvement. Jansen: “They can identify problems and make suggestions for adjustments to processes. They also help interpret analyses. They handle customer contact, so they can provide all kinds of details. We provide feedback on implemented improvements. For example, based on suggestions from Change, our process for converting a business subscription to a consumer subscription has been improved. Customers perceived this process as cumbersome. We devised a new process for this, as a result of which the customer experience now runs much more smoothly.”

It is not the case that hollandsnieuwe performed poorly in the past. “We have even received recognition from the Consumers' Association multiple times,” Jansen reflects. “That is why it was quite an unusual choice to switch customer contact service providers. We focus primarily on customer satisfaction and cost control. In that respect, too, we are in the right place with Change.”

Record-level KPIs

Despite the challenges during the transition period, records have been broken for the key KPIs since the switch to Change, says Tigges. “The transactional NPS – the NPS immediately after customer contact – has reached a level we have never achieved before. For us, that means very good conversations are being held that make customers happy. Our first-time fix – a KPI that Change firmly believes in – has also improved significantly.”

A look into the future: machine to machine

Hollandsnieuwe does not look too far ahead when it comes to customer contact. “This year and next year,” says Tigges. That horizon already presents more than enough challenges. “We are preparing for the customer who puts an AI agent to work. For example: find out where the best option is for me with my mobile subscription? Just convert it into the best offer. Who is that AI agent going to talk to then? Our employees or our own AI agents?”

Tigges: “Machine-to-machine is coming. The nice thing about Change is that we can philosophize about that future with them, in open conversations. But Change also has people on board who turn ideas into working AI solutions.”

Jansen: “That proactive thinking alone is a hallmark of a good partnership for us.”

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Case, Customer Experience, Featured Change