Vivendi

• Canal +

In June and December of 2008 Canal + held two meetings at its facilities with consumer associations, in order to deal with a range of topics related to customer relations. Seventeen associations participated in these two days of dialogue. During the first meeting, the topics discussed included a presentation of the Customer Service’s management team and the management of customer claims within the Canal+ group. The newly founded mediation department was presented to the associations, who were also informed of the digitisation of the subscriber base, which is now underway in connection with the "Television of the future" law.

Complementary to this initial meeting were "à la carte" tours organised in collaboration with the customer relations management centre in Saint-Denis (in the Paris region) for four associations. During the second morning of exchanges, the results of the mediation department for 2008 and the marketing plan for 2009 were presented to the associations (ADEIC, AFOC, CNAFC, CSF, Familles rurales, INDECOSA-CGT, and ORGECO).

In the same way, since October 2007, the mediation department has been sending a newsletter to the associations twice per quarter, reporting on news about the group that might interest them and putting the focus on customer services.

• SFR

SFR makes dialogue with consumers a priority. Since 2003, SFR has held regular meetings with consumer associations – working round tables on current topics (three times a year), informational meetings in the regions, and above all, an annual meeting with General Management. This approach is backed up with informational tools – a toll-free number for consumer associations, a quarterly newsletter especially for them, and since 2007, a consumer space on the sfr.com Web site where associations can easily access useful information.

Both the national and European regulatory environment are evolving more and more towards consumers’ interests. Examples of this evolution include the implementation of the Chatel law in June of 2008, 21 measures stemming from ministerial round tables, and the consensus-seeking work done by the Conseil National de le Consommation (the French national consumer council). Thanks to dialogue with consumer associations, SFR had anticipated many measures of this new legislation, sometimes going beyond obligations. For example, SFR stopped charging customers for on-hold time for calls to customer service and began showing the end-date of the subscription commitment on each bill beginning in November 2006. Dialogue is also carried out on an industry level with for example, the creation of a practical guide to electronic communication developed jointly by operators and consumer associations, as well as the creation of a consumer section within the French telecoms federation.