Racing Ahead: How Lumen is Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences

The 2024 Formula One (F1) season has transformed into must-see TV, becoming one of the most competitive seasons in recent memory and captivating millions of fans worldwide. As a fan of the sport, I reflected on what makes F1 so enthralling.

The speed at an F1 racing event exemplifies precision and high-performance engineering. Drivers and crews synchronize perfectly, fine-tuning their cars with remarkable speed to achieve optimal performance. F1 cars, representing the pinnacle of automotive engineering, utilize cutting-edge technology, including telemetry systems that gather real-time data on car performance. This data is crucial for optimizing race strategies, pit stop timings and overall car efficiency¹. High-speed cameras and sensors capture every detail of the car’s movement, enabling engineers to refine every aspect of the car’s setup and the driver’s technique.

There’s no question that technology has played a pivotal role in transforming racing. By integrating these technologies into their strategies, F1 teams gain a competitive edge, refining performance and pushing boundaries of what is possible in a sport where milliseconds count.

Similarly, Lumen is also pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with our own digital transformation driven by the desire to improve the customer experience, enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs.

Accelerating from the Starting Line

Imagine Lumen at the starting line, ready to leave behind outdated processes and accelerate towards a future of integrated systems and crystal-clear order visibility. We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with our own operational transformation.

We recognized the need for digital innovation and transformation due to inefficiencies in using multiple legacy systems that resulted in a lack of end-to-end order visibility. Lumen focused on changing how teams complete network builds and orders, implementing tools like ServiceNow for order orchestration and a health dashboard for metrics consistency.

The Race to Operational Transformation

In this race, teamwork, innovation and precision count. Each technology we implement helps propel our operations forward with increased speed and efficiency.

• Targeted processes and goals: Previously, our order management teams were operating with static date-setting calculators that did not have the intelligence to set proper expectations for our customers based on actual availability. By evolving our date-setting capabilities to ping the network for live capacity, Lumen is now able to provide service dates based on actual real-time availability. This is an example of a real-world digital transformation.
• Implementation of innovative solutions: Lumen is working to significantly improve its operational efficiency and the customer experience by implementing ServiceNow Streamlined Order Management, Interval Quoting and Service Orchestrator and combining incident and change management. This implementation is helping Lumen achieve more effective management across the full order lifecycle—from capture and fulfillment to post-order servicing—all on a single platform. This helps drive improvement in customer and employee experiences by decreasing the time from order acceptance to installation, simplifying workflows, reducing system handoffs and increasing automation capabilities. Lumen is also enabling AI/ML integration to enhance operational intelligence. These efforts showcase our  commitment to provide a more efficient, responsive and personalized customer experience.
• Overcoming challenges: As in every race, you must rise above challenges. Large investments like this take a significant amount of time, capital and resources. Technologically speaking, Lumen faced challenges, especially around legacy system interoperability. We are overcoming these obstacles by keeping the teams focused on meeting deadlines and maintaining prioritization with our partners across our ecosystem. We also stay nimble by using agile development methodologies and AI to effectively develop and launch these tools that are critical to our customers’ success.  

Fine-Tuning for Optimal Performance

In F1, teams constantly seek small, incremental improvements in car performance, pit stop efficiency and race strategies. Learning from mistakes, such as Ferrari’s pit stop errors in 2019, leads to significant changes that improve efficiency and reduce errors in subsequent races³.

Similarly, Lumen encourages employees to view challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and to maintain an open mind and commitment to continuous improvement. One example is the Kaizen program, which encourages employees to leverage their unique perspectives to help achieve continuous improvement through small, incremental changes. By involving employees at all levels, Kaizen aims to create a culture where everyone contributes to enhancing processes, increasing efficiency, and reducing waste over time.

F1 teams use vast amounts of data from races and simulations to make informed decisions, similar to how Kaizen uses data to drive improvements. Both emphasize teamwork and collective problem-solving to identify areas of improvement and implement solutions.

Lumen Wins for Digital Innovation

As a result of our relentless focus on enhancing the customer experience, we’re meeting and exceeding customer expectations. In the second quarter of 2024, each of our customer segments showed year-over-year improvements in customer satisfaction with transactional Net Promoter Scores rising 10 points for large enterprise, 35 points for wholesale, 37 points for mid-market and a whopping 42 points for public sector⁴. Truly a podium finish.

Setting the Pace for  Tomorrow

Looking ahead, Lumen is setting the pace in innovation, accelerating into a promising future with AI capabilities and groundbreaking advancements. Lumen has teamed up with Microsoft to boost its enterprise-wide digital transformation leveraging Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies. Just as F1 drivers leverage wearable devices to gather vital statistics, Lumen uses AI to monitor the digital pulse of systems and user interactions. This data is pivotal for machine learning algorithms to analyze and enhance operational efficiency, user engagement and system responsiveness.

Lumen is also leveraging Microsoft Copilot to automate routine tasks and help reduce employee workloads and enhance Microsoft Teams. By using Microsoft cloud and AI technologies, Lumen aims to cut technology costs, eliminate outdated systems and silos, upgrade its services and develop new solutions for its global clients.

At Lumen, we have one primary goal in mind as we incorporate these changes into our systems and processes: to improve the customer experience and connect people, data and applications—quickly, securely, effortlessly.

Learn how Lumen can help your organization innovate today.

¹MSN, The 2024 F1 season has gone from predictable to must-see TV, August 13, 2024. 

²F1Worldwide, The Ultimate Guide To F1: Why Is F1 So Popular And Exciting, June 14, 2023.

³Vanderbilt University Business School, New Study Identifies How Formula One Drivers Learn From Success and Failure, September 30, 2021.

⁴Lumen, Q2 2024 Earnings Call, August 6, 2024.