On Thursday 30th June 2022, O2 Business Partners from across the UK gathered at Twickenham Stadium for O2’s annual Partner of The Year Awards and Conference The annual awards recognise and reward partners’ capability to provide consistently first-class support and service to small and medium-sized business customers, combined with a high level of digital knowledge and expertise. O2 Business Partners were welcomed in their first face to face conference for over two years and fair play to the marketing team at Virgin Media O2, who expressed huge effort to make partners feel welcomed. At the event, partners listened to a variety of speakers from within the Virgin Media O2 brand, where the focus was largely on a celebration of one year of the all new Virgin Media O2 brand and how the two brands are working together to a future of growth and digital innovation.
It is an exciting time for partners of the Virgin Media O2 brand. Since coming together, the combined brand has become the UK’s largest and most reliable mobile network with a broadband network offering the fastest widely-available broadband speeds. Virgin media O2 is a corporate brand of the 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica SA, making them one of the UK’s largest businesses. The have 48.5 million UK connections across broadband, mobile, TV and home phone. Our own fixed network currently passes 15.6 million premises alongside a mobile network that covers 99% of the nation’s population with 4G, and more than 400 towns and cities with 5G services.
Over the last twelve months, Active Digital has worked hard to adapt and respond to customer needs whilst expanding our range of products and services. There is no question that it has been a challenging few years for UK organisations and we are proud of how Active Digital has quickly responded to customer needs. Through our key partnerships, such as our long and trusted relationship with O2, we have been able to give customers solutions that meet the heavy demands of the business; all wrapped up with a customer experience they can rely on.
As part of O2’s top tier of ‘Excel’ direct business partners, Active Digital were one of only a selected few partners to take home an O2 trophy. Established in 1996, Active Digital is owned by brother and sister, Richard Groves and Jo Wimble-Groves. They specialise in providing mobile devices, mobile forms and purpose-built apps for businesses throughout the UK and Ireland. Established for over two decades, they have a distinguished reputation for delivering market leading telecoms solutions with a multi award winning customer service.
After the awards celebrations, the event continued into the evening with a drinks reception and a brilliant Q & A with England rugby hooker, Dylan Hartley. Dylan is one of England’s most successful captains and tells a story of hard men and harsh truths. From the sixteen-year-old Kiwi who travelled alone to England (Sussex), to the winner of ninety-seven international caps. Dylan spoke about his passion for rugby but also how the sport has taken its toll on players mental health.
Business Director and co-owner, Jo Wimble-Groves who collected the award at Twickenham Stadium as part of the annual Partner Awards, said she was delighted to bring this award back to Active HQ. She commented, “to collect our seventh consecutive customer excellence award is an absolute joy. The award is a fantastic endorsement and recognition of the great work our team deliver every day. In 2021/2022, we retained over 97% of our customers, which, once again, confirms our place as one of O2’s excel partners. Our innovation allows us to differentiate ourselves in a competitive marketplace, whilst growing our business and maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction. All of which have converted into a successful last twelve months and has given us this very special, seventh Customer Excellence accolade.”
Gary Hill, Head of SMB Indirect Sales at Virgin Media O2 Business said: “It’s been brilliant to come together and introduce our partners to our joint brand Virgin Media O2 Business and celebrate the great successes of our Partners over the last year. It’s been another challenging year but our partners have shown great dedication and drive to continue to serve their customers and deliver great results. “
