Nathan Roth considers himself equal parts mad man and math man. “I enjoy finding solutions through analytical as well as creative thinking,” he says. “For me, marketing is the best of both worlds.”
His current role as senior manager, digital and social, at Koodo Mobile & Public Mobile, merges two other worlds he loves: technology and marketing. Roth joined Telus, which owns Koodo, in 2007, after graduating with an honours bachelor of commerce from Queen’s University. He held various marketing roles until 2010, when he was appointed Koodo’s senior manager, digital and social—a new department at Koodo that Roth had to build from scratch.
“Nathan brought a great curiosity for the area and quickly became a thought leader and started implementing things that have helped set us apart,” says Kevin Banderk, vice-president of Telus Mobility Marketing and former chief Koodo officer.
Roth’s biggest accomplishment to date has been the creation of the self-sustained online support community koodo.com/ask, where customers ask questions, get answers and share their thoughts on the mobile industry. Roth introduced aspects of “gamification” and a rewards program, called Mobile Masters, that allows members to earn points based on their participation.
By motivating the top users to contribute up to 15 hours/week, nearly all questions get answered by fellow customers in less than five minutes, according to Telus. This has resulted in a 44% year-over-year increase in customer service–call deflections and millions in savings. “It not only helps us deflect calls, it also allows us to indirectly foster word of mouth and allows our customers to build the Koodo brand amongst one another,” says Roth.
Roth also established an online crowdsourcing platform, Koodo Ideas (Koodo.com/ideas) where customers can share, vote and discuss how to enhance the Koodo experience. In its first year, the site produced 1,828 ideas. Since then, 137 have been implemented and more than 100 are planned.
“He always has new ways of doing things,” says Banderk, “and he’s always at the helm trying to push us forward.”
Meet the rest of the 30 Under 30 for 2014
