West Lothian Council:
Helping Develop a deeper understanding of Customer Concerns
Background
West Lothian Council, UK Council of the Year 2006 averages 6,000 calls per week through its Service Centre, assisting customers with information and advice on issues ranging from household repairs and council tax payment to anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse enquiries.
The Project
West Lothian Council asked VISION to work with their Service Centre team to help evaluate and improve their call handling and customer service. Management recognised that advisors had received limited training in handling a potentially broader range of customer requests that had come about as a result of the creation of a multi-service contact centre. Management was also concerned that measuring success and managing performance using a 'traditional' balanced scorecard would not drive the behaviour they wanted from their advisors and that this would impact customer service.
"By having my calls played back to me I now know what I'm actually doing well and not so well so I know where I need to improve." Kevin, Adviser.
Over a 6 month period VISION proposed and delivered three pieces of work, all based on its Learning Team approach. By coaching advisors to engage the customer in a 'real' conversation and make promises on each call, advisors began to realise that they were able to deliver a higher level of service. This resulted in an eight-fold increase in unsolicited thank-you's to Service Centre staff. Listening for concerns rather than simply reacting to requests helped advisers form the kind of bond that led to real understanding of customer needs - especially for those customers requiring to speak with Contact Centre staff on an on-going basis.
By the end of the pilot advisors demonstrated such a significant shift in behaviour - from that of query handler and request administrator to trusted adviser and customer advocate - that VISION was asked to engage in two further similar phases of work. The most recent was the delivery of a skills transfer program with a specially appointed Learning and Development Coach who will take responsibility for on-going delivery and sustainability of Learning Teams throughout the 85 person Contact Centre.
Value Added
Since engaging with VISION the Contact Centre are making the shift towards:
A new way of working together:
Advisors listen to calls in groups in a way that lets them learn from each other and 70+% of advisers participating in the pilot programs agreed that they had changed as a result of working together in Learning Teams.
"I have definitely learned from listening to other peoples calls - I am more aware of what I am saying and how I am saying it".
A new way of thinking about work:
Traditional training focuses on product and service regulations. By drawing the advisors attention to the customer experience and focusing them on listening rather than processing the customers' request, more than 75% of advisors participating in the pilot programs now recognise the value in engaging customers in 'real' conversation and feel that they deliver better customer service as a result.
"Helping customers open up more so that they feel confident letting you know their concern means that they are not having to 'phone a second time. You could deal with 4 queries on one call".
A new way of talking about work:
The Council is heavily unionised and giving open honest feedback and discussing performance is not the norm. Over time and by agreeing that "what's said in the room, stays in the room" advisors became comfortable sharing thoughts and views.
"I learned how powerful and useful feedback from peers and colleagues can be. The sessions were not always easy, they were hard work, but they were definitely worthwhile".
"A few weeks into the Learning teams© we could hear differences in how advisers interacted with customers for the better. Achieving Charter Mark best practice is the cherry on the cake."
Anna, Contact Centre Manager
A new way of measuring success:
We provide the advisor with a call structure that allows them to navigate through the call in a way helps them engage with customers in order to ascertain and address concerns, build rapport and deliver service that exceeds expectation. 70+% of advisors assessed that they changed their approach to customers as result of listening to, and receiving feedback from, colleagues.
"It was good to watch people develop and try out the learning points from previous sessions and share their experiences with their colleagues".
Achievements
Just 3 months after our initial pilot intervention, the Contact Centre was awarded Charter Mark for quality service, with Learning Teams© identified as best practice.