Focus on

Delivering a consistent approach to customer service is vital for the Customer Services department at London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. To maintain high standards and drive improvements, the team chose the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) Standard.

The Customer Services department at LBRuT operates as the front line service for all face-to-face, telephone and email enquiries at the council. The department’s 30-strong staff handles 150 emails, 200 face-to-face visits and 1,200 calls every day through its Contact Centre, which adds up to 392,150 contacts a year.

“Our key challenges are all around consistency of service delivery,” says Dawn Cooper, Head of Customer Services. “It’s a day-to-day challenge. We want the person who rings us on January 1st to get the same quality of service when they ring us back on December 31st.”

The team felt that the CSE standard offered a consistent way to coach staff and help improve their performance, especially when they move on to other parts of the organisation,” says Dawn. “We’re a very busy department and we need to bring new people up to the standard fast.”

An Objective Standard

“Also, we really wanted an objective standard which covers all our customer-facing business – one that everyone in our department can buy into and put into practice easily.”

In fact, CSE is doing far more than that. It’s helping to promote the importance of customer service throughout the organisation. “Before CSE we used to conduct customer surveys on behalf of other services in the organisation, but the changes weren’t forthcoming. Now, other services are working towards the standard, and it’s become an important driver to ensure all departments practise the principles of customer service,” says Dawn.

“CSE certification has helped us to deliver real benefits to our customers”.

Valuable Learning from the Assessment Process

The team arranged to have a pre-assessment visit in October 2008.  Before the visit, the team completed the self-assessment document developed by the assessor. “We didn’t stop to set up a special group. We just kept on doing our day jobs. Prior to the assessor coming in for the pre-assessment, we sent in all the evidence to support our application,” says Dawn.

“We were familiar with CSE because we already had Charter Mark, and so we understood the assessment process. But the new standard was very different and we needed some help.”

This meant first looking at the areas not covered fully enough as well as the areas of best practice. Some of the factors taken into consideration were: How efficiently did the team monitor its calls? How well did they communicate with other departments in the organisation? How are they helping the customer?

“The experience opened our eyes a lot. The assessor impressed us with his attention to detail and his advice on how to take our customer service skills forward. We also have a far clearer framework for business efficiency now, thanks to the improved processes we developed leading up to accreditation,” says Dawn.

The full assessment took place in December 2008.

Positive Outcomes

What have been the outcomes for the LBRuT team? “First of all, we’ve improved our staff satisfaction results,” says Dawn. “Our 2008 ‘Investors in People” survey showed how engaged we were with our staff. The work we’ve done since then with Customer Service Excellence has built on this foundation. We’re constantly trying to improve communications.”

Another key outcome has been the effect of Customer Service Excellence across the organisation. At least 19 services within the council have now signed up to deliver Customer Service Excellence.

“Other departments not in the front line realised that they must follow the principles too. For instance, we worked on surveys in the Recycling Department. As a result, they changed some procedure-making decisions. That’s down to CSE, and they’re going for certification soon,” adds Dawn.

Best of all perhaps, levels of customer satisfaction are at an all-time high, “Thanks to better handling of calls and emails, customer satisfaction levels have improved and mystery shopping results are the best they’ve ever been,” adds Dawn.

“We’re now delivering more benefits to the organisation, including increased efficiency and improved staff morale.”

Improved Consistency of Service Delivery

By developing a good understanding of their customers and responding to their feedback, the team is able to maintain a high level of service delivery and performance. “Every time we talk to a customer we try to create a good experience. We want them to feel they’re always talking to the same person,” says Dawn.

This is borne out by customer comments too. Leslie Fisher, a local resident, says that the contact centre delivers on its promises every time. “They’re always very polite and helpful over the phone. We have an underpass at the foot of our garden which youths often deface with graffiti. When I ring the contact centre they say they’ll complete the clean up job in 5 days, and they do!”

An objective measure for the rest of the organisation to follow

CSE ensures consistency in customer service across the organisation.

“Several departments are now working hard towards achieving CSE. What’s more, because we collect data, the organisation can see what’s going well, where their procedures are not working and how we can improve our service to customers, which in turn will also make us more efficient and deliver better value to our taxpayers,” adds Dawn.

Stronger Processes in Place for Developing Staff

Applying the standard of CSE has boosted confidence among the staff too. “Often, when an organisation implements change, the staff thinks of it as just another project,” says Dawn. “But because we deliver ongoing training and support to our staff, there’s a real momentum to it. We’re constantly transferring our knowledge and encouraging new initiatives to improve our customer service. Morale levels are very high.”

“With the CSE standard in place, we don’t see the need to go for any other certification right now. And the other bonus is that because of the flexibility of the standard, we can use it as a framework for our own internal standards too.”

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