Customer Contact Centre
Merge
CONTROLLING AUTHORITY: Customer Scrutiny Panel
ISSUE NO: 1
AMENDED:
STATUS: Draft
DATE: 25 January 2016
REVIEW DATE:
Contents
Background ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Methodology.................................................................................................................................... 2
Context ............................................................................................................................................. 2
Performance Information ............................................................................................................ 2
Feedback from Customers ........................................................................................................... 3
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Evidence ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Background
The Customer Scrutiny Panel (the Panel) has been asked to research what
people expect from the Contact Centre Merge from the customers’ point of view.
The purpose of this report is to find out what customers would like from the new
merged Customer Contact Centre and what they already know about the existing
Contact Centre.
The objective is to make sure that customer expectations are met and that the
new Customer Contact Centre is fit for purpose.
This report delivers to the corporate goal of Excellent Services, increasing the
availability of Contact Centre staff and increasing satisfaction.
The Panel has limited the scope of this review to two key questions:
1. What services do people expect from the new merged Customer Contact
Centre?
2. What do people already know about the Contact Centre?
1
Methodology
The Panel found the answers to their key questions by speaking to a random
sample of Boston Mayflower customers.
Context
The Panel was asked to look at what customers would like to see from extended
hours at the Contact Centre, and what kinds of queries they would like to be able
to deal with during additional opening hours.
The Panel spoke to a random sample of Boston Mayflower customers to obtain
information for this review.
They wanted to find out what customers would like to see from a contact centre
that was available at all times.
Performance Information
Feedback from customer surveys over the last year shows that customers are
very satisfied with the service provided by Boston Mayflower. Nearly ¾ of the
people surveyed had contacted Boston Mayflower within the previous 6 months.
The vast majority of calls had been regarding repairs and maintenance.
Survey information from customers March 2015 to February 2016
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
Dissatisfied/No
30.00%
Satisfied/Yes
20.00%
10.00%
How Boston Views are Staff were
Mayflower listened to helpful and
deals with and acted on gave the
Repairs and by Boston
relevant
Maintenance Mayflower information
needed
Overall
service
provided
2
Contacted Boston Mayflower in the
previous 6 months
Yes
No
Nature of Contact
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Feedback from Customers
The Panel were given a list of 100 names and numbers of customers to ask
questions about what they would want from an extended service and when they
would want to be able to contact Boston Mayflower. The comments showed that
most people would use it to report an urgent repair – which they are able to do
with the current system - rather than anything else. Less than a quarter of
respondents said they would be likely to report a non-urgent repair out of office
hours, and around a third would expect the operative to be able to sort everything
out during their call.
3
Number of People
2. What would you use an out of hours service
for?
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Urgent
Flooding
General Repair
Repair/Emergency
What would use service for
5. Would you be
likely to report a
non-urgent
repair out of
office hours?
6. Would expect operative to
be able to sort everything
out when phoning out of
hours
Yes
Yes
No
No
Comparisons with similar housing associations
The Panel researched call centre availability for the following Housing
Associations to discover any Best Practice and see what information is available
online.







A1 Housing
Axiom
Aspire
Camden
Derwent
Group 15
Magna







Newcastle City Council
Sentinel
Shoreline
Sovereign
Spire
Swan
York
4
York, Sovereign, Sentinel and other Housing Associations charge a call-out fee to
customers who use misleading information to suggest they need an Emergency
Repair when it is not ultimately deemed to be an emergency.
Shoreline can log repairs calls out of hours; they will then contact the customer
the next working day.
A1 Housing has a dedicated telephone number for customers to phone for
emergency repairs.
Sanctuary has 24/7 repairs reporting, but to talk to them about anything else they
are open 8am-8pm and 9am-1pm Saturdays.
Aspire are open 8am-6pm, but on Thursdays the hours are 8-8:45 then 11-6pm
as they are closed for staff training.
Group 15 London are 9-5 Mon-Fri.
Derwent has a number for out-of-hours calls that goes to an answerphone
message. They have numbers people can call out of hours for emergency
repairs and ASB issues.
A lot of companies are only open during usual office hours, but have an
emergency number for the rest of the time, just for gas/water emergencies.
Conclusion
Customers seemed to be unaware that there is a call centre that they get through
to when they phone the 0300 number – customer perception appears to be that
they speak to Reception staff when they phone in. Customer feedback showed
that people only felt the requirement to be able to raise urgent repairs issues at
any time. Results from the Mayflower Voice satisfaction survey shows that the
vast majority of phone calls into Boston Mayflower have been regarding Repairs
and Maintenance.
The Panel felt that having extended availability is a good idea as long as it is
used effectively – if appointments can be made for non-urgent work to be
completed during the phone call that is ideal. If the customer would have to be
contacted by Contact Centre staff the next working day this would create extra
work for staff that morning which is the busiest time, and could in fact mean that a
person who had phoned overnight or during the weekend could have their query
dealt with after customers phoning in the following day.
5
Acknowledgements
Panel Members
Supporting Staff
Sally Forder Alex Rivett -
Customer Service Engagement Assistant
Customer Service Engagement Assistant
Thank you to all staff and customers who provided information during our
investigation.
Evidence
Copies of the report, minutes of meeting and background papers are available
from Sally Forder or Alex Rivett:
Tel: 0300 365 5000
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
6