Driving up customer satisfaction in the public sector
A high performing Borough Council reinforces recognition that ratepayers are customers too
Business challenge
Councils must focus on delivering value for money services and put the ratepayer at the heart of all that they do. Our client, a successful Borough Council, was scoring well and a significant leader in its peer group but had the ambition to score consistently as excellent in its customer care measures. Scoring consistently high across all indicators is a real challenge for organisations who deal with diverse customers and deliver a range of different services to customers who frequently see themselves as ‘hostages’ and not free agents.
The Council has an agreed Customer Charter and strives to continuously improve its services and to deliver high quality customer service. Performance monitoring procedures are in place to check and report on the standards being achieved.
The Council needed to ensure that employees were fully aware of, committed to and capable of delivering its Customer Charter. Employees were required to develop the skills and confidence to continuously satisfy the needs of a diverse customer base and to contribute to the activities necessary for improving and sustaining customer satisfaction ratings.
Echelon’s solution
Echelon designed a highly participative experiential learning programme that focused participants at all levels on really understanding the challenges to delivering consistent customer care:
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the specific needs the same customers might have of different services, for example Planning and Leisure Services
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the specific needs that diverse customers might have of the same service
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the different perceptions that senior managers and service deliverers have of the same service. For example senior managers are concerned with the design of service and equitable outcomes whilst service deliverers are concerned with tailoring service for individual outcomes.
The programme also helped employees develop appropriate communication styles to ensure needs are properly identified and met for customer and colleague interactions alike.
Key benefits
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Customer ratings have increased to a consistent 85% satisfaction level and on many indicators by over 20% during the course of the programme.
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Participants have generated and implemented a wealth of ideas for continually improving service levels.
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Performance is tracked via a Service Index to provide visible ongoing service data to the organisation.
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Echelon, Angles House, 210 Sheen Lane, London SW14 8LB; 020 8274 9965