October 2017
We believe that ‘unlock your potential’ is one of the most important themes of this year’s National Customer Service Week, as we are committed to developing our Customer Service team, helping them to reach their potential and progress their careers with us.
In order to allow all members of the department to take time for team meetings, personal development, training, and improving their knowledge of the business, we transfer our phone lines to an external provider on the third Thursday of every month.
With our customers being well looked after by external provider NPA for the day, the team can spend more time together to share best practice and discuss continuous improvement, as well as getting out on site to familiarise themselves with our product, processes and timescales.
Tracy Calvert, Head of Customer Experience, says: “We decided to put this monthly phone cover in place so that our Customer Service Advisors can spend time shadowing site teams or technicians, understanding the product we build and identifying any potential future customer issues which may arise. This also allows them to build their relationship as a team. The benefits for the morale and knowledge of the department are already evident and we will continue to grow this over the coming months as the team evolves.”
This month, our Cumbria and South Scotland team worked with Site Manager Steven Vint to look at the build stages from start to finish. One of our new team members, Teresa Clark, found it “an eye-opener seeing all the different stages of build, how they all come together and how long everything takes. It helped me understand and picture some of the structures and issues our customers refer to.” The Site Manager also found it useful to show everyone around. Steven says: “I enjoyed explaining all the key stages and helping them expand their knowledge of how our homes are built and the challenges we face.”
The North East team visited our Dove Park and Fairfields Manor developments. Customer Service Advisor Laura Palmer shadowed Customer Service Technician, Matt Childerley, as he demonstrated some of the jobs he carries out for our customers. Laura comments: “I have been able to look at some of the more common jobs in person and get an insight into how our technicians go about fixing certain issues. I also enjoy the full department meetings we have on other Thursdays. It’s useful to hear the enquiries that Customer Service Advisors in the other regions receive and how they deal with them, so that we can all improve the service we provide our customers.”
Finally, the North West team visited High Wood and Brookwood Park. Customer Service Advisor, Anees Siddique, shadowed Technicians Carl Hilditch and Malcolm Roberts on jobs, and accompanied the Site Managers on plot inspections. Anees says: “I enjoyed going with groundworkers to jobs that I had appointed them to do, and to see some of our customers face-to-face was fantastic.”
