Focus on

CSE is a practical tool to support and drive services that are more responsive to people’s needs. It emphasises areas that research has shown are a priority for customers: delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude. There is also emphasis on understanding customers and the user’s experience and the robust measurement of customer satisfaction.

“That’s why we decided to embed Customer Service Excellence in the organisation. It has become a company priority endorsed by our Chief Executive, Chris Edwards,” adds Jenny Marshall.

THE ROAD TO CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE

To achieve Customer Service Excellence, Education Leeds had to prove they met five key criteria consistently in their everyday activities:

• Customer Insight - consulting with their customers and measuring the outcomes of their service
  
  
• A Culture of Customer Service in the Company - fostering a truly customer focused culture from top to bottom inside the company
  
  
• Information and Access – efficiently communicating valuable information to their customers
  
  
• Delivery - encouraging feedback from customers and using it to improve the running of the company’s business
  
  
• Timeliness and Quality of Service - ensuring customer satisfaction with a prompt, high quality service

SGS United Kingdom Ltd tendered successfully for the business, and work began with Gary Baker visiting the company to meet senior managers, the project board and the user group to advise on working towards the new standard.

Education Leeds set up a user group of middle managers to drive their desire to achieve Customer Service Excellence. This collective buy-in generated a company-wide feel-good factor and helped to drive the process of essential evidence gathering and championing customer services.

“We had previously benefited from SGS’ support and expertise, and after Gary’s visit to discuss Customer Service Excellence our user group was keen to start straightaway,” says Jenny Marshall.

Following this evidence gathering, SGS revisited the company to give information and feedback on progress at pre-assessment stage followed by a document review.

At the final assessment, which took place across all four sites, the SGS assessor verified the evidence provided in the document review by interviewing staff, customers, partners and stakeholders.

ALL STAKEHOLDERS FEEL THE BENEFITS

The resulting successful assessment for Customer Service Excellence has boosted morale across the company. “We had only six partial non-compliances and morale is sky-high,” says Jenny Marshall.

“It proves to us we are good at customer service, which will help us in an ever changing world. It shows we have comprehensive insight into our customers and that our data and consultation methods are good. The ethos is strong throughout the company and we really believe in providing the best for our customers.”

“We have many partnerships within children’s services, including social care, early years, youth service and health, within the local authority, and with other partners such as the police. We are all in partnership to make sure we deliver good services – and doing all we can to ensure children and young people are happy, healthy, safe and successful.”

IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM THE EXPERIENCE

Did the company find any of the standard’s requirements difficult to meet?

“Criterion five proved the hardest to satisfy. It’s hard to measure Timeliness and Quality of Service. You can do benchmarking, but you need measurable service standards, which are quite difficult if you want to measure quality such as welcoming and quality of telephone contact. The best thing is to make sure everyone in the company knows exactly what they have to do, and have written procedures,” says Jenny Marshall.

“Also, criterion two, ‘building a customer-focused culture’. Although it was easy to show how we embedded the new culture, it isn’t easy to quantify. We may consider looking at benchmarking in other industries as a point of comparison, to provide good practice guides,” adds Jenny Marshall.

“Also remember that the assessment is just the beginning and we have to write an improvement plan and ensure we keep up the momentum of providing excellent customer service.”

SUCCESSES HIGHLIGHTED BY THE SGS ASSESSOR

In his summary of findings, SGS assessor Bob Mandy highlighted nine areas of Education Leeds’s work for particular praise:

The admissions system works well and it is easy to see ongoing improvements ─ with Ombudsman cases dropping from 76 to 54 to 15 in the last three years. The team was concerned about the number of errors in forms completed and is trying to push customers into using the more fail-safe online applications. This stood at 13% last year and is up to 21% this year.

The admission transfer and transport system has been adapted to help minority groups. For example, letters are sent out in Polish for that community, and non- English speaking pupils are accompanied on the buses for the first day at their new school.

Communications are good in all aspects of the company. ‘Chris’s Blog’ is updated daily by the Chief Executive, Chris Edwards, and is particularly well appreciated, as is the communications team. It is amazing how many different parts of the company use their simple branding folder.

The opening of Allerton CE Primary School ─ a result of the closing of two other schools with falling numbers of pupils ─ is a model of how to handle all aspects of this sensitive process. All stakeholders were thoroughly consulted and the result is the delivery on time of a facility that will benefit the whole community.

Discussions with Education Leeds, partners and other agencies show an excellent holistic approach to a joined up way to improving communities. It was great to meet the police who fully endorse this approach.

The White Rose Study Support Centre is an excellent example of a centre appreciated by all the children who have used it and the schools in the area.

The Family of Schools meetings are appreciated by the head teachers who attend them. At the meeting I attended, the heads complimented many aspects of Education Leeds.

The Blenheim site is a great example of the diverse support services offered to many children across Leeds.

The Derek Fatchett City Learning Centre is a great example of a service tailored to suit the IT needs of the community. The facility is as good as any seen in either the public or private sector. Their approach to training up teachers to carry on the work in their own schools is particularly praiseworthy.

There was also highlighted an area of Compliance Plus:

The Building Schools for the Future project at Allerton High school appears to be a good practice model of how a complete new school build can be carried out with the thorough consultation with all stakeholders, delivered on time and within budget. Much credit goes to the school leadership, the Education Leeds project manager and the good relationship they have developed with the contractor.

Finally, Jenny Marshall has some practical advice for other organisations keen to get started on the Customer Service Excellence standard:

“Plan, plan, plan! Set up a project management team and a user group. Get to know your assessor and their expectations. Get committed people on board. We have received fantastic support from our Chief Executive Chris Edwards, who leads by example, the leadership team and staff. Also remember you can’t do this in a day. You need to get your basics like timeliness and telephone monitoring right for a start. Then you need to make sure everyone takes responsibility for good customer practice and it’s a journey of continuous improvement.”

Further Information:
SGS United Kingdom Ltd
SGS House
217-221 London Road
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 3EY
United Kingdom

t: +44 (0) 1276 697999
f: +44 (0) 1276 697696
Email