Customer Service - Grapevine October 2009
The big picture
Britain's best ambassador
of customer service
The slightly smaller picture ...
how does this relate to us?
Expectations in
the HE sector
Looking to
the future
... and finally
Customer Service
Budgets
First place
Second place
VSS
Richard
Branson
Jeff
Bezos
Closer to home ...
at the University of Sheffield
Government
Service Quality Teams (SQT)
Extract from the 2009 annual grant letter to HEFCE:
"Responding rapidly to the present economic challenge is vital. The economic situation brings some financial risks to higher education institutions, and these need to be managed. It should also focus attention on achieving and demonstrating value for public money".
John Denham
Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Third place
Funders
What are the big companies doing to embed customer service?
Churchill
the dog
Professional Services
Research Excellence Framework (REF)
Will focus on reviewing 'our outputs, the impact they have, and the environment in which we generate them'.
"Follow the customer, if they change … we change".
Sir Terry Leahy – Chief Executive, Tesco
Students
"Our customers have always trusted us to make the right decisions on product sourcing and manufacturing, and to treat our 78,000 staff and over 2,000 suppliers fairly".
"It gives us a true point of difference in a crowded marketplace, and now more than ever it is what our customers have come to expect".
Sir Stuart Rose – Chairman, Marks and Spencer
A recent YouGov poll, commissioned by the University and College Union (UCU), found some 85% of under-24s oppose higher fees.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU said: "Today's poll shows that the country, and in particular the top-up fees generation, will not stomach further increases in the cost of going to university".
'Show you care'
'Know your stuff'
'Share a smile'
Tesco - customer service training for staff
Parents
"We applied for my son's student finance back in May, applying for both a maintenance loan and a grant. Couple of faxes and numerous phone calls later, still not sorted".
"My son starts university end of September and things are getting very desperate. Somebody needs to be held to account. This is clearly not acceptable. Totally frustrated and let down".
Parent commenting on the Student Loans Company delays
Customer
expectations
"We all believe in the same thing: shaking up markets where consumers are getting a bad deal and stepping in and giving them a better deal by being fun, innovative and competitively challenging. And we all like to give quality, value for money and brilliant customer service".
"I’m often asked what it is that makes Virgin different. The simple answer is people. If it weren’t for a bunch of well trained, motivated and, above all, happy people doing their bit, we’d have never launched a record label, never mind a fleet of 747s".
Sir Richard Branson – Chairman, Virgin Group
July 2009
UK Customer Satisfaction Index
Expectations
what people think should happen
how they think they should be treated
Expectations
formed by:
what people hear and see
what they read, and what the organisation tells them
So how good are we?
what happens during the customer experience
what has happened to them previously
Service Excellence Nominees 2009
"I have just had some very positive feedback from our Heads of Department about the financial training last week. Both Heads have commented that the session was extremely useful and informative. They greatly appreciated the style of presentation and the content and would recommend it very highly to other colleagues. Thanks and well done."
Individuals:
- Angelique Altan
- David Bebbington
- Mike Boultby
- Paul Cartledge
- Kellie Hall
- Rob Kelsall
- Sally Salter
Teams:
- Cross Faculty Accounting Team
- Payroll Team
- Student Customer Team - Income Office
"I just wanted to drop you a line now that the online donations project is going live to say how grateful we are for all the help on this project. I know that workload is very busy at the best of times so we really appreciate all the efforts they've put in to help us get this project off the ground."
"The presentation of the International Student Barometer (ISB), Summer 2009 wave happened today and The Finance office came out really well".
"It means that the EU and fee paying international students were very satisfied with the Finance Office service - which I guess means the Income Office."
"In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment" - Charles Darwin
"Just wanted to say thanks for your help with this, it is very much appreciated & has saved us a lot of work and time in Estates."
SQT visits 2009 - "many Departments appreciated the steps that we have taken to align our services with Faculties and having named contacts for specific Departments was very well received."
Setting the standards
for customer service
Who?
How?
Everyone
We're judged against the big companies:
"If we haven't responded to Income Office on-line queries in two hours they start chasing us"
"myPurchase should be as easy to buy from as Amazon"
Where next?
"Running uBASE reports should be like using Internet Banking"
Ringing Research Finance should be like calling Virgin Customer Services?
Looking after ALL our customers - even each other