Royal Mail

Customer Service Centre Transformation

In the early stages of the project we identified that performance was poor mainly due to the attitude and approach of staff and not due to a lack of basic skills.

We found the organisation was run according to pre-described procedures rather than a desire to succeed and offer customer service. Our major impact was helping people to see the real value in their jobs, Agents were given autonomy to make real changes in working practices in order to help the customer; also we were able to encourage a strong coaching ethos to be spread throughout the call centre.

Agents participated in a 3-day call handling workshop with Team Leaders going on to attend a further 2-day coaching workshop. Following the coaching workshop Team Leaders were provided with additional coaching support.

Agents have told us that they no longer have 'difficult customers' and they look forward to work now, whereas previously they dreaded going to work. Finally, comments from Customers show that they have found the service to be much better now than prior to the training.

Our brief

  • Work with managers who were struggling to support their staff.
  • Tackle poor service levels of staff through providing core skills and ensuring managers supported new approach.
  • Assist in transforming a very traditional service centre culture into a modern customer focused contact centre.

Our approach

  • Design and delivery of a team leader coaching skills programme based on the theme of navigating the High Seas as a metaphor for providing direction and dealing with different 'natural' difficulties – e.g. wind and tides.
  • Design of a core call handling programme for agents as the Agents were in generally in a cynical frame of mind we decided to bring some fantasy to training and the theme of Wizard of Oz was adopted. Later we regularly heard people in the Contact Centre saying "oh stop being so Cowardly Lion/Tin Man/ Scarecrow!" to their colleagues – not only did they learn critical skills but also a framework for giving feedback to their peers in a lighthearted way that made a difference!
  • Development of internal trainers in preparation for roll out of the call-handling programme.

Key outputs

  • Dramatic improvement in customer service levels Increase in direct debit conversions by 60%.
  • Hearts and minds of agents and team leaders engaged toward overall strategy of customer service operation.