Summary report
Customer service strategy 2010-15
Creating a customer-focused culture
The Big Lottery Fund exists to help people and communities most in need. All of our money makes life better for the most disadvantaged people in the UK, and also in some of the poorest areas of the world. Eighty per cent of our funding goes to voluntary and community organisations, with the remainder distributed largely through local authorities. BIG aims to help the people we serve by the way we work, as well as being a grant-making organisation.
Who are our customers?
BIG’s customers are those who enquire about, apply for or receive our funding. In 2008/9, we responded to more than 100,000 enquiries about our funding opportunities. Our customers live across the UK, from large, urban areas to small and isolated communities. They vary from professional fundraisers from large, national organisations to local volunteers running small community groups.
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Because of limited resources we have to turn away many excellent projects, so we also need to show the people we cannot support that they have not lost out through their dealings with us.
A good experience for the customer when dealing with us will be:
Clear and honest feedback on why an application has been unsuccessful, detailed advice on how an application can be improved and signposting to other funders should make a rejection from us a less painful experience, helping customers learn how to achieve future success.
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accessible
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transparent
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fair
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friendly
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reliable
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professional
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flexible.
How BIG’s customers see our service hugely affects our public reputation. There is a clear link between customer satisfaction and the confidence people have that we are doing our job well.
Better value for money
We are aware that there is a wider political context to our work. Over the next few years there will be stringent restraints on public spending. There will be a continuing trend for the public sector to become more efficient and justify how every pound is spent. National and statutory targets and standards will become more challenging. Although our income comes from the Lottery player rather than the taxpayer, we will have to prove that we are delivering value for money by keeping our operating costs as low as possible.
Public expectations
Over the last few years, expectations of public service have risen and will continue to rise. People are no longer content to accept a “top-down” approach, where they will just accept what they are given. Public services are now two-way. We need to know who our different customers are and respond to and anticipate their different needs and expectations. In return, we want customers to know what they can expect of us and trust that those expectations will be satisfied or exceeded.
The situation is even more challenging because there is likely to be an even greater demand for our funding from voluntary and community organisations that are feeling the squeeze. A higher demand means we will have to say no more often.
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The BIG priority
And the better we become at customer service, the more the public will expect of us. Managing disappointment will remain a major challenge.
Excellent customer service will be firmly at the heart of BIG’s future, allowing us to concentrate our resources on more effective funding and doing our jobs better.
We also need to consider the balance between efficiency, effectiveness and customer service. Great service cannot be about giving every customer exactly what they want, but must be about making strategic choices on how we prioritise BIG’s resources in support of our mutual outcomes, to meet needs as sensitively as possible.
Our customers want: ●● contact that is easy and convenient
How will this translate into practice?
In 2010/11 we have set ourselves the ambition “to be known as the most effective, efficient and customerfocused Lottery funder” – improving levels of customer satisfaction to maintain a strong, positive reputation with the public.
The following are key.
XXDesigning intelligent programmes
that can meet the intended outcomes without undue waste or cost to us or our customers.
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polite, friendly, knowledgeable staff
XXOffering a courteous,
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a quick and correct response – every time
XXAsking for and listening to
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flexibility in how we support them to achieve their outcomes.
XXMaking our processes easier.
knowledgeable and prompt service. customers’ needs and feedback.
XXMaking decisions more quickly.
Our customers don’t want: ●● to be passed from pillar to post
We will want to take greater advantage of online working so that we can offer a quicker, more tailored service and reduce costs, and recognise that some groups may need greater support and encouragement to change to this way of working than others. Our face-to-face contact will continue to be valued and valuable, and be targeted at where it can make the most difference. We must be more conscious of the impact of the choices we make in this balancing act.
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unnecessary bureaucracy
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to have to repeat what they have already told us or to duplicate what they have already sent us
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to have to understand how our organisation works
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XXImproving pre-application
processes so that projects unlikely to be funded do not waste time going through a full application procedure and are given clear feedback on why their project is unsuitable.
XXIntroducing electronic application
pilots.
to tell us about our failings and see no improvement.
XXThoughtful analysis of customer
feedback and complaints, handled by well-trained and competent staff.
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Measuring our performance so far
The Customer Service Excellence standard pre-assessment
Encouragingly, CSE noted that it would take only small improvements for us to become fully compliant in between 80 and 100 per cent of their standards of excellence. To truly excel, we need to take a more corporate approach to the strategic areas of our work, such as how we understand our customer needs and perspectives, how our programmes are designed to meet quality, time and cost challenges, and how we can ensure that every person at BIG puts our customers at the forefront of their decision-making.
Some of the ways we can achieve excellent standards of customer service are obvious and we are doing them already. But we cannot be complacent. In October 2009, BIG commissioned an objective and independent assessment from G4S Assessment Services (UK) Ltd against the criteria set in the Government’s Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard. The assessment rated our current performance against five criteria: ●●
customer insight
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the culture of the organisation
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information and access
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delivery
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timeliness and quality of service.
Our customer satisfaction surveys
Between November 2009 and January 2010, the market research organisation Ipsos MORI was commissioned to assess and monitor the customer service experience and level of satisfaction of customers applying for, and receiving, funding from BIG.
This ‘health check’ on our customer service gave us important insights into our present approach.
Ipsos MORI completed 2,417 online interviews. Respondents were asked to rate their experience of our service using a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ‘extremely dissatisfied’ and 10 being ‘extremely satisfied’.
CSE praised BIG for being a customerfocused organisation. It noted that though we were only fully compliant in about a third of their criteria of excellence, we were partly compliant in 60 per cent and noncompliant in only 5 per cent of them. 6
Our complaints process
The survey found almost half (47 per cent) of applicants are very satisfied with our service, rating it 9 or 10. However, applicants are more satisfied with particular elements of our service than with their overall impression of BIG. Applicants are most likely to be satisfied with the attitude of our staff, with 59 per cent pointing out BIG’s excellence in this area. A similar percentage (57 per cent) rate BIG’s professionalism. Quality of information is the area where BIG has the greatest scope for improvement with a lower rating.
We have a well-established and effective process for handling complaints from our customers. The number of complaints we receive represents a very small proportion of the amount of business we do. For example, for England and UK-wide programmes in 2009/10 to date, we have received more than 16,000 applications and only 58 complaints. For the whole of BIG, we received 78 complaints in the year.
By responding to issues raised by customers through their complaints To determine which aspects of BIG’s and feedback requests, we have been service have the most impact on able to identify important lessons overall satisfaction and to identify and change how we work. Examples priorities for improvement, we include revising standard reject measured the relative importance (to letters, personalising and tailoring our customers) of each element that communications, apologising quickly the survey covered. when we’ve made errors and offering The analysis showed that satisfaction suitable remedies, ensuring staff take with the quality of service is the most responsibility for problems raised by important factor in driving overall customers, feeding lessons learned satisfaction. This is true for customers back to the rest of the organisation, at all stages, apart from those whose and thanking people for their positive applications we rejected. For this feedback. group it is staff attitude which is We always try to ensure that the the key driver. These two aspects outcome of the complaints process is are therefore a priority in improving satisfactory for the customer. overall satisfaction. 7
What we will do to improve
BIG’s customer service goals
1. Strive towards service excellence. 2. Demonstrate accountability and value for money. 3. Be transparent. In many ways BIG is in a unique position – we have no competitive funder, no comparable or private funder, and no profit motive. So we need to show that we have delivered the service promised to customers and that most customers are satisfied.
We are keen to build an online community through our website where customers can share their insights with each other and with us. We will use their knowledge to inform our policies and strategy.
Learning from customers’ feedback, complaints and suggestions will receive a higher prominence.
Priorities for action
2. Defining and monitoring performance We have defined a top-line satisfaction and excellence measure for the first time. Over the next year, we will define in more detail the standards below this top level, and seek to respond to those factors that most directly drive our customer satisfaction.
We are currently working on a Customer Service Strategy Delivery Plan, which will set out detailed proposals for improving our customer service.
Communicating with customers
A key part of building excellent customer service is through listening and responding to customers. We recognise that they need our help to build their skills, confidence and networks to achieve positive change in the lives of their communities. We are therefore keen to offer more support and advice for projects at pre-application and post-grant stage and be ready to adapt the way we work, particularly for hard-to-reach groups living in areas or among communities where there is a lack of skills, experience and knowledge in both applying for funding and managing and running a project.
We will focus on areas where we need to improve the customer experience and levels of satisfaction. In 2010/11, we have five priority areas for improvement. 1. Getting insights from the customer We will develop a clear and robust framework for gaining insights from our customers. We will focus on the particular support that each different type of customer needs, depending on which programme they are applying to and where they live. Quarterly satisfaction surveys will become the norm. We will capture what our customers tell us, so that we better understand how to enhance their experience of dealing with us.
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4. Designing intelligent programmes More intelligent programme design will be a crucial feature of our work in 2010 onwards, and we will look to build in the results of several customer-focused pilots. Examples of this include using specialist advice on how clear and easy-touse our processes and application materials are.
We will identify lessons learned and change our processes and procedures to improve the customer experience.
Using local intelligence about managing applicant expectations for our new programmes will be an essential element of programme design.
3. Enhancing staff capability We will target training in customerrelated areas and make sure customer needs are central to all our in-house training courses. We will offer support to managers about how their decisions and leadership can transform staff understanding of customer service excellence. We will monitor how the BIG Six standards (see page 11) are implemented.
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5. Aligning reward and recognition Members of staff consistently offering excellent levels of customer service will be properly recognised and rewarded and used as exemplars.
Responding to customer feedback
Each year we will respond to feedback given by customers – directly where necessary.
Our ambitions for customer service in the future
Conclusion
The BIG Six customer standards
We want to achieve:
Customer service is changing in response to increasing customer demands. We need to shape our services in line with our customers’ needs, preferences and expectations and give them easy and convenient access to high-quality services.
The following standards set out our commitment to how we will deal with you, our customers.
We will do this by: ●●
giving you our full attention
Availability XXWe will let you know when we are available.
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being polite and respectful
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treating you fairly
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being clear and using plain English
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customer involvement in designing new programmes
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more choice for customers in how they can use our services
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more supportive customer service
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improved efficiency and a faster service
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increased customer satisfaction, shown by surveys and feedback.
Our ambition is to provide levels of customer service that are among the highest of any funder in the UK. We will show our commitment to our customers by continually improving our service. The need for efficiency and our desire to achieve service excellence against a background of multiple demands and pressures on resources, mean that we will focus on activities that involve our customers in every aspect of the way we work. The unique insight of our customers will help us to become better at what we do.
Choice ●● answering all your questions XXWe will provide a choice of ways to as accurately and completely contact us, including textphone. If as we can the person you want to contact is ●● observing laws governing not available, we will give you the confidentiality and access to choice of speaking to someone else information. or leaving a message. Progress Timeliness XXWe will let you know if we cannot XXWe will respond to your queries respond on time and keep you within the published timescales. updated on what we are doing to Attitude answer your enquiry. When dealing with customers we will Transferring your enquiry aim to: If we need to transfer you to someone ●● be honest and open and accept else, we will: responsibility for our actions ●● make sure you speak to the right ●● give clear and relevant information, person advice and feedback. ●● tell you who we’re transferring you to ●●
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tell the person we are transferring you to who you are.
Stock code BIG-CSsummary Photography Kevin Clifford and Peter Devlin Further information is available from: Email general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk Phone 0845 4 10 20 30 Textphone 0845 6 02 16 59 Our website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk Accessibility Please contact us to discuss any specific communication needs you may have. Our equality principles, mission and values We are committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need. To find out more about our equality principles, mission and values, visit our website. We care about the environment The Big Lottery Fund seeks to minimise its negative environmental impact and only uses proper sustainable resources. Š Big Lottery Fund, June 2010
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