Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel Callbacks: Interim Report 2 November 2015
Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel
Scrutiny Review: Callbacks Interim Report The Project Callbacks: this was a complaint theme.
Background The topic came about as a result of complaints from tenants who had not been called back by planners after requesting a callback via voicemail or the contact centre.
What we wanted to know • • • •
How effective is the system for handling callbacks What measures are in place to achieve the service standard target? Is there an escalation process for unreturned callbacks? Are arrangements in place for monitoring of callbacks?
What we looked at • • • • • •
Contact Centre statistics; number of incoming calls/callback requests/outstanding callbacks The effectiveness of the callback procedure The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database Effectiveness of calls resolved at first point of contact How callbacks are monitored and what action is taken for outstanding callbacks Complaints database for callback related complaints
What we found
1. Statistics a. Incoming calls • Adactus Connect Contact Centre is a central point from which customer contacts are managed and calls are routed to appropriate people. • The contact centre receives between five hundred and eight hundred calls per day. Call levels tend to be highest on a Monday, and then decrease throughout the course of the week. • The aim is to resolve seventy percent of customer issues at first point of contact. • Calls resolved at first point of contact increased from seventy-three percent in 2014/15, to seventy-four percent in 2015/16 (to date). b. Service Standards • Failure to complete a callback within the expected time scale can lead to more inbound calls from seriously unhappy customers. A callback success rate is therefore a critical measure of the callbacks process.
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel Adactus Housing Group’s service standard is to achieve 90% of telephone callbacks by the next working day (or at an agreed time) and 100% within two working days (or at an agreed time). For other methods of enquiry (letter, email, web) the target is 80% by one day and 100% within two days. A review revealed that the Group has failed to achieve its target for callbacks. In September the percentage completed within the two days was as follows: o Telephone – 67% o Email - 63% o Letter – 38% The teams that received a low number of callback requests for example, between one and five, had achieved 100% completion within two days. Generally, email callbacks achieved a higher completion rate and were more likely to be actioned within the timescales than callbacks by telephone or letter.
c. Service standard awareness • Generally there was a lack of awareness amongst staff about the callback service standards (except contact centre staff) despite the following actions to raise awareness: o Service standards have been publicised on Pulse (the Group’s internet), in 2012. o An article on how to complete contact actions (including by email) and staff responsibilities has been publicised on Pulse in 2014. o CRM action requirements of staff have been publicised on Pulse in 2014. o HR training and training materials highlight what is required of staff. o Individual staff have been contacted directly by the Director of Corporate Services about poor performance with contact action completions. o Managers have been shown how to monitor their staff’s performance and reminded of their responsibility. • With regards to customers, the service standards are available on the website and have previously been published in the tenants newsletter. d. Callback requests • Twenty-three thousand four-hundred callbacks requests had been received in the last financial year (between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015). • In September 2015, two-thousand two-hundred and eighty-one callbacks had been actioned. Of those, one-thousand five-hundred and ninety-one had been completed. For the other six-hundred and ninety, the ‘outcome’ had been completed as: o cancelled - twenty-four
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel job raised - eighty-seven message left - one-hundred and twenty-three no reply - twenty-six pending - thirty-four superseded (reallocated to someone else) - two-hundred and eighty-five o tenant ok - ten o left blank - one-hundred and one o o o o o
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Call back Procedure a. Logging a call • Adactus uses a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) computer system which allows all customer contacts to be logged. • When the contact centre receives an incoming call, staff are required to record detailed information on CRM relating to the call including the callers name, reason for call, and any further action required as a result of the call. The contact centre staff will try to resolve the issue however, if they are unable to do this then the call is passed through to someone who may be able to provide assistance. If they are unavailable then a call back action is requested. b. Allocating a callback • If a call back is required, staff selects the ‘call back’ action on CRM and allocates it to a member of staff or a team. Once the action has been added the system automatically generates an email and sends it to that person/team instructing them to call back the customer. • The responsibility of making the callback and completing the action on CRM rests with the member of staff to whom a callback request is allocated. • If a member of staff is on leave, contact centre staff only become aware of this after the callback action has been allocated and the system email has been sent which triggers the automatic ‘out of office’ reply (if activated). If this happens then the action has to be reallocated to a colleague or their line manager. However, if the out of office has not been activated then the action will remain outstanding until the staff member returns back to work; therefore it will surpass the target time. • There is a slightly different call back system in place for the Tenancy Enforcement and Support Team (who deal with reports of anti-social behaviour), and the Income Team (who deal with rent payment). o Income team - Each day a member of staff from each team acts as duty officer. When a call back is actioned the system will send an email to the duty officer and in addition to this, contact centre staff enter the call back request into the relevant team’s duty diary. The duty officer is responsible for returning any callback requests, initially as an acknowledgment with a follow-on action. o Tenancy Enforcement and Support Team also operate a duty diary for callbacks. Callback requests are entered in the duty officer’s Shehnaz Akhtar
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel diary who will be responsible for returning the call. If a customer asks for a particular member of staff who is not available then they are offered the option to speak with the duty officer first then a callback. c. Completing a callback • Once contact has been made with the customer, staff are required to complete the ‘outcome’ section on CRM with one of the following actions: o Completed - no further action required o Cancel - action cancelled o Job raised - for repair order o Message left - when contact with customer could not be made o No reply - unable to leave message o Pending - waiting for information o Superseded- contact reassigned or passed back o Tenant OK - when customer is happy with the explanation provided •
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In January 2014, a new method of completing CRM contact actions was introduced. This enables staff that does not use CRM regularly to complete their outstanding actions by sending an email to the Task Centre (a database) using the customer’s unique contact reference number and providing a short detail of the outcome. Task Centre then automatically completes the callback and records the comment in the appropriate field. A review of completed callbacks revealed that the outcome feature on CRM was not being utilised correctly: In cases where contact with the customer could not be made and there was no facility to leave a message, staff had not logged the date and time of calls. Therefore it could not be verified if staff had made three attempts to contact the customer. Staff had omitted to complete the outcome details with the action taken for two-hundred and forty-four completed callbacks (the detail section had been left blank), Staff had provided minimal details of the outcome in two-hundred and ninety-five callbacks by stating; called back, completed, or rang tenant. It was difficult to determine what information had been provided to the customer and whether it was sufficient. In a small number of cases staff had updated CRM with their answer when the customer could not be contacted. This would enable contact centre staff to provide an update on the status of an individual case if a customer were to follow up their enquiry. In many cases the callback had been made but staff had not closed down the action on CRM.
3. CRM Database Shehnaz Akhtar
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel a. CRM • The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is computer system used to record and manage customer interactions. It has a facility that allows details of any contact made between the customer and the company to be logged. • Not all staff uses the CRM system, it is mainly used by staff in departments that have contact with customers such as; connect, finance (income team), asset management, and TEAS. • Training sessions are provided for all staff including new recruits who are required to use CRM as part of their role. Refresher training is also available and is provided regularly by HR. • Although CRM is a useful tool that enables staff to capture as much detail as possible regarding a contact, it is not user friendly. • A review found it was somewhat difficult to follow the workflow of allocated call back actions. • CRM does not have a facility for sending reminders to staff to complete their outstanding callbacks. • There is no automatic escalation process for unreturned callbacks. • The system does not recognise employees non-working days when an action is allocated therefore it affects the callback targets. • CRM does not have a facility that allows it to match up an outbound call to an outstanding contact. b. Callback automated email • CRMs automated email’s subject line is ineffective and likely to be unread unless staff are aware that it relates to a callback; it states ‘QL Housing Contact Management’ - followed by the customer’s address. • The format of the automated email is not quick and easy to scan. It captures too much detail and does not highlight the main purpose of the email. It includes the caller’s name and address (over several lines), contact reference, telephone number, action reference, rent warning, tenancy and rent account numbers, class levels, a brief description of the call, date and time, the name of the person who took the call, and right at the end it states what action is required (callback) and the deadline for returning it. 4. Calls completed at first point of contact a. Training • Contact Centre staff are trained to deal with a range of enquiries (up to a certain level) so that they are equipped to resolve queries at first point of contact. Anything above that level is referred to dedicated teams throughout the organisation. • The contact centre induction programme ensures new recruits are given all the help and guidance they need for them to do their job to the required standard as soon as possible. As part of the initial training the recruits work shadow other colleagues which is considered the best way for them to learn. On the job training is also provided in which the
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel recruits deal with some calls up to a certain point. The whole process takes approximately thirty days depending how quickly staff learn. Guidance notes are provided to assist contact centre staff in handling calls. They are advised to carry out security checks, identify the callers’ needs using questioning skills, take responsibility for dealing with the call, and carry it through. If they cannot answer an enquiry quickly, they are advised to give the caller the option of a call back. The guidance notes also remind staff to ensure they record the contact on CRM so that there is a full record of contacts with the customer.
b. Knowledge base • Customer services staff have access to a ‘knowledge base’. This is a database that contains information on all service channels which allows it to be shared with customers. Its aim is to reduce the customer handling time, improve first contact resolution, and eliminate time wasted searching for information, and improve customer satisfaction. • The knowledge base contains guidance on sixteen service areas including aids and adaptations, allocations and lettings, anti-social behaviour, complaints, development, energy advice, grounds maintenance, home ownership – leasehold/shared, money matters, rents and payments, repairs and maintenance, resident involvement, sheltered and supported, tenancy enforcement and tenancy issues. It also provides information on a wide-range of other topics. • On each subject matter the knowledge base prompts staff to ask the caller additional questions in order to obtain further information. It guides them through the questions and possible answers and explains what they should communicate to the customer. • At the end of the guidance notes is a section that asks if the query has been answered and requests the user to leave feedback. • Staff also have the opportunity to give suggestions on new topics and things they have learned so that the knowledge base can be updated in those areas. • The review revealed that the knowledge base is a useful tool that provides detailed information and guidance to staff. If the customer’s enquiry cannot be dealt with by the contact centre staff, it instructs them to refer the call to a dedicated team/person. If that team/person is unavailable they are then advised to request a callback for the customer and reminded to log the contact on CRM. • Not all guidance notes state that a callback should be made within twenty-four or the forty-eight hour timescale. • The guidance notes do not advise staff to ask the customer for a preferred time of callback, or a preferred method of contact. 5. Monitoring • Since July 2015, callback performance is monitored by the Customer Services Manager (Quality) on a monthly basis. Prior to this, callbacks were not consistently monitored.
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel A report is run off the system that shows outstanding callbacks in the period, this could be by department, team, or an individual. Staff are then contacted by telephone or email to remind them to take action of their outstanding callbacks. The monitoring report showed the teams that received the greatest number of callback requests had completed the highest percentage of callbacks within the target times. They are; arrears recovery, allocations & lettings, connect, and planned maintenance. These teams received on average between two-hundred and five-hundred callbacks each month. o Teams that received between one-hundred and two-hundred callback requests completed less than fifty percent callbacks within target. o Those who received up to ten callback requests completed less than thirty-five percent within target (with the exception of HR who completed one hundred percent). Since the introduction of monitoring of outstanding callbacks in July 2015, there has been an improvement in the percentage of callbacks completed within target (from 64% to 73%). A review of outstanding callbacks revealed that some actions showed as outstanding from 2012, 2013, and 2014; they had not been closed on the system.
6. Case Study • A sample of ten callback requests were tested to see how calls were handled: o In all cases staff had been courteous. o In most cases the callbacks had been actioned after an attempt had been made to transfer the call to a member of staff. o In one case the advisor explained that the ASB team would call back over the next few days. o In one case it was evident the advisor would not be able to deal with the customers query and a callback was required. The duration of the call was twenty minutes after which a callback was actioned. o Customers were not advised of the timescales for making the callback (service standards). o Customers were not asked for a preferred method of contact for example, email. o Customers were not asked for a preferred time of call.
What we liked:
• Service standards are published on the website. • All calls received through the contact centre are logged on CRM. • Staff training to enable them to deal with a range of enquiries. • Provision of guidance notes to assist staff in handling calls. • Knowledge base provides detailed information and guidance on all service channels.
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel • Aim to resolve calls at first point of contact. • CRM generates an automatic email for a callback action. • 100% callbacks completed within target in some departments. • Duty diary system in operation by the Tenancy Enforcement & Support, and Income team. • Initial acknowledgment call made by the Income team duty officer. • Staff left an answer on CRM in cases where they could not make contact with the customer. • Email method of completing actions for staff who don’t use CRM regularly. • Monitoring of outstanding callbacks – staff are prompted to return the callback.
What concerned us? • The inconsistency in service standard callback targets between telephone and other methods of enquiry. • Lack of awareness of the callback service standards amongst staff (outside of the contact centre) despite actions taken to raise awareness. • Format of the automated email. • The number of outcome actions available to select from. • The outcome feature is not utilised appropriately to record information following returned calls. • No automatic escalation of unreturned callbacks. • Targets don’t take into account staff non-working days. • Staff not closing down the action following a completed callback. • CRM is not user friendly. • Customers are not asked for a preferred time of call.
What else could we look at? • • • • • • • •
Uptake on refresher CRM training. Check if tenants have experienced delays in service in not receiving a callback. Good/bad callback completion performance (by role). The repercussions for not using CRM despite training. The number of complaints received for not making a callback. Case studies of individual complaints. What resolutions have been offered? Satisfaction data on people receiving callbacks.
Appendix Staff Interviews The following interviews were carried out with staff:
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Internal Affairs for Adactus500 Scrutiny Panel Name Ceri Walker
Role
Date interviewed
Customer Services Manager (Quality)
2 October 2015
Callbacks
20 October 2015
Service standards
Topics covered
Training Performance Statistics Monitoring
Mike Watts
Database Officer
7 October 2015 20 October 2015
Reporting system - CRM monitoring reports (where information is derived). Automated emails Task Centre
Mike Murphy
Head of Income/Leasehold Management
12 October 2015
Callback procedure – duty officer system Task Centre Monitoring
Kate Sullivan
TEAS Manager
13 October 2015
Callback procedure – duty officer system Targets
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