In a recent article I read in ‘Call Centre’ it mentioned how the past two years have seen a huge 440 per cent increase in the number of complaints about the failures and shortcomings of UK banks. The article then went on to say the majority of customer complaints were about workings and processes of the bank itself and complaints about staff had reduced.
So what are the contributing factors to these complaints? Under investment in people, a failure in business processes, recession, the credit crunch, an unforgiving customer base? It could be number of factors. But how are you measuring these factors to make the necessary improvements?
The Institute of Customer Service recently blogged about First Direct and instilling a customer service DNA. First Direct are often the top of consumer satisfaction surveys so they must be getting something right. They value training and development and this is evident through their employee behaviour.
In a blog from eg’s Tim Becker, he looked at the variation across a processing function and what this means in reality – elements such as productivity and quality will most certainly impact customer complaints.
Consistent operational performance measures at a people level for skills; quality and productivity therefore should provide suitable benchmarks that can be used to quickly identify where help may be required. This needs to go beyond simply capturing actual activity levels and more about the right behaviours and understanding that what gets measured gets better.
So whilst complaints about staff may have reduced, staff are the ones having to work within the bank processes and without the right measures and management information, a complaint is a complaint regardless of the reason.
After all, with the City regulator handing out penalties for those with inadequate complaints procedures; training, transparency, comprehensive management information and the right behaviours are the DNA that is required.
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