Archive for the 'awards' Category

I’m often struck by how many businesses look for silver bullets. Other people’s silver bullets at that. We want to visit this or that, we want to copy this or that, where can I get an idea for x or y.

One thing I’ve learned from nearly 15+  years of judging awards is that silver bullets don’t work. The best businesses realise they need  to connect everything, deliver consistently to their promise and work really really hard at making brilliant basics feel exciting. They need all the factors to be aligned around something – a common vision, a purpose or a set of values for example.

One of the companies which has made an outstanding differentiation from brilliant basics and sticking to its values is first direct. I interviewed one of the early MDs of first direct, Kevin Newman. One thing he said has stuck in my mind.

“Culture comes from leadership. I have a strong philosophy that the level of service to any set of customers is related to the culture of the company. If an agent is in the 8th hour of their shift our whole business is down to the way they speak to that customer. That’s driven by how they feel about themselves. We have to make people feel valued. You can’t force it – they feel it or they don’t.”

You can read more about first direct’s DNA on our white paper “100 things you can learn from first direct“.

Of course its much harder to focus for years on brilliant basics – delivering what customers want and doing it really really well. Its harder to be famous for it, Its hard to do. You have to align so many factors from brand to sales experience to service to process to infrastructure. It isn’t all shiny and fast like a silver bullet. But it is what customers appreciate.

So what brought these thoughts to mind? 2 things.

1) This morning I screwed up the location for a meeting by forgetting part of our own brilliant basics. Setting up a meeting to work.

2) The awards I was at last week and why some people won and some people didn’t. You can see some brilliant learning case studies on the finalists at the Professional Planning Forum Awards.

It was great to see DRL (Appliances Online) add the overall award to their European Contact Centre win using our “Best Service Is No Service” approach. You can download the case study if you want.

100 things, Best Service Is No Service, awards, brilliant basics, first direct, success factors | No Comments

A fabulous day in Bristol yesterday for a group of 25 clients who went to see how the RAC run the BSINS processes in full. Although I’ve seen them present what they do a few times, their enthusiasm and passion is still just as infectious. “An inspiring day” was a common feedback.

What have they done that’s so right?

They have connected all the dots. They have established fantastic staff and stakeholder engagement, are reducing unnecessary demands all the time, providing transparent intelligence from the front line straight to the business and continually changing the partner and customer experience. They’ve even been winning more business because of the intelligence they can provide partners about their customers and which their account teams can demonstrate.

It is clear why RAC won the Aviva Customer Cup from 450 entries worldwide. The agents would not want it taken away, it makes such a difference to them. And the quantified business benefits are significant.

Polishing the cup they are so proud of,  the RAC team shared their detailed experience of running the processes of Skyline and WOCAS ( What our customers are saying). The keys to success are action not words – continually acting on what front staff learn with customers and continually communicating. “Transparency” was a word repeatedly used. Managers around the business can see for themselves in real time what is bring suggested by customers. And front line staff can see for themselves what management is doing about what customers say.

One senior Aviva manager quotes was “This is the only part of our business where we know what customers think all of the time and it’s clearly measurable”. I wonder why the rest of Aviva aren’t using the approach after judging it the best thing for customers in the Aviva Cup?

Any comments?

Aviva, WOCAS, awards, events, world class | No Comments

David’s been out judging the European Awards this summer culminating in the 10th Awards dinner at Expo last week. He said he didn’t drink, but I don’t believe him….. The same night I was at a dinner in Birmingham hosted by former colleague Fran Fish, md of SOH who get the brand voice and experience right in IVRs. I met her new boss who asked me a few questions, but wasn’t aware of her role in the growth of the contact centre market. In fact there are a few people like that who were very formative and should be recognised. CCF’s request for a quick quote for the 10th anniversary of the Awards prompted the memory and Graham Hill’s CRM Olympian Gold Medalists table (oh, did I tell you I’m in it…but don’t let that put you off, there are some great links in his piece) told me I should do something about recognising these people.

CCF was originally formed by Janette Menday and Francis Brookes (now Fish) when they realised there was a big education gap as res centres became call centres and more industries started to adopt them. They were passionate about this and left their ops jobs in American Airlines to set up Call Centre Focus. I remember meeting Janette and Fran at the very first Call Centre Conference I spoke at (that’ll be about 400 ago…) and was taken by their passion and knowledge for the subject and the people in the industry. Anyway the rest as they say is history. When they started the Awards, Janette and I poured over endless presentations to find that Halifax Direct was a clear winner – where is Mike Riley and his guitar now? We quickly realised we needed to see the sites, so to speak, and a great crew of judges was co-opted by Janette to take part, some of whom are still involved today. Then after Fran left, Louise Chuter and Emma Brown took up the challenge to develop the awards dinner, and brilliant bashes they were and are. Janette sold on to CMP and retired down to Devon to run holiday cottages, Fran is running SOH and Louise is running Contact Centre Link

So a little bit of recognition to those who set those events in motion. Well done, the industry grew up, but the parties are still great fun!

awards | No Comments

awards, resourcing | No Comments