Customer Experience Strategy

Transcription

1 Customer Experience Strategy Page 1 of 25 Working together to deliver quality homes and a better environment for all

2 Contents 1 Foreword 3 2 Introduction 4 3 The vision 5 4 Background 5 5 The local context 6 6 Consultation and feedback Customer feedback 6.2 Staff 7 Customer Service Excellence Standard 9 8 Equality and diversity 9 9 Value for money Strategic objectives of this strategy 10.1 Objective 1 Our staff will display a truly customer focused attitude where each customer enquiry is fully owned by the officer and responsibility taken to ensue that it is resolved. The interaction will be one which is truly empathetic and courteous at all times Objective 2 We will ensure that all services are accessible with the minimum of effort by the customer Implementation and monitoring Action plan 20 Page 2 of 25

3 Foreword Our Customer Experience Strategy aims to deliver excellent services to our customers, however they choose to access them. The strategy builds on the excellent achievements of the previous access and customer care strategy which was in place from and as such includes new strategic objectives which have been identified with our customers and key stakeholders as objectives which, when met, will take us to the next level as a truly customer focussed organisation. We want to compare with the best organisations in both the public and private sectors. We do not want to be excellent when compared with just the housing sector alone. We want to make access to our services easier than ever before by reducing the amount of customer effort required by customers. We will do this by reviewing our access arrangements to all services from a customer (not organisational) point of view. We also want each customer interaction with the company to be a positive one where customers are truly listened to and empathised with, where all of our officers listen to and own enquiries with a drive and determination to resolve the enquiry within time-scales agreed with our customers.and of course with minimum effort on the customers behalf. Paul Tanney Chief Executive Page 3 of 25

4 Introduction As the main provider of housing in East Durham we aim to put the customer at the heart of all we do in delivering excellent services. The vision of the company is: Working together to deliver quality homes and a better environment for all. Our 5 strategic objectives to deliver the vision are: Providing quality homes Regenerating estates and communities Involving customers to improve services Delivering excellent services to all Employer of choice and financially stable We are fully aware that to achieve our mission we need to do more than provide excellent homes in terms of bricks and mortar. The delivery of excellent customer focused services as outlined in objective four is a key factor in helping the company achieve its vision. In developing the strategy we have also ensured in line with our third objective that customers have been centrally involved in its development and will play a key role in monitoring the implementation of the actions. The first strategy was agreed by the Board in May 2008 and was last reviewed in May This is a new strategy with new objectives which we believe will move the company on to even greater customer service. This strategy supports the company s Business Plan and annual Delivery Plan and compliments other key work programmes which impact on customer care, particularly around customer involvement. The actions from the strategy are also incorporated into the access and customer care service plan. The strategy is a living document which will provide the company with direction and focus in ensuring easy access to services and excellent customer focused service delivery that continues to meet the needs of our customers. Customers can currently contact us in the following ways: Face to face at our customer outlets, at our head office or via home visits By telephone to our contact centre Page 4 of 25

5 Via or our web-site Text messaging In writing via letter or fax Via social networking The vision Our vision for the future of customer service provision is: Customers will be able to access our services with minimum effort. They will deal with customer focused staff who will take ownership of the customer enquiry ensuring that they are responded to courteously effectively and efficiently. This vision was developed with our customers who feel that it reflects the next goal in East Durham Homes journey towards providing unrivalled customer service in the social housing sector and one which is comparable with top performers within the private sector..regardless of the type of business. Background We manage approximately 8,600 properties on behalf of Durham County Council and the company was set up on 1 April The company is run by a Board consisting of tenants, council representatives and Independent Board Directors. Our services to customers are delivered mainly from 2 customer outlets based in Peterlee and Seaham and via telephone from our centralised contact centre within our head office in Peterlee. In addition the company proactively promotes a home visit service to customers who can also contact us by , via our web-site or by text message. The principal role of the company is to provide effective services to our customers, such as routine repairs and maintenance, improvement works, tenancy and estate management, property lettings, rent income management and tenancy support services. Page 5 of 25

6 The local context Local Strategy/Plan East Durham Homes Business Plan East Durham Homes Delivery Plans Customer Involvement Strategy and Compact EDH Corporate Equality Scheme Links with this strategy This strategy will contribute directly towards achieving the following corporate objectives as set out in the company s 3 year business plan: Involving customers to improve services Delivering excellent services to all Employer of choice and financially stable The action plan for this strategy will be delivered through detailed annual service improvement plans that form part of the company s annual delivery plans. The strategy links directly to the Customer Involvement Strategy in ensuring that we listen to customers and involve them in developing and shaping service delivery. These values are also reflected in the Tenant Involvement Compact. The corporate Equality Scheme sets out actions to ensure that our services are accessible to all sections of the community. This strategy has relevance to all service areas and therefore also links to other East Durham Homes strategies: Income Management Strategy Financial Inclusion Strategy Anti Social Behaviour Strategy Repairs and Maintenance Strategy Value for Money and Efficiency Strategy Page 6 of 25

7 ICT Strategy Human Resources Strategy Marketing and Communications Strategy Some of the actions required to achieve the objectives within this strategy are also identified within other East Durham Homes strategies. For the purpose of our governance and performance monitoring arrangements, progress against these actions will only be included once within the delivery plan and service improvement plans. Consultation and feedback Customer feedback We have undertaken extensive consultation with customers in the development of this strategy and in identifying what they want from the company in terms of service delivery and what their expectations are. Methods of consultation have included mystery shopping exercises, focus group meetings and an access and customer care survey completed in March More recently we have consulted with customers via our Service Review Panels and Housing Partnership in June We have also hosted annual customer involvement events aimed at vulnerable customers and their needs. Our Vision Management customer satisfaction data also provides valuable information on how our customers perceive customer care. The table below demonstrates continued improvement in customer care across all services that we deliver: Av. satisfaction score 2009/ /11 June 2011 across all service areas (out of 10) Access to service Customer care Quality of information Speed of response Overall satisfaction Page 7 of 25

8 In addition results from the STATUS survey indicate an improving trend in customer satisfaction with services provided by East Durham Homes: STATUS Survey Percentage of tenants satisfied with the overall service provided by East Durham Homes Group 2010 All Respondents 2008 All Respondents 2006 All Respondents Satisfied 83.7% 79% 72% We are also keen to involve our key partners (Morrisons, FHM, Kier & Wates) in the delivery of the strategy and to gain their buy in to the delivery of the objectives and standards. The action plan includes actions to engage with them and to discuss the potential for their involvement in the delivery of the training programme to their staff. Staff feedback We recognise that staff provide a valuable insight into how services are working on the ground and can often provide a reality check on how effective policies and processes are in practice. We have also consulted with service managers to ensure that the strategy is informed by their views on how services could be improved and to ensure that we gain buy in from them into the strategic aims and objectives. Page 8 of 25

9 Customer Service Excellence Standard In our previous Access and Customer Care Strategy we made a commitment to making the improvements necessary to achieve the Customer Service Excellence Standard. In October 2010 we were successful in achieving the accreditation, scoring full compliance in each area. However, we recognise that ongoing improvements are required to continue to provide excellent services to our customers and we will participate in the annual surveillance visits to maintain our accreditation. Equality and diversity We recognise that our approach to access and customer care must be consistent with, and take account of, equality and diversity issues. In producing this strategy we have taken account of the customer profile data we have available. In capturing the profile of our customers we have asked detailed questions which will enable us to tailor our services to meet the needs of our individual customers, for example, whether there are any issues of faith that we need to take account of when providing a service to our customers and details on how customers would like to be contacted. The full customer profile is detailed within the Equality Impact Assessment carried out on the strategy. We continue to ensure that equal access to services remains a high priority within the company. The following ongoing actions will ensure that we deliver against this: Ensure all access methods continue to meet the requirements of the Equality Act Ensure that the availability of home visits continues to be regularly promoted to customers Electronic access methods need to be developed further and promoted to customers. Same sex and chaperoned visits need to continue to be offered to customers and flagged on the IT system, where requested. Information should continue to be available in a range of formats and this should continue to be promoted on our letterhead and straplines. Page 9 of 25

10 Within East Durham there are lower than average levels of literacy therefore all key documents and literature should continue to be Plain English accredited and the use of Easy Read should be developed. We need to be aware that the geographical nature of the area may raise access issues for customers with mobility difficulties. We need to continue to promote the availability of Language Line, Typetalk and interpretation services. We have offered free magnifiers to our customers who have indicated that they have a visual impairment to aid our written communication with them. Continue to address the needs of customers with a hearing impairment. The IT systems need to be further developed to highlight to staff any access issues that customers have told us they have. Promote to customers with a hearing impairment the availability of induction loop facilities. Promote to customers the availability of Browsealoud on our website. Deliver training to support communication issues for deaf and deafened people and people with a visual impairment. Deliver training about specific issues associated with individual protected characteristics, including Traveller culture and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. Continue to increase the level of customer profile data held on customers, towards a 100% response rate. Value for money The implementation of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and scripting has enabled us to deal with queries more efficiently, accurately diagnose repairs and increase the number of contacts dealt with right first time (currently over 90% of calls). This improvement has enabled us to achieve efficiency savings of over 3,000 per annum. As part of this strategy we have committed to reviewing our processes across all front-line services from a customer perspective to ensure that customer effort is reduced. We anticipate that this exercise may realise additional efficiencies by reducing the time taken and administrative process to progress and resolve enquiries. In addition to this we have an action to review self-service options and Page 10 of 25

11 to review the web-site to identify further ways in which we can make further selfservice improvements. We will assess the effectiveness and value for money of the improvements we make to access and customer care by continuing to monitor the levels of customer satisfaction to determine whether the investments we make in our services are reflected in improved levels of customer satisfaction. We will also of course continue to monitor first call resolution and average call handling times within the contact centre. In addition to the above our action plan includes an action to develop performance monitoring for wider areas of the business in terms of quality of service beyond just the contact centre. Such monitoring should include improvements in back office processes as a result of the process reviews. Strategic objectives Working with our customers we have developed two key strategic objectives in relation to the provision of excellent customer focused services. The two key strategic objectives which we believe build on the services we provide at present and move us forward in how we provide services to customers are listed below: Our staff will display a truly customer focused attitude where each customer enquiry is fully owned by the officer and responsibility taken to ensue that it is resolved. The interaction will be one which is truly empathetic and courteous at all times. We will ensure that all services are accessible with the minimum of effort by the customer. The action plan sets out the actions we will take to meet each objective and is supported by a detailed service improvement plan which sets out the measures we will use to assess whether the actions have been successful and the outcomes for customers. Objective one: Our staff will display a truly customer focused attitude where each customer enquiry is fully owned by the officer and responsibility taken to ensure that it is resolved. The interaction will be one which is truly empathetic and courteous at all times. Society s attitudes towards standards of service delivery, quality and customer care are continuing to change in many ways. Expectations are continuing to rise at an ever increasing pace. Page 11 of 25

12 We are all no longer prepared to be passive recipients of services, or settle for second best. We expect more control, more choice and high quality at competitive prices. There are many examples of this especially in the retail, leisure, holiday and banking industries. It is no longer true to say that you get what you pay for. Cost and quality no longer have to be at odds with each other. You can have high quality goods and services at low cost if you have efficient systems and process in place and if you have well trained and motivated staff. Many private sector companies strive to set themselves apart from the competition and gain a market edge by delivering high quality customer services. In public services we do not operate in the kind of commercial environment that drives up quality and drives down cost. In many cases our customers do not have any choice but to use our services and yet the pressure to become more efficient and increase quality, choice and personalisation are just as pressing. At East Durham Homes we understand that first impressions count. Each year most of our customers will contact us at some point and in doing so the way they are treated, the standards of customer care and the quality of the outcomes they receive will influence their perception of the company as a whole. Latest thinking in delivering excellent customer experience As referred to in the introduction a major driver in the development of this strategy was to focus upon the customer experience in terms of the softer skills used by officers in dealing with customers and to consider the level of customer effort required by our customers when they contact us to receive services. Our previous strategies for access and customer care were very much concentrated on the nuts and bolts of good customer service. Key outcomes from these strategies were the implementation of scripting software within the contact centre, the implementation of call recording and crucially the development of a robust performance management framework with key indicators across the customer service function with pro-active monitoring of performance. Ensuring that all of our access points were welcoming, effective and accessible was another key driver of the strategy. We have made significant progress in this area however recognise that additional work is required at our Peterlee outlet and an action is included within our service improvement plan to achieve this. The outcomes from the above actions have been positive and we can now boast Customer Service Excellence accreditation, very strong customer satisfaction scores and strong performance from both the STATUS survey and our own mystery shopping exercises. Page 12 of 25

13 We have come a long way in a relatively short space of time..but we want to improve even further. Our performance management framework and annual service improvement plans will ensure that the standards that we have set are maintained and in many areas built upon. This strategy however is about taking us the extra mile about moving us to the forefront of customer service delivery in the social housing sector. But it also goes beyond this.we do not only want to be good for a housing organisation. We want to compare with the best customer service in all sectors. In view of the above this strategy concentrates on a much narrower set of objectives (there are only 2) which we believe will take us forward towards providing customers with a truly great customer experience. We accept that it will not be easy. We accept that the aims of the strategy will involve a cultural change within the company. After all the delivery of an excellent customer experience depends on every officer within the company playing their part. We believe however that it is a challenge that we are capable of meeting. The building blocks are in place. The acronym ASK (Attitude, Skills, Knowledge) summarises the key components required in undertaking any task well. We believe that as an organisation we have developed and have in place excellent skills and knowledge and have provided the tools to enable staff to use such skills and knowledge effectively.this strategy is about delivering on the attitude. We are fully aware that we can provide excellent examples of when we get the attitude right and that we have many customer focussed staff who display a positive attitude in dealing with customers. We also acknowledge however that it can at times be inconsistent. We also acknowledge that in comparison to top performing companies we probably fall short. The following section provides some background to the objectives and outlines some of the latest thinking from across the leading private sector customer service industry. Customer experience management A great deal of work has been conducted within the private sector to identify what sets the top companies apart in terms of delivering truly great customer experience. Page 13 of 25

14 Nunwood are a multi-national organisation who specialise in the analysis of customer service management working alongside a number of customer service clients including household names, large multi-national brands. In addition to providing insight, analysis and training into the requirements of delivering great customer experience they also survey the worlds top customer service companies to identify the top performing organisations in this field, finding out what it is that allows and enables them to stand out from the crowd. Carried out in September 2010, Nunwood asked 5500 customers to consider the relationship they had with 170 brands across 9 industry types. Those surveyed were asked to think about their interactions with the companies and what they thought about their experiences with them. The following elements were the basis on which those surveyed were asked to rate their experiences: The degree to which the experience met their particular needs The ease with which these needs were met The degree to which the experience met or exceeded their expectations In all of the above those surveyed were asked to explain why they rated their experiences as high or low. The highest rated companies were from a variety of different fields including retailers, banking, on line businesses, contact centre businesses, restaurants etc. Nunwood identified that crucially it is consistent quality of delivery not the business model that is the main factor across the top performing companies. As Nunwood state top companies adopt a holistic approach offering great products and excellent service are hygiene factors today and do not lead to competitive advantage when it comes to delivering great customer experience these companies get a number of things right across a broad spectrum of activities with wow experiences the outcome The following six factors were identified as being key elements displayed by the top performing companies: 1. Friendliness In describing those companies that scored highest, this was by far the most frequently used word. Warm, kindly, advice you can trust, user friendly; the word can be defined in different ways however for the consumers who took part in the Nunwood survey its meaning was clear - when you treat someone as a friend you show you care. Page 14 of 25

15 In short, attitude is everything A consistent feature of the top performing companies was that such friendliness was common practice, demonstrating that they really care for their customers. We are confident that the above approach is employed on the majority of occasions by our staff. We are also aware however that we can, on occasion, be inconsistent and that the level of friendliness can vary from officer to officer. Our strategy is aimed at setting a clear expected standard and providing with the knowledge to adopt the expected approach each and every time. 2. Valuing customers time A key feature in addition to the above was the evidence that the top companies fully appreciated that their customers time was valuable. Service enquiries are dealt with quickly and efficiently with thought having been put in to ensuring that problem experiences are minimised and processes streamlined to remove any barriers to efficient service delivery. As the Nunwood report found each of these companies helps its customers achieve their objectives quickly and easily. Our strategy has a key objective of reducing customer effort. We recognise that our current processes are driven largely by business needs. We are committed to reviewing these processes with our customers to ensure that they are built around customer needs. 3. Turning a poor experience into a great one Instances of poor service can occur in all companies, even in the top performing ones. A key difference is how such instances are planned for and handled. The best identify the problem quickly and act equally as quickly to resolve the problem with minimum disruption to the customer. As an organisation we have improved greatly in how we manage and resolve complaints over recent years. We feel we can improve even further however and will review how we can greater empower our front-line staff to resolve customer complaints at the earliest opportunity where appropriate. 4. Setting and delivering against customer expectations To be the best it is important to ensure that customer expectations are set appropriately and even more important that we deliver against them. Page 15 of 25

16 For East Durham Homes we need to ensure that we continue to deliver against our local offers and ensure that we regularly consult with our customers to enable the local offers to remain consistent with customer needs and aspirations. Our local offers set out the level of service we will provide to customers and have been agreed with customers. We review our performance against these on a monthly basis. We will also develop customer focus attitude standards for staff which will set out clearly the attitude that our staff will display at all times. The performance monitoring process which we will put in place will also detail how we will deal with non-compliance to ensure that the message is clear of what is expected. 5. Demonstrating honesty and integrity As identified in the Nunwood report Nothing irritates customers more than when an organisation cites its procedures when it is clearly in the wrong When we get things wrong we need to ensure that we acknowledge this. The top customer service companies have an open culture with employees encouraged and empowered to acknowledge and learn from mistakes rather than be defensive. As outlined in point 3 we have improved greatly as an organisation in how we deal with complaints. Our commitment to empowering front-line staff to resolve complaints at the earliest opportunity will also focus on an open and honest approach giving staff the confidence to admit where we have got it wrong. We are committed to a no blame culture within the company and view complaints as an opportunity to learn and improve the service. 6. Meeting customer needs in a way that feels personal It is consistently demonstrated that customers are impressed and more likely to remain loyal to a company if they feel that they are receiving a personalised service. For East Durham Homes we need to ensure that we use our information systems to enable staff to provide a tailored, personalised service. We have access to information such as the preferred contact time / method etc at our finger tips. It is important that our staff are pro-active in using this information. It is not acceptable for a customer to have to repeat information that they have already provided numerous times before. Our action plan includes the procurement of a specialised customer service training programme which will be built around these key features. Crucially it will Page 16 of 25

17 include the additional training of customer service champions to ensure that the skills learned and techniques will remain within the organisation. Training manuals provided by the training provider, tailored to the needs of East Durham Homes, will also be provided to enable the customer service champions to continue to deliver the training and maintain and improve service delivery long after the initial training programme has been completed. Objective two: Customer effort we will ensure that all services are accessible with the minimum of effort by the customer Customer effort The latest thinking in the delivery of excellent customer service is around the notion of customer effort, that is the level of energy which a customer has to expend to receive the service they require. It therefore covers every interaction which the customer has with the company and is impacted upon by how easy the customer has their query dealt with. Developed from a Harvard Business Review the customer effort approach identifies that a key priority for customers is a satisfactory solution to their service issue. Having studied customer service interactions across more than 75,000 people the report identified that focussing on reducing the effort that a customer has to make in undertaking a transaction with the company will increase the likelihood that they will return and that they will speak positively about the service. Key elements include concentrating on avoiding the need for follow-up calls, dealing well with the emotional element of calls (i.e. the friendliness and empathy), minimising the need for customers to be passed around (i.e. dealing with the call at first point of contact) and focussing on problem solving rather than speed. The study covered 3 elements across the survey: How important is customer service to loyalty Which customer service activities increase loyalty and which don t Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs Whilst it is recognised that we work in an environment where there is less customer choice and therefore it could be argued not as big an incentive to drive for customer loyalty it is important to note that the causes of customer loyalty are very much applicable and desirable to East Durham Homes as clearly a Page 17 of 25

18 customer who is loyal is one which by definition will be happy and satisfied with the service they receive, thereby remaining loyal to that company. The research identified that aiming at exceeding expectations via things such as offering a refund, giving a free rent period or providing a free service etc made customers only marginally more loyal than simply meeting their needs efficiently. As highlighted within the Harvard report We buy from a company because it delivers quality products, great value or a compelling brand. We leave one, more often than not, because it fails to deliver on customer service The key to proving great customer service then is to make it easy. We will combine making it easy with the approach set out in objective one to adopt a more customer focused, empathetic approach across the company. Making it easy Customers resent having to contact us repeatedly, having to repeat information, or get transferred to someone else. We therefore need to ensure that we continue to deliver on first call resolution and to expand on this approach towards a forward-resolve approach which identifies future issues which a customer may have. An example of this would be providing additional guidance to a tenant on how to submit a bid for a property, when their actual contact with us is for their bidding reference number. Providing the additional information at the time of the initial call may well avoid the need for a customer to make a further repeat follow up call on how to submit a bid. Linking into the first objective of customer experience management in terms of empathy and connection with the customer the research identified that 24% of repeat calls in the study stemmed from emotional disconnects between the customer and the service advisor. Typical examples were where the customer did not trust the information being provided or felt that the advisor was hiding behind policy. An example is given of a UK mortgage company which has trained staff to identify customer personality types in order to provide more tailored responses which has seen a reduction in repeat calls of 40%. As outlined earlier in the strategy we currently have processes in place and IT systems which enable us to achieve impressive levels of first call resolution. We recognise however that our processes and scripts which we developed to achieve good performance in this area were developed internally. We believe that by reviewing these from a customer perspective we will further improve and develop processes which will truly reduce the effort that customers need to make when contacting us for services and therefore enhance the overall customer experience. Page 18 of 25

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20 Implementation and monitoring The Service Review Panel will be the main group used to monitor the implementation of the actions from this strategy and those contained within the access and customer care service plan. The group will monitor performance against the action plan on a quarterly basis to ensure that we continue to provide excellent customer focused services and provide appropriate and effective responses to areas where this is not the case. The actions will also be managed via responsible line managers and Senior Management Team on a monthly basis. Progress against the strategy will be reported to the Customer Service Panel on a bi-annual basis. Page 20 of 25

21 Action plan Objective one: Our staff will display a truly customer focused attitude where each customer enquiry is fully owned by the officer and responsibility taken to ensue that it is resolved. The interaction will be one which is truly empathetic and courteous at all times. Action Cost / Efficiencies Target date Lead officer Outputs Consult with Morrisons and other key partners to gain buy in to strategy objectives & discuss possible involvement in training programme. Develop & deliver an innovative bespoke customer service training programme focussing on softer skills to all front-line service officers and delivery against the key elements of customer service identified in the strategy. Develop & deliver an innovative bespoke customer service champion training programme to 6 customer service champions to enable continued delivery & reinforcement of the key skills from the customer service training. 26,000 (estimate subject to procurement) Included in training programme costs Dec 2011 MD/JD Buy in obtained from partners March 2012 JD/GL Training delivered. Increased skills in-house March 2012 JD/GL Training delivered. Service champions identified & trained Page 21 of 25

22 Implement EDH customer focused attitude service standards & incorporate into the training pack to be used by customer service champions. Implement procedure for regular 1 to 1 customer service refresher sessions for front-line staff including referral process to customer service champions where under performance identified via appraisals, 1 to 1 s etc. Develop & implement performance measures on customer service experience across all front-line services. Develop performance monitoring system to measure performance on customer service skills across all front-line service delivery. Expand Keyfax task system across all front-line services to enable increased ownership & monitoring of responses to service requests. Included in training programme costs March 2012 JD/GL Service standards & training pack produced March 2012 GL Procedure in place July 2012 GL Performance indicators in place July 2012 GL Monitoring system in place Nov 2012 HB Task system expanded to all services. Page 22 of 25

23 Investigate facility for sending automated texts/ s to customers for immediate feedback on customer service performance following contact with EDH. Review current recruitment methods / advertising and person specification to ensure focus on customer service skills for frontline posts. Investigation within existing March 2013 GL Options report produced with recommendation Dec 2011 PB Revised recruitment process in place Page 23 of 25

24 Objective two: Customer effort we will ensure that all services are accessible with the minimum of effort by the customer. Action Cost / Efficiencies Target date Lead officer Outputs Review measurement of First Call Resolution and consider measurement of repeat calls as alternative. Analyse enquiries & identify potential improvements to web-site to reduce number. Develop and introduce customer effort tool which measures customer effort in addition to existing performance measures. Consider how increased empowerment can be given to front-line staff for early resolve of front-line complaints / service requests. Review latest developments on self-service options & develop proposals for implementation linked to review of processes. Review within existing Feb 2012 GL/NL Review complete Feb 2012 NL Improvements to web-site identified July 2012 JD/GL Measurement tool introduced October 2012 JD/GL Procedure in place with agreed levels of empowerment Sep 2013 JD/GL Self-service options identified Page 24 of 25

25 Develop more streamlined customer focused processes by reviewing with customers each front-line service area using journey mapping and other process review techniques. Review all scripts with customers to ensure that they are customer focused and not driven by business needs. Consider introduction of forward resolve scripts across all service areas. Ensure customer profile information accessible to all front-line staff including preferred contact methods etc. Within customer knowledge project Sep 2013 GL/CE Customer focused processes which deliver against customer and not business needs Sep 2013 HB Customer focused scripts which reduce customer effort Sep 2013 HB Reduced customer effort and reduced repeat calls March 2012 MT Profile information accessible to staff Page 25 of 25