Championing Customer Service & Choice: Finalist Homes for Haringey: Customer Journey Mapping Programme Summary The Homes for Haringey Customer Journey Programme started in spring 2009 and is now in its second year. The project supports our vision to be an outstanding provider an organisation of which our residents and our partners are proud. We chose eight journeys that we knew from consultation with residents were the issues of most concern to them. In the first year we mapped out journeys for customers reporting a repair, dumping on estates, communal repairs, decent homes journeys for both leaseholders and tenants, gas servicing & breakdowns, Anti-Social Behaviour, and Income Collection (persistent non-payers). Over 170 residents and 70 staff have been involved in Customer Journey mapping. Many of our partners have been involved too, including Decent Homes partners, Haringey Council and the Citizens Advice Bureau who have taken part in workshop events. The programme has touched every area of the organisation and our knowledge of our customers experience is increasing as a result. This means we are far more aware of the impact that service delivery and interaction can
have on our customers. It also helps us create more customer focussed ways of working. What did you set out to achieve? The main objectives of the programme were: focus on customer need and experience, not internal processes; understand our customers needs better so that customer satisfaction will improve; and work collaboratively with others, including our staff and partners to identify gaps and find solutions. Our aim was to understand our customers and view issues from their perspective. We had already conducted surveys and had feedback from involved residents but what was missing was an in depth conversation with customers who had a recent experience of the service. In some cases this meant talking to people in detail about personal issues such as how a person had got into arrears or how an incident of anti-social behaviour had affected them. By doing this in-house we wanted to hear for ourselves what our customers had to say to and maximise the influence of this on our improvement and growth. We were keen to develop a way of customer journey mapping that was easy and sustainable. We wanted staff at all levels to participate and to be able to put themselves into our customer s shoes through understanding their experience. We wanted solutions and actions that would make a difference to customers and improve their experience as well as achieving value for money to deliver. The planned programme included: Mapping the journeys with frontline staff and service managers Inviting partners to contribute to the maps Directly consulting with customers In-depth consideration of customer s perceptions and views Action planning Implementation. How were these aims and objectives met? Eight customer journeys have been mapped since the programme started. Explorative sessions have been run to define customer journeys and present them as Visio (flowchart and heartbeat) diagrams. At least 70 of our staff, including those engaged with residents at the front line, and our key partners, were involved in the highly participative workshops. The visualisation of the maps gave a strong stimulus that helped generate discussion and ideas.
Consultation has been successfully completed for each journey. Over 170 residents have been interviewed in depth either in a one-to-one interview, or as part of a focus group resulting in high quality and insightful information. All our consultation was carried out directly by a range of staff from across Homes for Haringey. The findings from seven of the journeys have been fully explored with potential solutions being developed. Four of the identified solutions are currently being progressed with full action plans being implemented. Throughout the first year Homes for Haringey worked closely with Value Adding Consultancy. Their expertise has enabled us to build capacity within Homes for Haringey to continue the programme in-house. The 2010-11 programme is being led and run entirely by Homes for Haringey staff, following a methodology we developed based on our learning from wave 1. What challenges did the project face, and what lessons were learned? Consulting with residents in depth In depth resident feedback was vital. We knew some experiences have been upsetting for them. For example, they may have been a victim of anti-social behaviour or be facing court action for rent arrears. Others would be dissatisfied with the level of service they had received, leaving staff unsure about how to approach them. The key lesson learned was that each journey is unique. This enabled us to tailor the consultation method to the journey and the individuals we needed to speak to. For example, we conducted a door knocking survey of estates where there had been recent incidences of rubbish dumping so that we could speak to residents about the realities of the dumping issue. Interviewers were fully briefed to ask non-judgemental questions and given details of where to refer to for further advice. We have managed to obtain high quality and insightful feedback. Being first When we started journey mapping there were few housing organisations that had conducted similar programmes and none has been as far reaching as ours. We have used the first year of the programme to develop our skills internally and have developed a methodology, reflecting on our learning so that we can continue to journey map into the future. Engaging staff and embedding customer focus It was important for staff to see the benefits of improving the customer experience. Involving colleagues from across the organisation in building the maps was helped us engage them in the overall process of journey mapping. The Mental Health customer journey planned for 2010-11 has been adopted because of staff suggestions and recurring themes from across the range of services we first mapped.
How was the success of the project measured? We achieved the milestones set for the first year of the programme and wanted to evaluate the success of the changes we are making as a result of journey mapping. After action plans have been produced each customer journey has its own set of measures and success criteria. Examples of how success is to be measured are set out below: Anti-Social Behaviour The success of the ASB journey is measured through feedback information supplied by customers who have reported an ASB incident. We will be looking closely at satisfaction levels for how the case was dealt with and overall satisfaction with the outcome. Dumping Hot Spots on Estates: Tiverton solution enforcement There is the potential to significantly reduce dumping in this location through implementing an effective enforcement regime. It can be monitored through the number of notices served and reduction in dumping. Hamilton Close solution bulk store and effective management This solution provides the opportunity to manage what is happening rather than to completely stop dumping happening. Success will be measured by the agreement to have a bulk store and its use by residents. Efficiencies can be achieved through the use of scheduled collections and less unscheduled time spent by Estate Services Officers clearing dumped items. What were the key positive outcomes? Customer Journey Mapping has led to the development and implementation of customer focused solutions, with potential efficiencies. Anti-social behaviour The journey followed the customer s first experience of ASB through to the resolution of the case. The main issues were the quality of the interaction at each stage and the timeliness of our contact with customers. Actions taken: Awareness training for all Caseworkers (40 plus) Keeping in touch with customers every two weeks whilst their case is open More person-to-person contacts. Dumping hotspots Dumping on estates is a complex problem with no magic bullet solution. We found issues around language and awareness, that apathy and complacency are fairly common, and for some there is a lack of community engagement in the issue. A framework (below) was compiled with this in mind to help us develop the best solution.
1. How we inform residents e.g. language, media etc 2. How to make it easier and safer to report 3. Encourage a change in behaviour through demonstrated successes 4. Engaging with the population as it is e.g. apathetic, community minded 5. Address infrastructure issues 6. Enforce, catch, fine and deter 7. Pragmatic responses e.g. timing of collections, optimal use of cameras Actions taken: Four hotspots are currently being tackled with a combination of enforcement schemes, design solutions and new bulk storage areas. Potential efficiencies: 1. Less time spent by estate services officers reporting dumps for collection and clearing dumped items into bulk stores, and by staff dealing with enquiries and complaints from residents. 2. Reduction in time and resources spent to clear dumped refuse. 3. Possible reduction in the need for pest/rodent treatments. 4. A cleaner environment often results in community pride that in turn results in less associated vandalism, graffiti and other low level anti-social behaviour and costs therein. How did the project demonstrate positive practice in equality and diversity? The Customer Journey programme demonstrated positive practice in equality and diversity: Each customer journey had its own consultation plan which involved identifying the groups of customers we wanted to consult with about their experience. For example, in the Gas Breakdown customer journey we have made sure that elderly and vulnerable people have been included in the sample as a loss of heating will significantly impact on this group Using different methods of consultation to reach some of our harder to reach groups. For example, parents with children are less likely to attend consultation meetings so we chose to door knock on estates in the evening and Saturday mornings to speak to people about dumping on estates Running focus groups at venues that are fully accessible for people with disabilities Monitoring equality and diversity information of the people taking part in consultation Developing solutions that use local insight about our communities
Plans to run money workshops (Income Collection Customer Journey) are using local insight data to identify the best times and places for these to take place and will include the provision of interpreters if required. What elements of the project could be replicated by others? From the outset we have used customer journey mapping to embed and improve customer focus. We have developed a Homes for Haringey guide to customer journey mapping that can be used by staff to undertake journey mapping for themselves. Staff who took part in customer journey mapping have contributed to developing the guide and this year s programme is being run in-house by staff referencing it. A variety of consultation methods have been used successfully and could be replicated for future journeys. We have shown that it is possible to obtain high quality information about our customer s choices and preferences by speaking to them through door knocking surveys and in depth conversations. This demonstrates an approach that provides value for money and can be replicated by other projects. Customer journey maps have a strong visual impact that make the representation of complex services much simpler. A number of maps can be produced for each journey showing the journey as the organisation sees it, the journey how the customer sees it and the journey how it could be. For example, we have used customer journey maps in focus groups of tenants and leaseholders where we found it enhanced understanding of the issues. Staff have found it eye opening to see the journey from a customer s perspective and managers have been challenged by these actual experiences. After the journeys have completed, the maps remain a usable reference for the service. There has been interest from other housing organisations and we have been able to share our expertise with them in a variety of ways. We have disseminated information by hosting presentations and inviting other housing organisations to attend workshops. How does the project contribute to the wider organisational objectives in this area? Staff have been encouraged to think differently about their customers and see the service from their perspective. We did this by building the maps with staff and asking them to put themselves into their customer s shoes by walking the journey and using the first person when contributing. There is more focus on the quality of how we interact with customers. For example the actions arising from the ASB journey have focused on raising
staff awareness, and improving interaction at the key points, including with more in person contact. We have moved away from a one size fits all approach. A prime example is the tailored response to dumping hot spots as a result of the insight we have gained from journey mapping. Each hot spot has its own plan including how we involve and consult with residents depending on the location and the unique mix of contributing factors to the causes of dumping. We now have a more complete picture of how our customers view our services and we have looked at how to measure the customer experience for every completed journey. We are using customer journey mapping with information from our customer insight project (part of a HouseMark pilot) to provide more focused services. For example money workshops will be run in areas where there is most need for customers who will gain the greatest benefit. Our new programme of journeys reflects what we have found in the first round and we are following this up by mapping journeys for some of our most vulnerable residents. Without the first journeys learning, this second round would not have been possible. How does the project draw in all parts of the community? Customer journey mapping has revealed a wealth of information about our customer s needs, perceptions and emotions. We are now more aware of the need to respond to our customers as individuals and services are now more flexible and tailored. There are a number of examples where customer journey mapping has led us to consider new ways of working. For example: We are looking at how we can make appointments more flexible and whether text reminders would suit certain customers. We have changed our Anti Social Behaviour procedures to ensure that Tenancy Management Officers have more person to person contact at key points in the customer journey as we recognise that some customers need more support than others. We are targeting our money workshops at potential customers prior to becoming tenants and existing tenants facing court action for rent arrears. Customer journey mapping findings are being incorporated into the development of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. In the first stage of implementation we will be gathering information about our customer s contacts points with us so that we can provide better and more tailored services in the future. For example, we will have records of people s email addresses so that we can interact with customers
electronically if they choose. We already offer leaseholders the choice to put in their own windows and are considering whether we can offer further choice to do more of their own repairs and increase their satisfaction and perception of value for money.