Customer Service Transformation

UDC Finance

Colin Rodgers: Manager - National Customer Support Centre

“We needed a program that was on-going and encouraged people to take ownership for their part of the business. If they see a problem, they bring it up and need to be prepared to be part of the solution. Also, as a company, UDC needed to provide a vision for staff to gain a shared understanding for what we were about and the direction we were heading.
The PPF program – or Top Right as we called it – did just that. The commitment of our people and the ownership they have for the business is commendable. The success of the program speaks for itself through the fact that a range of key projects have been implemented with no increased staff or consultants in a period where we also managed to grow the business by more than 20%”.

In 1997/98 UDC underwent a major re-engineering project during which 14 branches were closed and the lending operations were centralised in Auckland. Functional lines reported directly to UDC’s Australian parent, ANZ Asset Finance. A unique culture was threatened by increased influence from its owner, ANZ Bank and management were concerned that staff had lost their sense of the “team” objective, their sense of direction, and that they felt less autonomous and less empowered. They were also operating in an increasingly competitive environment.

Colin Rodgers explains “We had been through an extensive centralisation project and relocated people to Auckland. We had new premises, new roles and lots of new people, which initially created a high level of enthusiasm and energy. But over a period of six months, this enthusiasm waned and people were asking “what next, where are we going, what about me?”. Another downside to centralising with a lot of people in one place is that bureaucracy creeps in and it becomes too easy to say that somebody else will deal with that. With a stronger reporting structure through to our Australian parent, it was easy to lay the responsibility for improvements at their door instead of taking responsibility ourselves.

TMI guiding the process…

Peter McMahon, Managing Director of ANZ Asset Finance in Melbourne is committed to the Putting People First program. He states “This is our commitment to improving our people management practices and an initiative to address issues arising from the Staff Survey” - TMI, through the Putting People First program helped to do just that.

Investigation

It started with a survey of all employees to measure the “Energy” of the company and pull out the key business issues staff felt were facing UDC.

Integration

Following on from this, the senior management team held a two-day workshop to start to clearly define the direction and values they wanted and needed in order to take the business forward.

Inspiration

The program started in earnest when all staff, and managers attended one of eight two-day events. The focus of these workshops is on personal development and the theme that if anything is to change, it is up to the individual to take action, not wait on others.

At these sessions, staff were encouraged to suggest ways UDC could improve, however, the person making the suggestion had to also be prepared to be part of the solution. More than 170 ideas flowed from these workshops. The ideas ranged from simple things such as casual days through to wider issues such as developing service level agreements and how to improve the reward and recognition within the company.

Implementation

After the PPF programs, a “Navigation” team was formed consisting of staff representatives from each unit to navigate the business through projects. Initially TMI assisted with the direction of this team, until they gathered their own momentum. Key business projects affecting people’s perception of UDC are driven by the staff, such as New Entrant Induction program, Customer Service Team, Reward and Recognition, Staff Development and Performance Management.

Results

Staff Satisfaction:

Highly satisfied staff increased from 43% in 1999 to 66% in 2000.
Dissatisfied staff fell from 19% to 7%.

Customer Satisfaction:

In 2000, 64% of customers are either very satisfied or satisfied (just 5% were dissatisfied).
When asked “would you recommend UDC?” customers rated the company 8.13 on a scale of 1-9.

Bottom-line Performance:

Sales and asset growth up over 20% in 12 months
Market share – from 5th to 1st in motor-vehicle dealer market
Telephone abandonment rates down 60%.

A staff member’s view sums up the feeling of the programme:

“What surprised us all was that the initial two-day seminar was aimed towards individuals, not the organisation. Overall, the course made us question where we were going, and made us define what we wanted from life. I have since been involved in the customer service team….. It was our job to get the service level agreements in place and identify key issues in which we lagged with customer service. The process opened up a huge Pandora’s box, but the agreements have been implemented across the business now.” Louise Turner, Commercial Finance Representative.

Diana Ferrari – Australia

The shoe manufacturer and marketer Diana Ferrari needed to manage the rapid growth of their family business, improve the organisation’s customer focus, lift the energy of their 280 staff, whilst encouraging them to “live the values” of the organisation.

The Problem

Most staff considered themselves factory workers and not a part of the family culture that the owners were looking for,
Values were ‘words on a wall’ with little relevance to the employees,
Delivery of product to shoe retailers was spasmodic due to both manufacturing and distribution weaknesses,
Planning was either poor or non-existent,
Many managers were over-promoted and under-skilled,
Annual business plan was a 50 page document that was rarely referred to,
The two owners had grown a business beyond their personal capabilities.

The Solution

A dynamic Managing Director was employed from outside the business with the owner’s freed up to work in their specialist fields.
The TMI Time Manager program was used to implement planning across the board.
“Living the Values” workshops were implemented for all staff as a part of TMI’s Putting People First training.
Leadership workshops were held for all managers.
Strategy workshops including implementation plans were developed with all managers.

The Results

The strategy document was reduced to 1 page.
The Diana Ferrari values became a part of every day discussion and application.
Productivity and profitability showed significant improvement.
Rapid growth was managed very effectively over the following 5 years.
The Diana Ferrari brand became a recognised institution and market leader.
The company was sold to Colorado in 2003 for a multi million dollar value reflecting the intangible values that had been built up.

Results

The Diana Ferrari values became a part of every day discussion and application
Rapid growth was managed very effectively over the following 5 years.
The Diana Ferrari brand became a recognised institution and market leader.

The company was sold to Colorado in 2003 for a multi million dollar value reflecting the intangible values that had been built up.

Citipower – Victoria, Australia

This electricity retailer needed to ensure customer retention due to the introduction of full retail contestability of the energy market in Victoria. They also wanted to use improved service levels as a competitive differentiator.

The Problem

All customers were to be fully contestable, and a rapid loss of business was a distinct possibility;
Citipower needed to improve customer service, and use the improvement as a differentiator to ensure customers did not have a reason to leave;
Billing problems had eroded customer satisfaction over the past 18 months;
Many of the staff had been previously employed by a Government monopoly and did not understand the new free market they were operating in.

The Solution

Senior managers were led by TMI through a business retention strategy process to address the problems;
All 80 managers participated in a series of leadership workshops to understand the business case and their need to change behaviour;
Almost 700 employees participated in a 2 day program designed to change attitudes to internal and external customers;
TMI helped established and worked alongside a navigation team that led the implementation stages over the following 18 months;
A detailed business retention strategy supported by TMI Consulting addressed all the potential processes and systems that could reduce retention;
The complaints process was reviewed by TMI with changes to processes and systems implemented,
This was supported by 200 front line staff participating in “A Complaint Is A Gift” training.
360 degree feedback was implemented and used to workshop improvements needed by key senior managers.

The Outcomes

Customer loss on full retail contestability was well below expected levels.
Externally measured customer satisfaction placed Citipower in the top quartile of Australian utilities.

On the future sale of the business, the owners and senior managers were able to increase their return partially based on Citipower’s excellent customer relations and retention.

Results

Customer loss on full retail contestability was well below expected levels.
On the future sale of the business, the owners and senior managers were able to increase their return partially based on Citipower’s excellent customer relations and retention.

Dulux Australia

Dulux was the market and product leader in the paint sector, but was facing decreasing profitability and the possibility of brand erosion. The staff believed they were customer focused and not product focused, however senior management believed otherwise.

The Problem

Dulux was facing decreasing profitability even though it remained market and product leader.
Staff believed they were customer focused, however senior management believed otherwise.
Initial research on what customers wanted identified 5 critical items including “In Full and On Time Delivery of Product” (DIFOT). Using tough definitions of success, results showed only 35% success in meeting the DIFOT standards. The target was set at 95%.
The company needed to differentiate in more than just product

The Solution

TMI were employed to conduct the world renown “Putting People First” program for Dulux’s 2,300 employees;
The goal was set to overcome the major obstacle of changing the mindset of people employed in the manufacturing sector of the business that they had no impact on the organisation’s service levels;
Senior management toured the country to promote the change process;
21 programs were implemented in four states for 40-120 people to address the challenges;
Participants asked to become involved in Customer First teams – and their blossoming enthusiasm meant they did so in droves;
Leadership skills needed to be improved for the 300 managers.

The Results

DIFOT levels increased to 90% in 9 months
40 Customer First teams created with 12 months
Total investment repaid many times over in the first 12 months as a result of changes recommended by staff in Customer First Teams
Dulux soon became a leader in customer service – and other companies began to seek the experience. (A position that remains today).

Doug Curlewis (Managing Director) was asked to repeat the exercise for all of ICI Paints Europe with TMI UK.

Results

40 Customer First teams created with 12 months.

Dulux soon became a leader in customer service – and other companies began to seek the experience. (A position that remains today).

Doug Curlewis (Managing Director) was asked to repeat the exercise for all of ICI Paints Europe with TMI UK