Talking Positive at CFS
Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) has always provided high levels of customer service. Now they are taking excellence to new heights. They are doing this by creating a shift in culture, changing behaviour and promoting a new style of leadership - all enabled by Talking Positive, an innovative, far-reaching learning and development programme, designed and delivered by Academee.
The Background
CFS recently restructured its customer contact centre and introduced new systems. The new operating model has required significant changes for the contact centre including new leadership, a modernised state of the art environment, revised processes and decision-making framework, modified job design and clearly defined business targets. The changes and restructure have been a success and also present new challenges, requiring further change. Driving this change is Ann-Marie Stagg, an experienced contact centre professional, appointed head of insurance services at CFS in 2005.
The Challenge
CFS saw a need to build upon its successful restructuring and to increase the benefits to the customer in terms of a more efficient and effective service. Previous training for call advisors had focused on product knowledge and mastering complex systems and processes. The company now wanted to focus on call handling skills to ensure every customer enjoyed an excellent experience.
Ann-Marie Stagg felt strongly that this could only be achieved through real cultural change - creating a positive, customer-focused environment.
CFS had an existing customer service philosophy, 'Dancing with Customers,' which provided a framework for rapport building and creating a unique and personal experience for each customer. However, it focused more on 'what' to do in terms of customer service than 'how' to do it. To enable the call advisors to cope with the complexities of the role, CFS realised they needed not only a toolkit of techniques and language, but also a positive mindset, supported by a positive culture. They wanted every customer to experience a friendly, helpful and professional service - leading to more effective and successful customer relationships.
The Solution
Following a tender process, CFS appointed learning solutions specialist Academee. “We decided to partner with Academee because we felt we could trust them and liked their creative approach,” says Ann-Marie. “Academee put our needs first and they go to great lengths to listen and understand what these needs are. Academee consultants are also very experienced and they really know their subject. We were particularly impressed by the lead consultant, Rebecca Braund - she immediately grasped what we were talking about.”
Working closely with CFS, Academee created 'Talking Positive,' a highly creative, innovative learning and development programme for customer service agents, with additional training and coaching for team managers and call service managers. The programme centres on creating a positive mindset, attitude, techniques and language to enable increasingly effective customer service. It focuses on developing call handling skills to create a new level of customer satisfaction, delivered via learning and coaching. 'Talking Positive,' is also very interactive, combining elements such as practical sessions, group discussion, Q&A sessions and ongoing action planning. This engages people and really helps to embed learning in the workplace.
In addition, Academee's creative design team has created a vibrant 'Talking Positive' brand identity for CFS. Posters and other reminders are displayed around the contact centre with the 'Talking Positive' logo and key messages. This helped to create a feeling of anticipation and excitement prior to the programme launch and subsequently helps to keep the learning at the forefront of people's minds. It also increases engagement with the programme and encourages participants to live the values of 'Talking Positive.'
The Learning Programme
Over a six week period, 900 call advisors completed phase one of the programme. In groups of 12, call advisors took part in one day learning sessions facilitated by Academee. The language and approach taken is consistent with 'Dancing with Customers' to ensure continuity and build a coherent message.
Phase one sessions focus on developing a common approach across CFS to the techniques, language and mindset necessary for an improved, sustainable call quality. Academee also designed concise, user-friendly workbooks, designed to stand on desktops after the session, in line with the overall Talking Positive brand identity. Each participant receives personalised training and there is time to embed knowledge, tools and techniques and give feedback. Call advisors learn how to 'guide' a call, how to listen, ask questions, acknowledge and respond and to up sell where appropriate. When this cycle is understood, call advisors learn how to handle any conflict positively and professionally, without becoming emotionally involved, build rapport and create an environment where the customer enjoys a great experience.
Phase two helps to embed the learning introduced in phase one. Rather than introducing new tools and techniques, these half day sessions encourage participants to consider what makes their calls work and what doesn't. It is an opportunity to share best practice, increase understanding and build the overall 'Talking Positive' culture. Each participant also devised and signed an individual pledge - something they vowed to achieve - and these were pinned up throughout the contact centre.
In addition to the call advisor training, a learning programme for team managers provides them with the skills and confidence to support call advisors with coaching. It does this by introducing emotionally intelligent leadership styles and a range of coaching tools and techniques. This hugely enjoyable and interactive programme also uses role play to help team managers understand their own behaviour and the impact it has on others. This programme is helping to shift the traditional supervisory role of the team manager to a motivational coach and leader. They are now better equipped to create a positive environment where call advisors can achieve more.
Academee and CFS worked seamlessly together throughout the programme. Ann-Marie Stagg was continually enthusiastic about 'Talking Positive' within CFS, and the programme had many other champions who helped spread excitement throughout the organisation. CFS also put together a 'Talking Positive' support team, responsible for logistics such as booking individuals onto the programme and arranging training rooms. Academee's own client services team worked closely with the support team to ensure the programme ran smoothly and successfully.
The Benefits and the Future
Talking Positive has created a tremendous buzz throughout CFS - across the contact centre, you can not only see all the visible branding, but also hear it talked about everywhere you go. It has ignited a cultural change.
“The branding created by Academee was particularly successful during the launch period,” says Ann-Marie. “We've now taken it one stage further. I'm a strong believer that displays shouldn't remain static. They need to be refreshed. So we now have an ever-changing wall of individual pledges. We've also added several hints and tips to our intranet to help with positive call handling.”
Tony Blair also visited the contact centre during 'Talking Positive' to look at flexible working practices and spotted some of the 'Talking Positive' posters. “He was really interested in learning more about it,” says Ann-Marie. “So one of our team managers has now created a poster of his own - 'Talking Positive, as endorsed by Tony Blair!'”
Feedback so far shows that the programme is working to change behaviour amongst call advisors and to create an increasingly customer-focused culture. The benefits are being passed on to the customer in terms of a more efficient and effective service.
Post-programme questionnaires have scored it extremely highly. In addition, a 'Big Brother Diary Room' was set up during the final stages of the programme in January, to give all participants the opportunity to record their feedback on video. People were literally queuing up to do this, and comments were overwhelmingly positive. Customer feedback has also improved.
A recent independent benchmarking exercise carried out by Consumer Intelligence revealed CFS rankings to be significantly improved since the introduction of Talking Positive. Mystery shoppers compared 37 major competitors operating in the key General Insurance sectors against 150 risks for Motor and Home Insurance by telephone.
Q4 results revealed CFS as the highest overall improver for sales techniques as well as:
- 2nd for overall rapport building against 12th at the start of the year
- 2nd highest for ‘would you take out this policy’
- 5th for overall sales technique
However, Talking Positive is more than one learning programme - it is not over yet.
“It's not just a one'off,” says Ann-Marie Stagg. “We're talking about fundamental culture change. You can't do that overnight. It's hard work. The pace of change and engaging people with the new culture is an ongoing challenge.”
CFS recognise the importance of continuous learning and investing in further programmes, and have now appointed Academee to design and deliver 'Selling Positive' to the CFS sales and renewals team. Building on Talking Positive, this sales techniques course will further develop call handling abilities and create even better customer experiences.
“The Academee team has been fantastic,” says Ann-Marie. “Rebecca Braund in particular has had fabulous feedback. The whole team is very flexible and very involved - they walk the floor and they listen to feedback. They don't just turn up, train and go.”
The 'Talking Positive' programme at Co-operative Financial Services is igniting cultural change, creating a positive environment and improving communication skills - taking customer service to new heights.
