We’ve developed a new function in our Customer Transactions Directorate called Performance Optimisation. The team use data to spot trends and patterns in resident queries to help us identify where additional support is needed for our advisors. We constantly review the performance of our contact centre to identify how we can improve customer experience, in a way which is resident centric and cost efficient. It capitalises on our size and scale, promotes good governance, and reduces risks to the organisation.
The challenges
Customer contact centres are known for having high turnover rates of advisors. We are committed to supporting our advisors' own self-development to retain experienced colleagues and keep attrition low. This will reduce hiring costs, improve services for customers, and mitigate reputational risk.
We’re aiming to accelerate our “speed to competency”, meaning that new colleagues are trained to work efficiently and accurately, without compromising on quality. We are focused on reducing failure demand and gaining higher customer satisfaction.
The four key areas of performance optimisation
Quality Optimisation
Our Quality Optimisation Officer is responsible for designing, developing, and delivering a quality assurance framework that is used by all teams in the directorate. They prepare reports which highlight trends in quality assurance for use by our Performance Optimisation Coaches and Team Managers, linking with performance reporting to allow tailored coaching and support to be provided to colleagues.
We use their insight and expertise to keep an overview of the directorate Risk Register, tracking evidence of how we’re regularly testing our control measures. Demonstrating that the quality assurance process is providing an effective control for the risks associated with working in a high staff turnover area and within a rapidly changing environment, such as new colleagues and gaps in knowledge.
Coaching
As the front door of the organisation, our Customer Response and Customer Repairs Contact teams receive a high volume of contact, on average over 2,000 calls a day. Our dedicated coaching team ensure our values and Southern Service approach are on display in every contact. They are responsible for running a classroom induction programme for new starters, intensive coaching on areas identified by team managers, (such as handling Anti-Social Behaviour calls), and collaborating with colleagues to ensure training materials are relevant and effective. Data is used to interpret what areas of the business colleagues need more training on and the team are always identifying service improvement opportunities through data and feedback. The coaching team also support our Customer Accounts, Operational Support, and Service Charge teams.
Knowledge and Information
In an area of the business where the nature of queries can be unpredictable and varied, our front-line colleagues require access to a wide range of knowledge and resources to be able to answer resident queries efficiently.
We’ve created a role for a Knowledge Optimisation Lead to build and maintain knowledge bases. When fully developed, our knowledge base will set out processes and store useful links for frontline colleagues, providing them with information that supports a resident centric response. For example, providing customer friendly explanations for different topics and situations that may arise.
They use analysis of Quality Assurance reports to identify areas where extra support is needed and can quickly create useful resources when new themes emerge, such as areas of regulatory focus or change in processes.
Response planning
Our Workforce Planning Team are responsible for the planning and resourcing of our Customer Transaction Teams, such as monthly colleague shift rotas, planning our advisors' daily schedules, recruitment forecasting and reporting on the daily performance of our contact centre.
Improving the future
We’re in the early phases of our exciting journey building the Performance Optimisation team. Recruitment to positions is now complete and we have already started the hard work of creating our new services. We’re really looking forward to seeing it fully embedded, delivering high quality resources for colleagues, and improving service for our residents.
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