What do we really mean by customer service
Victoria Thorne looks at how welfare reform has encouraged social landlords to consider customer service in a way they never have before and how housing professionals can adopt a new style of conversation with tenants
‘Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning’ – Bill Gates
NEVER BEFORE HAVE housing ‘customers’ been more unhappy. What we as a sector have been forced to do is re-examine how we talk to tenants and change our perceptions of what customer service entails.
It goes without saying that the impacts of welfare reform have been far-reaching and deeply felt. As a provider of learning and development solutions it has often been difficult to identify ways of ‘training’ the sector to deal with the changes it is facing and this has never been more evident than in the last 12 months.
Training is, in essence, best practice. Whether your training is in a technical subject, has any kind of legal or compliance elements to it, or is soft skills development like leadership or customer service (more on that to follow), your trainer will be offering either their own personal ideas and perspectives or commonly accepted industry norms, or a mix of both, about what constitutes best practice in a given field. So, when the likes of ‘bedroom tax’ and ‘universal credit’ loomed on the horizon, then the usual form would have been to offer a course with detailed knowledge and practical guidance gained from years of experience. Except in this case, there wasn’t any. The truth is there is no precedent for most of what both the public and voluntary sectors in general, and housing in particular, are dealing with at the moment, which makes the task of helping tenants through the mire of changes and cuts ever more difficult.
Simultaneously, 2013 saw a huge surge in the requests we were receiving from social landlords for training and advice on improving customer service, on an organisation-wide scale. Happily, we pride ourselves on our ability to provide successful customer service training that has long-lasting impacts and were more than able to meet the needs of our own customers.
We have a comprehensive suite of customer service training which can be tailored to staff at all levels, in a variety of roles and can take everything from two hours to two days in the classroom and from two months to two years in the organisation. However, whilst we can very successfully train your staff to provide the very best in customer care and work with them to establish service quality objectives that they believe in and are workable and deliverable, it has become apparent from conversations with landlords that what is needed goes far deeper. Check-box targets for customer service undoubtedly have their place in terms of setting measurable standards internally and managing customer expectations in terms of repairs reporting and basic enquiries. Conversations about leaving your home due to under-occupancy require a whole new set of skills and standards.
‘Well done is better than well said.’ – Benjamin Franklin
What we, as a provider, hadn’t anticipated was the extent to which welfare reform would cast its spotlight on how housing professionals, at every level, communicate with tenants. From contact centre staff to TLOs to CEOs, housing organisation staff are having to have conversations with tenants that they’ve never had before and, whilst the information on what needs communicating has been talked about amongst professionals ad infinitum, what frontline staff really want is information on how to have those conversations. There are some very difficult messages to be communicated and the conversations being had can be emotional and upsetting for both tenant and professional. As a tenant you will need to know how to practically deal with the ramifications of what you are being told. As a housing professional you need to know how to put effective support mechanisms in place for your tenant, but also for yourself.
It is undoubtedly a damning indictment of the times when I tell you that our most popular training courses for 2013 were; Possession Proceedings, Customer Service Excellence and Coping Strategies for Challenging Times. For 2014, in response to customer demand and consultations with staff and organisations, we are working with Cardiff Mind to offer Mental Health First Aid and even Suicide Prevention training.
‘The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.’ – Oliver Wendell Holmes
CIH Cymru takes very seriously our responsibilities for equipping the sector with the skills and knowledge they need to carry out their roles and therefore what we wanted to do was come up with a solution that would provide frontline staff with positive and effective methods of supporting tenants, whilst limiting the physical and emotional stress providing intensive support can have on professionals.
Along with our colleagues at The Improvement Consultancy we are working with housing organisations in Wales on a pilot project that will see frontline staff utilising coaching skills in order to support tenants to make improvements to their own circumstances through the empowerment to identify and achieve their own goals and ambitions.
Coaching Skills at the Front Line
Improving the Tenant Experience and Service Outcome
A Wales pilot programme in partnership with CIH Cymru and The Improvement Consultancy
FRONT LINE HOUSING staff are under increasing pressure. The welfare reforms mean a changing role for many with increased expectations. At the same time tenant outcomes are key, as are tenant-centred services delivered with high levels of satisfaction. The emphasis is also on tenants taking responsibility for their own lives and solutions.
This innovative pilot programme has been designed to equip front line housing staff with the skills of a coach – to support tenants to develop their own outcomes and to achieve them. Front line staff in other sectors have benefitted enormously from this approach including doctors and lecturers. This is a pilot programme specifically developed for the social housing sector in Wales.
Coaching Skills at the Front Line has been designed to support the roles of tenant liaison officers, housing officers, ASB officers, and other front line staff by providing the skill and ability to coach tenants, and to improve their confidence in an increasingly challenging environment. The programme provides all the skills and resources needed to become a first class coach and then provides structured supervision coaching to help staff put skills to practice and grow in confidence. Their goal will be to improve the tenant outcome and to provide tenants with confidence to manage their own situations more effectively. For staff it will mean increased confidence during challenging times with trusted methods and skills to support them.
We are looking for an initial cohort of front line staff to attend the first pilot programme. The programme format will be as follows:
Initial meetings
We will begin the programme by talking directly with housing staff about the issues they face. We will also run a focus group with tenants. These will ensure that the right issues are being addressed with the right emphasis
Coaching training
The formal part of the programme will consist of four half-day workshops to learn coaching skills and practice. The content will include, but not be limited to:
• Coaching v mentoring v counselling
• The coaching relationship and ground rules
• Well formed outcomes
• Building rapport
• Powerful questioning
• GROW and OSCAR Models
• Self limiting beliefs and how to overcome them
• Coaching logs
Supervision coaching
The informal part of the programme will involve three one-hour supervision coaching sessions for each participant to support them and develop their skills in the real working environment. Participants will maintain coaching logs, and during these sessions they will share their learning and challenges.
For more information or to get involved in the project then please contact Victoria Thorne, learning & development manager, CIH Cymru – 02920 765760 or victoria.thorne@cih.org
Customer Service Excellence: Communications and Challenges
Course outline
As a person working on the front line in your housing organisation you are a crucial team member. You are the ‘shop window’ of your organisation. You need excellent interpersonal skills to help people and give a good impression of the organisation. Customers form an impression of your entire organisation based on their contact with you.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course delegates will be able to:
• Create the right first impression every time
• Understand the message customers are receiving from your non-verbal communication
• Keep customers informed and manage their expectations
• Identify ways of improving the customer experience
• Deal with difficult people assertively
• Effectively handle complaints
• Ensure the last impression is as good as the first.
Topics covered
• Customers – choosing the right approach for customers
• Your motivation to provide service
• Understanding customer behaviour
• What customers want
• Skills – face to face and telephone customer service
• Challenges for front line staff, dealing with difficult customers, handling complaints and managing your personal stress.
Who should attend
This course is suitable for new and experienced front line staff involved in housing. It provides an update on current best practice in this field.
Additional information
The day is balanced out with benchmarking self-assessments, practical exercises, quizzes, handout material and networking opportunities. Please note there is no role play in this course, however you will be expected to share real life examples and experiences from your workplace.
For more information on this course or any other courses in this article or arrange in-house training then please contact Sonia Dorothy, learning & development co-ordinator, CIH Cymru – 02902 765760 or sonia.dorothy@cih.org