This year we introduced a new workforce management system (WFM), designed to help us improve our service to customers. The system manages customer’s enquiries from the initial call to query resolution and schedules the work needed to resolve problems. It’s able to access real time information, helping us to provide a ’right first-time’ service, and giving employees improved visibility of information about events.
Overall, it means that there will be improved liaison between customer advisors, field teams and contractors to understand the nature of a customer problem, keep the customer better informed and increase first time resolution of the problem.
While there have been some initial problems to do with management data reporting since its introduction in November 2008, the predicted benefits are now largely being delivered. Examples of this are:
- reductions in duplicate jobs (sometimes problems such as leaks are reported by different customers and recorded twice on the system)
- employees being able to contact customers proactively, reducing the need for them to contact us
- employees using up-to-date job status information from field staff to respond accurately and first time to customer queries
- better information about the job for field staff, reducing repeat visits and more first time resolutio
- improved capability of the system, making processes clearer, making it easier to raise jobs and saving time, improving the ability to consistently price our Connections jobs, smoothing contractor payments
- linking follow-on work to previous jobs done, improving the tracking and management of repeat jobs and ensuring any further on work requested is carried out.
- provision of an audit trail of work responding to customer complaints, enabling quicker resolution
We will continue to embed the system into the business to make further efficiency improvements and deliver better service for customers.
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