Amanda Hopkins

Said the following about Customer Relations Team:

“CrossCountry operates on a complex rail network that covers the longest distance of any train operating company. We do not manage any stations or the rail infrastructure, and are therefore reliant upon other organisations to help us deliver our train services. As a result, a variety of issues do occur, many of which are outside our control, and we must therefore provide the best possible complaint handling service for our customers.

Where we were

In September 2013, the following was identified as problems:

• Average days to deal with complaints was 25 days compared to the regulators SLA target of ten days

• It took on average 146 days to respond to delay claims

• Outstanding complaints were at 7,893

• There was no headroom for coping with major incidents or annual leave/sickness cover.

To address these issues and move the team from failing to outstanding the following was required:

1. Matching manpower to demand

2. Increasing departmental efficiency

3. Improving cooperation with other teams

4. Raising morale among team members.

1. Matching manpower to demand

• New balanced roster – ensuring that all areas of the roster was covered and that peak parts of the day were adequately covered

• Increased headcount – moving from 32 people to 48 today

• Annual leave quota system – ensuring that there was a limit to the amount of people on leave at any one time

• Multi-skilled workforce – upskilling so that more people could cover different areas within Customer Relations

2.Increasing departmental efficiency

• Integration of claims with case management system – We have now integrated the claims process with the case management system, which has increased the speed of online claims.

• Enhancement of digital channels – customers can contact is different ways, including 24 hours a day through a dedicated Social Media Team

• Improved data collection – We now collate and analyse complaints data to identify any trends and devise solutions to any recurring problems with specific trains or services.

• Journey validation on CRM system – This functionality was added to the system to replace the lengthy manual process used previously for validating claims for delay repay or delayed journeys.

• Simplification of staff complaints procedure – These complaints require feedback from Customer Service Managers which lengthens the process and it was therefore important for us to streamline this as much as possible.

3.Improving cooperation with other teams

• Transformation of the office environment – The office space was rearranged from a sectioned off into an open plan layout and an open door approach was adopted. The whole of the Customer Relations Team is now based at Head Office and on the same floor as the other departments. This enables team members to speak face-to-face with colleagues in other areas and provides them with easy access to real-time information.

• Introduction of Role Experience Days – These were introduced to encourage team members to spend time with other frontline staff whose work may impact upon the customer’s experience. This provides individuals with a level of knowledge and experience that can only be obtained by ‘walking in the customer’s shoes’, and ensures a degree of empathy in any response provided to a complaint.

4. Raising morale among team members

• Increased management support – We now have three dedicated shift supervisors, in addition to managers for both the Contact Centre and Specialist team, at least one of whom is always on hand to support team members and provide quality checks

• Multi-skilled approach – We now ensure all team members are multi-skilled and are assigned complaint handling on a rotational basis, in order that no individual is purely handling complaints

• Focus on a quality response – We have undertaken a cultural evolution from quantity to quality of response, which means that there are no targets on the maximum length of call

• Empowerment of individuals – Team members are now empowered to respond to complaints in a more natural manner without any scripts and to make their own decisions, even providing compensation (to a particular level) at their discretion

• Increased opportunities for development – We provide team members with ongoing training (e.g. recent training around customer personality types) and also provide opportunities to work on other cross-functional projects (e.g. disability and equality, lost property and new starter coaching/mentorship)

What has this resulted in?

a) Increased efficiency

These changes have led to significant increases in efficiency, as evidenced by a reduction in the following:

• Average response times – reduced from close to 20 working days (2013) to within 5 days (88.3% across Periods 4-6 2017)*

• Average days to close (for correspondence) – from 25.13 days (2013) to an average of 3.14 days (Period 7 2017)*

• On-hand figure for complaints waiting to be addressed – from 634 (Period 5 2017)*

• Number of appeals to lowest level within industry – from 122 (2013) to 7 (2017)*.

* Despite number of complaints having increased due to external factors

The greater speed of complaint handling evidenced above is recognised by the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR’s) ‘Measuring Up’ Annual Rail Consumer Report July 2017, in which CrossCountry was scored 23 percentage points higher than the national industry average for the time taken to deal with a passenger’s complaint.

While increasing efficiency, the transformation has also brought about a higher quality of service. This is also evidenced in the ORR’s report, in which CrossCountry scored significantly above the national industry average for passenger satisfaction across all areas of our complaints handling.

Reporting criteria

How well the company deals with delays 12 % points above national industry average

The usefulness of information when delays occur 12% points above national industry average

The provision of information during the journey 7 % points above national industry average

The complaint handling process overall 20 % points above national industry average

The outcome of the complaint 22% points above national industry average

What our Customers Say?

• “Cross Country were very quick in dealing with and handling our complaint including compensation.”

• “The lady I dealt with was so easy to talk to and showed excellent customer service.”

• “My complaint was dealt with efficiently and sorted very quickly.”

• “All my comments were responded to politely and with concern. I was reimbursed promptly and am happy that my complaints were dealt with in a positive way.”

• “Flexible in their approach and empowered.”

What do Stakeholders say?

The ORR were so amazed by how we had transformed the service that they recently visited us to understand what we had done, how we had managed to transform our services and also what the rest of the industry could learn from our experience.

The team has completely transformed from the team they were in 2013, morale has improved drastically and the service that is provided to our customers has improved, so much so that we are now considered a Centre of Excellence, I am so proud of the team, they truly are an example of providing Outstanding Customer Service every day.“