Government Business

Organised by the Professional Planning Forum, the independent industry body promoting best practice in contact centre planning/analysis, they also run a specialist stream of best practice activities for the public sector. The exceptionally strong turnout for the dedicated public sector work stream demonstrates the growing focus on customer service operations in both local and central government.

Must-attend event
The must-attend event for heads of service, contact centre managers, analysts and resource specialists, Contact Centre Planning 2008 was held in the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 28-29 April and feedback showed that over 95 per cent rated the conference as good or excellent, with almost all delegates singling out the networking opportunities, as well as the speakers and the excellent facilities at the Midland.
    
Dedicated public sector sessions included presentations from the Metropolitan Police, Guinness Northern Counties Housing Association, North Warwickshire Council and Canterbury City Council on the work that earned them their place as finalists in the 2008 Contact Centre Innovation Awards. The round-tables with others in policing and local government also provided the chance to discuss the specific issues arising in these areas.
    
As ever the way the networking opportunities were facilitated received particular praise. “Most useful” says Debbie Hurwood, Stockton Council.  “Useful networking and a great flow of activities” agrees Gerry Chambers from The Student Loans Company. Many public sector delegates found it “very useful to network and learn from other industries”. “Lots of transferable ideas” says Amanda Rice, customer service manager at Salford City Council. This ability to learn from experience across such a wide range of centres is what makes the annual planning conference unique for many participants.
    
From the private sector side, Paul Burgess-Clements from AXA UK points out that the conference is a “priceless opportunity to speak to people about my issues that I couldn’t achieve elsewhere” and Darren Jones from Vodafone says that he was “seeing ideas in organisations completely unlike my own that can be applied in our environment”.
    
The James-Bond themed casino night in the middle of the conference was a great hit and provided a thoroughly enjoyable way to network, without overshadowing the next day’s conference. For the first time, the hugely successful Gala dinner and presentation of the six Contact Centre Innovation Awards 2008 was at the end of the conference – providing a real high note and a fabulous evening, with dancing till the small hours to the fantastic 5CATFish band.
    
The wide range of workshops run by the Planning Forum’s specialists were another hugely popular feature and stimulated many new ideas for change programmes in the coming year. As Kath Hornsey, from Stockton on Tees Borough Council, explains: “I’ve taken lots of things back to put into action.” For Donna Smith from Stevenage Borough for example, it was doing more on employee engagement – “we don’t do this enough!” – and for Trish Lincoln, Business Manager at the Metropolitan Police, it was new ideas on planning and forecasting – “how they can add value”.
    
The range of speakers was also a key highlight of the conference. “Great keynote sessions” comments Jude Smith, contact centre manager at North Warwickshire Borough Council. As always, each of the finalists from the Contact Centre Innovation Awards talked about how they achieved their success. “Inspiring as they relate to real-life experiences,” explains Michelle Brophy from QVC.  Kath Farley, from UCAS, agrees wholeheartedly: “Chris was fantastic keynote speaker…and it was most enjoyable listening to speakers who had been nominated for the awards.”
    
The next public sector event on 13 June, hosted by North Warwickshire Council and sponsored by Datapulse, provides the chance to hear John Seddon, author of Systems Thinking in the Public sector, offer some challenging thoughts on how to re-think central government targets on call avoidance. This day includes the chance to visit the council, to see more results from the Planning Forum’s own best practice materials and to learn about the use of workforce management in running contact centres effectively in the public sector.
    
Over the coming weeks it is also possible to visit each of the 16 centres shortlisted for the Contact Centre Innovation Awards in a specialist on-site visit facilitated by the Planning Forum’s specialists.

Planning makes the difference for 2008 award winners 
Canterbury City Council won the 2008 Public Sector Innovation Award for their excellent work-life balance programme that has halved external attrition and hugely increased productivity and efficiency.
   
Nearly half the contact centre volunteered to work regularly from home for part of their time, one ingredient of an approach to flexible working that combines call handling with face-to-face contact and achieves customer satisfaction scores of 90 per cent. Home working and job variety help retain experienced employees and integrated planning means that the council can now measure previously un-quantified back-office work. With minimal IT investment, home working supports flexible working, with absence down 20 per cent and call handling efficiencies up 16 per cent.
   
The Innovation of the Year Award 2008 was won by EDF Energy for work including call avoidance that will be of special interest to many in public sectors that are responding to new government targets. Using analysis of the root causes of customer contact, EDF Energy halved workload in key areas and created a groundbreaking end-to-end service for new customers.
   
“This has totally changed how managers see planning,” explains Penny Wright, Resource Planning Manager at EDF Energy. As Su Martin, head of Marketing Operations and Customer Experience, confirms: “It’s taken us to a totally different level…we don’t just react, we plan.” Glen Ewing heads New Customer Acquisitions, who have developed the pioneering end-to-end service in the Pontoon department: “It’s changed the business and how we make decisions,” he comments. “I think the Internal Investment Board was surprised. It made them realise that they need a different approach.”
   
“Making life easier for customers, who currently need to make repeated or unnecessary calls, is still the biggest challenge for customer-focussed organisations,” comments Paul Smedley, executive director of the Professional Planning Forum, the Award’s organisers. “The successes at EDF Energy demonstrate the outstanding results that are possible for contact centres when they systematically preventing the service or communications failure that otherwise forces customers to call.” Project work has led to reductions of 50 per cent in direct debit queries and 60 per cent in the billing helpline – increasing customer loyalty by 80 per cent and freeing up time for 1:1s and team meetings.
   
Other award winners included British Gas Services, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Vodafone – for projects including management information, lifestyle planning and innovative work to join together recruitment, training and resource planning.

For more information
For more information visit www.planningforum.co.uk or contact Colin Whelan and Kirsten Wiltshire at the Professional Planning Forum on 0333 123 59 60 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it