Key results

• Lloyds and Davies employed questions that could deliver directly actionable responses
• The bank’s questions led them to discover areas for individual training and revise the use of call hold
• Shifting the focus to qualitative rather than quantitative feedback at agent level allowed agents to understand the value of the customer

Background

Having experienced a plateau in service metrics, Lloyds sought a new way to monitor the customer experience through a reimagined customer insight programme. Working with Davies, a radical and innovative approach was taken to reinvigorate the way customer insights were being used and how the front-line staff were responding to their own individual feedback. 

Lloyds needed to answer four fundamental questions: where did they want the insight programme to go? What insight would deliver payback in terms of improved customer experience? Was the current programme asking the right questions? And how could the company encourage colleagues to see the verbatim as the most important part of customer feedback whilst using the metrics to deliver a central overview of performance? 

How we helped

Working in partnership, Lloyds and Davies devised a number of improvements to the VoC programme that would make it fitter for purpose. 

Firstly, the survey questions were reviewed, moving away from scaled responses to binary Yes/No answers, making it easier to gain a definitive customer option.  

Dashboards used by front line colleagues and line managers then had all scores, graphs and charts removed, leaving just the verbatim comments of customer. Focusing the attention solely on what customers were saying about the service they had received. 

Lastly, Lloyds relaunched the programme across their various business sites, giving support and guidance on how to use verbatim to improve the service being delivered. 

Results

This transformation of the programme caused colleagues to look at feedback in a new way. No longer were they hung up on an individual score, or disputing a score that might have a negative impact upon their monthly average/target; instead, they became focused upon the words customers were using. Sentiment became everything to them. 

Were they creating the right impression for customers about themselves and the business? Did the member of staff demonstrate the right approach, knowledge, and resolution for the customer? Making it easy as they did so? Shifting the focus to qualitative rather than quantitative feedback at agent level allowed agents to understand the value of the customer. And, critically, work to improve the service they delivered.  

Of course, the numbers still matter as a means of understanding the impact of the changes being made – but these were now reviewed in specialist business areas of the LBG business and by more senior members of the contact centre. 

As a result of these changes, Lloyds saw new growth, greater colleague engagement with the programme, simplified and more specific coaching opportunities and better quality, actionable insight.