Developing a future-facing customer experience strategy and approach for clients and customers that puts Morrison Utility Services (MUS) at the forefront of service in the regulated utility sector
As the trusted service partner for many of the UK’s leading Utility providers (energy and water), MUS understand and value the responsibility they have in delivering services on behalf of their clients which meet the standards they set for themselves and need to maintain from a regulatory perspective. Looking after their customers is an integral part of those services, whether undertaking essential emergency repairs or replacement of assets, responding to weather incidents or working in urban or rural areas.
MUS are proud of the services they already provide to customers. However, their vision is to become the UK’s leading utility services provider in the UK and Ireland so they know that Customer Experience is fast becoming the key differentiator between service providers, and this is no less true for the utility sector. This means that, as part of achieving their vision, they need to provide a superior customer experience that delivers the right service to every customer every time.
The Challenge
New customer satisfaction measurement criteria (C-MeX) have been introduced by the regulators Ofgem which means that everyone encountering MUS, not just direct customers, can judge them on their performance and the service they provide. On this basis, MUS wanted to know how they could develop a culture of customer experience that ensures everyone in the organisation is always taking responsibility for recognising the individual in the customer and meeting any needs that person may have no matter where they are working or what they are doing.
The programme
How we began
Through extensive observation of different functions and operations within the organisation (from onsite shadowing to listening into customer calls, etc.), we gained a comprehensive understanding of the current experience and the opportunities to boost satisfaction and perception from a customer perspective.
From this we:
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Developed illustrative customer journeys using our customer experience diagnostic tool to understand and analyse different experiences customers have throughout each journey
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Identified the key friction points in the journey that generate unnecessary customer effort, cause problems in the delivery of the service or create negative customer perception
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Mapped out themed customer journeys to create choices and develop solutions to boost the customer experience and enhance satisfaction and perception for the future
What we developed from the initial, extensive insight work
We co-designed the Every Customer Counts Way – a strategy designed for the long-term with flexibility for application in different environments with different customer types:
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Created a vision and philosophy for delivering service ‘wherever we are and whatever we are doing – everyone is a customer that counts’
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Developed a set of key principles which underpin and guide the customer experience programme, how it is delivered and developed to improve services for customers (these principles were adapted specifically for clients and vulnerable customers)
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Identified different groups of customers – not just direct customers but those who come into contact with MUS as they go about their daily operations
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Developed a definition, unique to MUS, of what vulnerable customer means to understand how they can best recognise and support them
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Formulated a new Foundation Toolkit to support the delivery of better customer experience within any contract. This included:
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Brilliant Basics customer training for onsite and support staff (with bite-sized/on-the-job learning to accommodate operational time constraints for staff development), with a bolt-on for Leaders to support and motivate their people
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Specialist tools to support the exemplary and consistent customer experience, including the Standard Phased Experience, Customer Confidence behavioural model, new team standards and customer checkpoints
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Proactive Recovery Experience, to help respond to situations where jobs have experienced a failure, or the customer’s situation demands a more intensive support model
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Customer Communications Tone and Personality, to guide all written and onsite communications
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Built Every Customer Counts into an organisational Customer Experience Strategy based on The Every Customer Counts Way to support the business and the different client contracts, current and future
Results so far and expected outcomes
20% Reduction in Customer Call-backs
15% Increase in Average Daily Completion
(Right First Time)
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New journeys with reduced customer friction in place
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Increased job set up and initiation quality
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Stronger client/MUS collaborative relationship
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Reduced issues created onsite through poor customer awareness
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Increased satisfaction and perception (focusing on marginal gains)
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Increased team satisfaction
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Improve audit effectiveness – giving focus to service delivery and team/customer orientated behaviours
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Reduced the chance of expression of dissatisfaction escalating into a complaint
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Reduced discretionary compensation/goodwill
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Increased internal productivity
Awards
Morrison Utility Services (MUS) has won the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) 2020 Best Customer Satisfaction Strategy Award.
The award was presented to Morrison Utility Services for its ‘Every Customer Counts’ strategy at the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards that took place on 3 March alongside The Institute's annual conference.
