For many people, call centres are one of the bugbears of modern life, up there with traffic jams, bad manners and parking tickets!
However, tenants and residents of Northern Counties Housing Association in Greater Manchester have one of the best in Europe – and that’s official.
The association’s Customer Service Centre which serves around 22,000 homes across the North of England has been named Best Small Call Centre at the CCF European Call Centre Awards, announced this week (26.9.07).
Based at Northern Counties’ purpose-built Corporate Centre in Hollinwood, Oldham, the centre employs 40 staff who, between them, handle around 5,500 calls a week from tenants and residents of the association’s 22,000 homes around the country (see local stock breakdown below).
They advise and help with a wide range of queries from applying for a property to taking rent payments, arranging repairs and advising on anti-social behaviour issues.
Maria Whelan, the centre manager, explains what makes them different from many other call centres: “The Customer Service Centre was born out of our vision to ‘really make a difference’ to our customers and, along with our local neighbourhood teams, it plays a vital role in helping us deliver a first class service to them.
“We listened closely to what customers wanted from the centre before setting it up. They told us, for example, that they didn’t want to have to negotiate a recorded menu of options through their keypad and they didn’t want to be kept on hold listening to piped music. Above all, though, they wanted to be able to speak to a real person with the skills, knowledge and commitment to help them there and then, and we feel we are delivering that.
“We work hard to create a climate where our staff are passionate about the work they do and we ensure that everyone receives effective coaching and feedback to enable them to continuously improve the service to our customers.
“Although the centre is only 18 months old, we are already achieving a confidence rating of over 90% from our customers and now to have won this prestigious award is the icing on the cake!”
Companies from all over Europe entered the awards which were announced at a gala dinner at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Wednesday 26th September 2007.
Northern Counties, a member of The Guinness Partnership, was the only housing association in the country to make the final short-list. As well as being named Best Small Call Centre, the association was also short-listed alongside household names such as Tesco, Barclays Business Banking and T-Mobile in the Best People Practice category and Customer Excellence category, in which they were highly commended.
Carol Matthews, Northern Counties’ Chief Executive said: “The successful creation and implementation of our Customer Service Centre within Northern Counties has been a true team effort. Views from both customers and staff have influenced its development and enabled us to create a real catalyst for positive change. It has added to and supported our values and culture across the whole organisation - a massive achievement, of which we are incredibly proud.”
ENDS
For further information please contact James Rae on 0151 625 3900 or mobile 07919 156 432
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Northern Counties Housing Association:
Celebrating 40 years of making a difference in 2006, Northern Counties Housing Association is one of the largest providers of homes in England and Wales. On the 2nd April 2007 we merged with The Guinness Trust to form The Guinness Partnership and in so doing increased the benefits we can provide to our customers and our staff. We now employ over 750 people across more than 20 office locations and we provide nearly 30,000 homes for over 60,000 people in many diverse communities. www.ncha.co.uk
Northern Counties Housing Association housing stock figures for the Greater Manchester region:
City and South Manchester area– 759
East Manchester area– 858
Salford area – 1055
Trafford area – 756
Northwich area – 444
Stockport area - 1626
For more information about the CCF (Call Centre Focus) European Call Centre Awards please visit www.callcentreawards.co.uk or contact Adam Clark on 07788 564153.
Other companies short-listed in the Best Small Call Centre category were:
GoResponse Ltd, Sittingbourne
Office Response Ltd, Bristol
SimplySwitch, Croydon
The Camping and Caravanning Club, Coventry
V2 Communications Ltd, Woking