How Service Quality shapes our business

How service quality shapes our business

In the next chapter of our ongoing blog series, we shine a spotlight on the Credit Style Service Quality team and hear from Emma Leeming, Service Quality Coordinator, on how the department has become an essential part of overall operations and success.

Over to Emma…

I started my career in the customer service sector in 2010 and have been involved specifically in customer experience and service quality since 2012. I joined Credit Style in 2018 as a Service Quality Coordinator, and since last year, have taken the lead of a team of 5 looking after the quality-related needs of the wider team. The Service Quality team takes full responsibility for completing call assessments, listening live into Collector conversations and providing ongoing coaching and support. This is an important part of what we do, but there can be an incorrect view that this is all the role entails.

In some businesses, engagement from members of staff in quality can be viewed as negative and is often avoided and disliked. In actuality, the success of the quality function determines the overall performance of the company and requires staff to be flexible, adaptable and willing to take the lead in many areas. Rather than being viewed as judgemental or an obstacle to bypass, Service Quality provisions should be seen for what they are, an essential resource giving employees the best foundation and platform to perform at the best of their ability; for the good of clients, customers and their own career progression.

Unsung heroes

Credit Style offers a lot of variety and there are several areas where Service Quality is instrumental. We look after the training requirements of new starters as well as providing ongoing coaching and mentoring to other members of staff, facilitating both online and offline sessions and providing guidance and assistance both in-person and remotely. We are experts at identifying room for improvement and regularly help fellow employees to improve their soft skills, consider compliance, be confident in complaint handling and build essential resilience. This has a direct impact on the way we engage with customers and clients, for example, ensuring that vulnerable people are met with knowledgeable and understanding advice and guidance whenever they engage with us.

Our approach is one of continuous improvement and every member of the team offers new ideas and strategies to increase efficiency and promote best-practice. Whilst the impact we have on change and achievements may not be as visible as it is in other areas, we are tasked with protecting the business and challenge ourselves to obtain consistent and constant improvement, ensuring Credit Style remains a fantastic place to work and company for others to work with.

Recent success

In recent times, I have led a project to implement a way of assessing and monitoring our interactions with clients, aiming to improve the overall quality and secure the most beneficial outcomes, the first time around. Since the start of the year, we have managed to instil renewed focus and month on month we see figures get better and better. We’ve seen the scores of query assessments increase from 50% in January, to 80% in July and received positive feedback from clients on the improvements we have made. Through input from other areas of the business and the cooperation of our staff, we have defined new best practices and shaped the process for the better.

Producing new definitions is only half of the role and a large part of what determines our success is the ability to undertake change management and foster adherence amongst the Credit Style team. We have achieved this feat by providing constant feedback and transparent insight, working directly with managers and key stakeholders. We always make ourselves available to answer questions and welcome thoughts being shared both ways, as this overcomes any initial pushback, concerns or fears. I also overhauled the service quality training for new starters at the beginning of 2021, producing competency tests and training guides to ensure staff are equipped with the knowledge they need. As a team, we are getting people to the required standard faster than ever.

The Service Quality team never rests on its laurels and already has further major projects in the pipeline. This includes a review of our main quality assessment framework, which will strengthen our continued focus, to ensure that we put customers at the centre of what we do whilst being effective telephone negotiators. Our complaints handling process will also soon change and will involve developing our people to become better at handling objections and have a positive impact on the overall productivity of the department.

Everybody involved in the Service Quality department is proud to have made a demonstrable impact on the success of Credit Style and we look forward to continuing this trend with our activities and plans moving forwards. It is a privilege to have such an influence behind the front line and to continue shaping the success of quality provision within the industry.

Join us next time when we hear from a member of staff who has recently changed roles at our business after over a decade of service.