the customer experience plan - york

The Customer Experience Plan Exceptional Customer Experience: The Path Forward

Overview

CONTEXT

Why is York Region refreshing its Customer Experience Plan?

How was the plan developed?

In 2001, York Region developed its first Customer Service Strategy to drive a renewed focus on delivering exceptional service to its customers. Over the subsequent years key components of that strategy have been implemented including most recently:

• Customer Relationship Management system has been purchased and is being rolled out across the Corporation so that York Region can better know its customers

• Access York has been implemented to support York Region’s No Wrong Door Approach to accessing customer service

Today, technology innovation, emerging channels and changing public expectations are dramatically impacting how services are delivered in the private and public sectors. Exceptional Customer Experience: The Path Forward is York Region’s response. It sets out York Region’s plan for building upon and leveraging what is in place today, and achieving a new level of service delivery for all customers.

The customers referred to in this plan are the external users of York Region programs and services and not the internal or external service delivery partners.

Over a period of eight months, York Region and OPTIMUS | SBR obtained feedback and input from the Corporation’s staff and leaders. OPTIMUS | SBR spoke with other municipalities across Ontario and Canada, and explored leading practices from both private and public sector organizations. This plan is inclusive of all York Region customers and respects the diversity and abilities of each individual.

This broad input addressed all components of how York Region delivers services: including processes, technology and people. Exceptional Customer Experience: The Path Forward represents York Region’s plan of action and commitment to deliver exceptional service: “How May I Best Help You?”

Prepared by OPTIMUS | SBR © 2015 All rights reserved 1

CONTEXT

Broad consultations revealed both the organizational strengths and challenges to address as What did we hear? York Region implements its renewed plan: • The front line staff of York Region are caring, committed and motivated to providing positive

customer experience. • While new technology has been implemented and continues to be rolled-out, the pace is

often too slow and cumbersome. • There is no clear mechanism to assess customer service performance, and to direct required

corrective actions. • There can be significant differences in customer experience across different services and

channels. • Access to services can be difficult and time-consuming. • Internal bureaucracy inhibits flexibility and responsiveness, and can be a significant barrier to

quickly responding to changing customer requirements. The Corporation is not nimble. • There is limited understanding of customer service work being done in other departments,

limiting opportunities to share learnings and leverage new capabilities.

Path Forward York Region’s commitment to exceptional customer experience is built upon five key pillars. These have been developed by learning from leading organizations, and through consultations with stakeholders, employees and York Region leadership: • Leadership • Simplicity • Empowerment • Measurement • Technology


PILLARS AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES

York Region’s Customer Experience Plan is based on five key pillars. For each, a set of guiding principles provide the foundation upon which the Customer Experience plan is built.

PILLARS

LEADERSHIP

1. An organization-wide customer-centric perspective guides everything we do

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

2. Our day-to-day focus is the customer and that focus is reflected in our processes, services, and policies

Across channels and services, York Region’s strategies, decisions and day-to-day interactions are guided by an organizational-wide focus on customer service delivery. We recognize that customers touch different parts of the organization.

Delivering an exceptional customer experience requires alignment and shared commitments between internal York Region groups, as well as effective partnerships with municipalities and other external service providers. We take a leadership role in making that happen.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE DEFINITION

A customer-centric service delivery model is not just a slogan. The processes we use, the services we offer, the policies we apply are determined by focusing on the customer and their needs and expectations. This customer focus is embedded in our culture.



PILLARS

SIMPLICITY

3. Our processes are simple and intuitive (from a customer perspective) to make it easy for customers to do business with us

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

4. We fully use all the information customers have given us permission to use while respecting privacy

5. We offer our customers service channel options

GUIDING PRINCIPLE DEFINITION

We have standardized workflows to minimize hand-offs, duplication and manual interventions. We fully leverage existing and emerging technology capabilities. Increased digitalization has simplified our customer interactions, and reduced our environmental footprint and costs through significant paper reduction.

We use information that our customers (and partners) have provided us, in a way that makes it easier for them to deal with us, and easier for us to serve them. We only collect information that we need but do not have. We use the information we have to better understand our customers and their needs, we address privacy needs and concerns in a customer-centric way abiding by applicable legislation.

Our services are offered across multiple channels in a consistent, integrated manner: face-to-face, phone, internet, mobile, social media. We make it easy for our customers to reach us through the channel of their choice. Our services are delivered to reflect our customers’ preferences.



PILLARS

EMPOWERMENT

GUIDING PRINCIPLES GUIDING PRINCIPLE DEFINITION

6. Our staff are empowered with the knowledge, tools, skills, authority and responsibilities to deliver exceptional customer experiences at all times

7. We measure our performance against clear goals and drive continuous improvement in delivering services

8. CRM is a fundamental underpinning of the way we work. Existing and emerging technology solutions are fully leveraged across customer channels and service delivery processes

We have a customer-centric culture. Training, organizational support and information are provided to our employees to enable them to take action supporting our Customer Experience goals. Employees understand how what they do every day impacts the customer experience. We recognize that employee commitment is a key driver in achieving an exceptional customer experience. Organizational bureaucracy is never an excuse.

We have clear measures of customer service. We also measure overall customer experience to ensure our individual service levels are aligned, re-enforced and integrated. Our performance measures drive our continuous improvement efforts from a customer perspective.

York Region has made, and continues to make, significant technology investments. Our embracing of new technologies presents numerous opportunities to leverage new capabilities to achieve consistency and integration across channels and services. We use Corporate CRM across the entire organization for all channels to proactively address service delivery. Technology is aligned to performance measures to allow us to achieve/gather useful measures and drive improvements.

MEASUREMENT

TECHNOLOGY


Prepared by OPTIMUS | SBR © 2015 All rights reserved

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RECOMMENDATIONS York Region’s Customer Experience Plan consists of eight objectives each aligned to a core pillar. A total of 20 recommendations are provided to achieve these objectives. Together, these recommendations and their associated actions further support York Region’s commitment to exceptional customer service: “How May I Best Help You?”

Pillars Objectives

Leadership

1. Establish leadership structures to drive Customer Experience plan

2. Embed Customer Experience goals in York Region’s decision making and planning frameworks

3. Develop Customer Experience communications plan

4. Develop partnership model

Simplicity 5. Redesign service delivery and expand access though emerging channels

Empowerment 6. Create a customer-centric culture

Measurement 7. Develop Customer Experience measures and customer feedback processes

Technology 8. Extend CRM across the Corporation

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OBJECTIVES AND IMPLEMENTATION RECOMMENDATIONS Objectives Recommendations

Establish Leadership Structures To Drive Customer Experience

1.Establish a Customer Experience Leadership Committee

2.Establish Senior Customer Experience Lead position

*SMT has decided to not pursue this recommendation at this time.

Embed Customer Experience in the decision-making and planning frameworks

3.Embed Customer Experience goals in York Region’s decision-making and planning frameworks

Develop a Customer Experience Communication Plan 4.Develop a comprehensive communication plan that addresses both internal and external audiences and aligns to the “How May I Best Help You?” campaign

Develop Partnership Model 5.York Region should take a leadership role in defining the roles and responsibilities, interactions, integration models with key partners in service delivery across York

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Redesign Service Delivery and Expand Access Though Emerging Channels

6.Undertake a comprehensive review of current customer-impacting process with the goal of reducing process inefficiencies and cycle-time

7.Develop a mobile and internet plan to significantly expand self-serve capabilities and expand Social Media interaction capabilities

8.Consider further integration of Access York across the Corporation.

Create a Customer-Centric Culture 9. Develop/select a Customer Experience Learning Program and provide ongoing customer service training tailored to positions/roles

10. Review existing authority levels by key customer service roles and align with Customer Experience goals

11. Redesign job descriptions to ensure clear understanding of customer service expectations

12. Redesign existing Individual Performance Assessments to ensure clear alignment to Customer Experience goals

13. Develop and implement rewards and recognition mechanisms aligned to provision of exceptional customer experience

14. Embed Customer Experience into recruitment process and tools

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Develop Customer Experience Measures and Customer Feedback Processes

15. Maintain existing contact centre measures and ensure all measures are tracked on an ongoing, monthly basis

16. Establish measures for other customer access points (internet, counter, mobile, etc.)

17. Implement a measure of Customer Experience that tracks customer satisfaction across the full range of interactions

18. Enhance the customer feedback mechanism

19. Report performance to SMT monthly (standing item) and all “red” measures should be assigned for corrective action

Extend CRM across the Corporation 20. Develop CRM multi-year plan (functions/capabilities; channels; including Executive Dashboards as required)

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the customer experience plan - york

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