11th February 2008, Monday morning meeting 8:20 a.m.

“Morning Andy”, I enthused. “How was your trip to the States?”

“Morning Gordon. We’ll cover that in a moment. How was your weekend? Ready for all those unexpected challenges?”  Andy strode across the room, his energy and stature belied his years – he must be due for retirement in a few years, but probably wouldn’t – lots of good years left!  I responded to his light hearted question.

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“But of course, few things stay the same for long”.

“I’ve asked Anne and Jim to join us this morning, hence the slight delay. They’re on their way.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll make myself comfortable” I chose the seat next to Andy. I thought that a bit of power association wouldn’t do any harm. Anne ran Customer Services for the banking side, whilst Jim did the same for the insurance side. They’re both okay, though I was still unsure as to whether or not the three of us are really on the same page.  

Meetings involving us all usually got bogged down in analysis of minor fluctuations in customer metrics. And the underlying method of calculation was so dodgy that I suspect the fluctuations are more to do with clumsy data entry than real changes in the business. Still, a one-point change in staff utilisation is important to us all, as that impacts on our bonus. Anticipation of a bonus might be wishful thinking on my part, given the current nose-diving metrics!

I laid out my Post-its in front of me, and sat back watching Andy do a rather unstructured tidy of his desk. I prefer to file neatly, rather than empty one filing box and then chuck new stuff in to it, which is what Andy is doing. But then again, his way of working had got him further up the ladder than me, so perhaps I should learn not to be quite such a completer-finisher.

I glanced at the wall clock. Not good at all. I’ve been in for an hour and achieved pretty much bugger all. And now I sit waiting. The view is definitely better from my office. At last…

“Morning Andy, Gordon.” It was Anne. Today’s very buttoned up outfit was a sedate navy blue suit – with a skirt that covered her knees and most of her legs below that too.  Even her hair was conservative, mouse brown, short and never out of place.

Andy motioned for Anne to sit down. “Morning, hope you have a great story to tell me.” Anne glanced at Andy again as she sat down. So it was going to be one of those meetings.

Anne smiled; “So Gordon, your retention figures seem to be going the wrong way. You’re not making me look good. Maybe that’s why I am here this morning”. The meeting hadn’t even started and already they were jockeying for position.

Jim came into the room, slightly out of breath. “Morning all, apologies. Since I wasn’t expecting to be here, I wanted just to check the email and delay my first meeting. Anyhow, I’m here.” Jim’s style was smooth, polite and courteous, he looked the part, always a smart pinstripe and perfectly coiffured hair; you never saw Jim with ‘designer stubble’ and I had a sneaking suspicion that he had his nails manicured. No barbed comments came my way.

Andy stopped tidying, and went over to the door. Leaning on the frame, he leant out and had a quiet word with Sue. He returned and closed the door behind him. “Thanks for being flexible this morning. I realise that this will have mucked up your plans; that’s life in the big city.” He gave us an ironic smile and sat in his usual seat and looked at each of us. Clearly this was to be a tough meeting.

“Anne; utilistation down two percent. Peformance is one percent above where it was six months ago. Staff sick still running above the allowed 2.44%. More worryingly, complaints are on an upwards trend and you still have 103 headcount too many for your budget. When are you going to deliver real change?” Anne was no longer smiling. Secretly, I was.

“Gordon, why do you think Anne is not delivering?”

“Ouch” I thought. Right under the spotlight. Do I jump to her defence, play a political game or tell the truth.

“Andy, Anne’s experience and day-to-day running on the banking side means she is far more well placed to answer that than me.”

“Bollocks! I asked you. I want you to let me see that you grasp the enormity of the challenges you all face. What insights, if any, have you on why Anne’s banking side continues to – at best – flat-line?”

Well and truly cornered, my mind was racing. Anything I said would antagonise Anne, and likely to apply to Jim. Both of them were now watching me intently. I remembered to keep breathing and arranged my face into what I thought was a pleasant, but concerned, expression.

“I have some doubts about the quality of the management information we are using here. The Management Information, from a statistical viewpoint, is suspect. We are getting upset because of fluctuations….”

“Tell me something that I don’t know” Andy abruptly stated. “The MI is rubbish, and it is consistently rubbish so the trend probably holds. What other insights?”

My mind raced some more and I felt like the swan sailing along regally whilst paddling frantically under the surface.  I opened my mouth, hoping for inspiration and wisdom to emerge. 

“We, well. We – umm – our initiatives are not hugely bold. Don’t get me wrong. They are challenging, I am not sure that they will bridge the gap yet. For my part, I am trying to retain customers hell bent on leaving. So it’s hard.”

“So why are you Head of Customer Retention?”

Yes, I had just cornered myself quite nicely, so much for wisdom.  I made another attempt. “Because it’s important. It’s important that we limit the outflow and learn why they are leaving. Then we can do something about the root cause and change our ways”. Good save.

“Wishy-washy, Gordon. You get paid a lot of money and I want action, decisions, and progress. Not nice words. And I correct myself. I said it’s what I want. Well, it’s not me. It’s you. It has to be what you want. If it’s not, you have a problem”.

I do not normally go that shade of red. Anne, thankful that the flack was not aimed at her, was busy scribbling her argument down. Jim was just smiling. Probably in preparation for his turn.

“Andy, if I wasn’t interested in customers I…”

“ ‘INTERESTED’? What a word to use Gordon. It’s not about interest, it’s about PASSION! Commitment! Belief that the customer deserves better. Anne do you agree?”

“Yes Andy, absolutely on song there”.

“Bollocks. Gordon, where’s your passion?”

My mind was rapidly emptying. My list of pre-prepared conscious answers were exhausted. Right now, I wished I was still trying to get through to the IT help desk rather than sitting here. I closed my eyes, and listened. Silence descended. Without opening my eyes, I started:

“Last night I worked on the numbers. I highlighted trends and anomalies in the report and questioned whether I believed the figures were anything other than an abstraction. They don’t convey the emotions involved; the customer who gets cut off as soon as they get through to the call centre. The angry customer who told us they had moved and we updated their records incorrectly, and then sent their confirmation letter to the old address. Or the new business banking customer that had to wait four weeks before the account was open”. I looked at my post-its and then my colleagues.

“My ideas for improvements were:

• Route callers asking how to close to the retention team, not just those that said they wanted to close/cancel.
• Call those who stop their direct debits instead of sending an automatic letter.
• Discuss with the number crunchers if there is a way of reducing the premium for renewals further.

 

But today, this morning, right now, they are weak solutions. Sticking plasters that mask the real changes required. The problem is that I don’t think I know what they are, because for months now we have been trying to identify sticking plasters. What we – I – focus on is what the customer will get.”

I stopped and looked around.  Andy picked up the ball again.

 “Jim, your insights please into why customers are not getting great service on the insurance side.” Andy’s tone did not suggest that Jim’s ride would be any easier than mine.

 “Sure Andy. No problem. The way I see it, and it’s borne out through the figures, we are fighting increasing regulation, particularly from the EU folks and that’s eating up resources that could be delivering outstanding customer service. And on top of that, we are not market leading in terms of rates so I agree with Gordon on the need to reduce premiums further.”  Jim eased himself back in the chair, confident that he’d caught the ball cleanly.

 “But Gordon just said he now thinks that’s not enough”, chipped in Andy.

 “Well, in itself, its not. But it’s a great boost to the retention figures. And obviously the more customers we keep or gain, the better the staff utilisation figures will be, and we get bigger economies of scale.”

 “Jim, that’s basic economics, thanks. In the real world, lowering premiums hurts the profit margin and does not necessarily make for better customer service. That’s also basic economics. Do we keep lowering premiums until we can’t afford to stay in business? No, that’s not an option.”

 “What I mean to say is that Anne and I regularly look at the figures, and what’s happening in the teams and we can see that service is so much quicker now than it was, but customers are not necessarily remembering how far we have come. We’ve added features, made transactions available on-line, improved the speed at which we answer the calls…”

 “Jim. Let me stop you there. Service is 95% within four rings, correct?” Andy fixed his gaze on Jim.

Jim glanced at Anne and, for once, looked a little ruffled, “Yes, that’s the stated times, and we have been at about 94-97% for most of this month,” he said defensively.

Anne added: “The longest wait time was also an issue, so we have managed to reduce the worst case scenarios too. We’re not just dealing with abstract average customers, but real people. So far this year, the longest anyone has had to wait is about four minutes, and this month it’s 3 minutes 20 seconds I think.”

“Do we all agree that four rings is about 8 seconds wait? Somewhere about there? And we are achieving near 95% in that time?” We all agreed with Andy.

“Okay”. Andy went over to his desk, and started dialling. We all looked at each other.  He hit the speaker button so we could all hear.

Almost immediately, Andy was connected.

“Hello, and welcome to Warrender Financial, a division of Warrender Financial Inc of New York. Warrender Financial provides a range of cost effective insurance and banking solutions tailored to meet your needs. For more information, please visit our website at www.warrenderfinancial.co.uk. In relation to pensions and general insurance, we are regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority. Please have your policy number ready. Your call may be recorded for security and training purposes. Please choose from one of the following options. Press one for banking, two for insurance or three for any other queries”

Andy pressed two. “Forty seconds so far.”  He had his eye on the clock on the wall as the second hand swept round its face.

“Please press one for general insurance and two for life insurance”

Again Andy pressed two.

“If you wish to purchase life assurance, please press one. If you wish to renew your policy please press two. For changes to your banking details please press three. If you wish to cancel your policy please press four. For all other queries please press five. To return to the main menu, please press zero.”

I was pleased to hear that option four had finally gone live – now my team would get more calls and try to retain the customer.

Andy pressed four. “70 seconds” I went cold. The phone started ringing. The room was otherwise silent. It rang and rang. On the 6th ring voicemail kicked in. “Thank you for calling the retention team at Warrender Financial. We are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. Please leave your name and number and we will call you back”.

Andy hung up. The red colour rapidly drained out of my face, to be replaced with a more appropriate about-to-lose-job colour.

“Think carefully before responding. Jim, will this call be captured as answered in 6 rings, abandoned, answered and dealt with in one second (thus reducing your average), or what? Anne, if I had pressed banking instead, would I have had any different a message? Gordon, why is your team open different hours from the main call centre?”

We all looked at each other, fearful to speak. Andy sat back in his seat and waited. None of us spoke. Eventually Andy broke the silence.

“Resolve these by the end of today. Also, please adjust the measure you are reporting. Change % answered in four rings to % answered in 80 seconds. The new target is 100%. And decide how to get the 95% answered in forty seconds. And between the three of you get it fixed so that you are all open for the same hours!”

Everyone nodded in submissive agreement.

“Now, as you know, I visited Head Office Thursday and Friday last week with the CEO, Valerie. Our American colleagues love to highlight issues and then delegate the responsibility to their staff to resolve. Well this time they did a bit more. Key issues; group profits are likely to come in $400m less than target, which will dent stock values even more than they already are. The UK operation was supposed to deliver $35m profit, and we are now projecting at $27.6m for year end. That’s a hell of a bad start to the year”

Anne spoke up. “Andy we know it’s been quiet in January. It always is. Surely the year to date targets reflected this phasing?”

“They did, so the fact that we are already so far behind is alarming. Now before you say it is the responsibility of Sales to get the business, the new Group deputy CEO, Caroline Dexter, was very on the ball, and very focused on what Customer Services can do to stop money going out. Her speech at the end of the two days was powerful and compelling – and blunt.”

“Is Caroline the one that joined from some South American bank?”

“Yes Jim, well remembered: Banco Bolivia where she had overseen a radical shake-up of the business, including redundancies”.

“So what’s her blunt message?” enquired Jim.

“In no particular order, each regional office needs to deliver the agreed increase in deposits and profits, and show that they are on track by the half-year. If they are not, there will be a review of the viability of the unit.

“There is to be a headcount freeze company wide. So I think the Hong Kong office is OK, I saw their figures on Thursday and they seem to be on target. The North American operations are well below target. And we are in the firing line.

“I met with Valerie this morning to give her to a couple answers to questions she posed on the plane back.”

I imagined that must have been a fun air miles trip; coming back having had a kick in the rear from central command. Plenty for our UK CEO and Head of Customer Services to talk about, I guess. And now Customer Services was being asked to play its part.

Jim leaned forwards.  “So we need to rein in costs, improve customer services, not hire more people, and to do so that we are back on track within say four months?”

“Yes, Jim. Accurate, if somewhat sterile”

“With the threat of ‘review’ on top” Anne added.

“And fixing the call waiting metric by close of business tonight”, I chipped in. I was definitely going off this office space. Mine was much more, shall we say, tranquil.

“There will be more to tell you tomorrow,” Andy continued. “Valerie, myself, HR and Finance will be in a meeting most of today to work through some ramifications”.

“Andy, isn’t this a knee-jerk short-term fire-fighting exercise? We were all stunned by Northern Rock Bank asking for – and getting – emergency funding from the BoE, but we are much more reliant on our savers for our capital base than they were,” Jim enquired.

“Jim, you are good at fire-fighting, so it should not be a problem. As for short-term, perhaps it is. But it is what we have been tasked to deliver on, so we must. These are very uncertain times – last week’s near record one-day fall in the FTSE 100 tells us that investors are very scared at the moment. ”

There was a knock at the door and Sue popped her head in. “It’s nearly 9a.m. Andy, I have pulled the requested file. The meeting has been moved to the Boardroom, and your other meetings are cancelled.” Sue left the file on the desk, and closed the door behind her.

 “OK folks, I want a confirmation of the metric change before you go today. I expect to be talking with you all tomorrow.” And before we could get up, Andy grabbed the file and left.

Anne seized the moment. “So Jim, Gordon. How’s about we meet up, say at eleven, my office to work out how we deal with the metric thing?”

“Can we make it twelve noon, please, I have all my team managers at 11 a.m. I’d like to discuss with them to see if they have any ideas.”

“OK Jim, I can do that. Gordon?”

“Twelve is fine for me”. My head was spinning.