It’s National Customer Service Week from 2 to 6 October and at Lyons Davidson, we will be marking it this year, for the second year running, as part of our commitment to giving our clients the best service we can.
One of the ways we strive to achieve this is through our designated Customer Service team, a resource that is still quite unusual in law firms, who normally deal with customer satisfaction via a Complaints Department. Instead, we take a progressive view of customer service, using audits and gathering client feedback so that we can study it, work out what we are already doing well and where we can improve. We then use this information to develop strategies for issues that need addressing, improving our procedures and training staff.
The key to our customer service is listening to clients. That’s why we send every client a questionnaire at different stages of a claim, as well as the end. Last year, we received 17,000 responses, which are analysed by Customer Service Officers, who each bring a different perspective to the task: some of our officers already come from customer service backgrounds, some have legal qualifications and others have insurance or costs backgrounds. They work together to get a snapshot of what our clients really think of the service we provide.
They then take this information and disseminate it through the business, giving staff on the frontline of dealing with clients practical tips on complaint prevention and reducing customer dissatisfaction, as well as highlighting common themes in the things they do complain about. We also work hand-in-hand with our in-house training team to make sure staff have the right soft skills.
The Customer Service team also audit case handler files once they have been working with us for six months and they undertake Total Quality Reviews of a random selection of files from every team each month. This is on top of quality management that takes place in each department, overseen by Performance Managers.
Customer service is given such prominence at Lyons Davidson because we realise that many of the people we are dealing with are going through a difficult time. Michael Greybanks, Head of the Customer Service team, says: “The customer is central to everything we do. We identify the needs of the customer and work hard to meet those needs by going above and beyond wherever possible. If a problem does arise, we are proud that we can often resolve the issue to the customer’s satisfaction.”
We will be tweeting different aspects of customer service from different departments of Lyons Davidson throughout National Customer Service Week, so follow @LyonsDavidson to keep up to date with us. As the whole event culminates with Friday’s theme of Recognition, we will be rewarding the Lyons Davidson and the File Dynamics employee who received the most exceptional customer service feedback with a prize.
For more information on National Customer Service Week 2017 or on Lyons Davidson’s Customer Service team in general, please contact Michael Greybanks by emailing [email protected] or calling 0117 904 6394.
