Earlier this month (2 to 6 October), we marked National Customer Service Week for the second year running.
The Institute of Customer Service, who organise the week, gave a different theme for each day. We involved different departments around the business to highlight the different aspects of dedication to good customer service.
Monday: Voice of the customer
For Monday, we delved into our client satisfaction questionnaires, which we send to every client at different stages of their claim, as well as the end. Over the past year, 93.57 per cent of clients said they were happy with our service; 98.78 per cent said they would recommend our services to a friend and 99.7 per cent said the found their case handler polite and helpful. Of the customers who used our helpline, 97.34 per cent said they were given the information they needed and 98.19 per cent said they would use our helpline again.
Wednesday: Getting the board on board
Mark Savill, Lyons Davidson’s Managing Director, gave his full backing to Customer Service Week, saying: “It’s essential to remember that every client of ours is an individual with their own circumstances, their own pressures and their own priorities. Our focus as a business is to work with our clients to resolve their issue quickly, effectively and professionally but we always need to listen to check what it is that the client wants from us and how we can help them most.”
“I’m really keen to explore how we communicate with our clients to give them the best experience. Speaking to our clients is always going to be an important part of our interaction with them and the way we build up a strong relationship with them. But it is also clear that a large section of our clients want a strong, secure and easy to use digital element to our service and fully utilising our online extranet communication is key to that development.”
These sentiments were backed up by Director Michelle Lennaghan, who added: “Customer service is key to building our business and reputation in the legal market. Many of our customers don’t want to be in a position of using our service; they are making a distressed purchase, responding to an immediate problem that can be emotionally charged. To provide good customer service, we need to provide technical but understandable advice on the solutions available to the customer, and to deliver those in a way that meets the customers’ priorities and needs. This essentially means listening to our customers and being responsive – not only in relation to each and every case but also listening and responding to the large volume of customer feedback we receive throughout the business.”
“We are committed to developing our technology to provide a more accessible and easy to use legal service for our customers but the challenge will be to implement that technology while maintaining a service that continues to feel responsive and empathetic to the customer’s needs.”
Thursday: Unlock your potential
We dedicated this day to the work of our in-house training team. Because Lyons Davidson is often supporting customers dealing with some of the most difficult of personal circumstances, the training team aspires to provide the best possible customer service training, making this the foundation of all training delivered to our staff. Providing our staff with the tools and confidence to provide excellent customer service is paramount to our practice.
Friday: Recognition
On the final day of the week, we highlighted those members of staff who go above and beyond the call of duty to assist our customers. One of the ways we do this is through our Annual Employee of the Year ceremony. Part of this is a Customer Service Award, with nominees shortlisted for demonstrating our core values of commitment, accessibility, innovation and communication through their approach to the services they provide. This year’s winner, Tom Stenning, always has the best interests of his client at heart and is always positive when dealing with them. Overall winner and Employee of the Year 2017 Lois Kapitan was chosen for the way she provides fantastic customer service by always look for ways to help and improve the way we deal with claims.
Customer service prizewinners
We also gave out prizes especially for Customer Service Week to the employee who received the best feedback from clients. Natalie Hami-Dindar from our Leeds employment team was the winner, receiving praise for her understanding and sympathetic manner when dealing with her clients. Natalie’s prize of vouchers and a bottle of bubbles was donated by LV=, who praised her service to a customer in a traumatic situation. “You managed to impress and ensure the customer felt supported and treated them as an individual […] It is clear you have not only done your job but got above and beyond to deliver world-class customer care.”
Runners up, who also won LV=- donated prizes, were Christopher Mathewson and Nichola Board, who “receive[d] feedback from the customer advising how reassured they felt and how grateful they are for [their] persistence in ensuring the claim was settled”.
Amy Connelly from our Bristol clinical negligence team was commended, as she “made a positive impact on the customer by ensuring they were kept up to date, listening to what they had to say and managing expectations”.
Max Simpson from the Cardiff clinical negligence team was recognised for his “service to a customer in a difficult situation.”
