‘It’s fantastic to be working together on a new vision’
RealService would like to congratulate the customer experience team at Transport for London for winning the Institute of Customer Service’s UK Customer Satisfaction Strategy Award for 2021.
It has been a great privilege to work with Siobhan Jared and Tom Atkinson over the last four years and we are very proud of the contribution we have made towards that success.
Our founder and managing director Howard Morgan has provided strategic guidance and coaching on TfL’s customer experience strategy since 2018.
RealService have also carried out in-house training for property managers and surveyors and conducted Voice of Customer research so TfL can better understand their customers and stakeholders. Our research has enabled TfL to measure their CX progress, benchmark it against their peers and pin-point areas which might need improvement.
How we helped TfL
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- Development of new vision, mission and customer strategy
- Design of a new customer experience best practice framework for Build to Rent residential
- Design of stakeholder consultation events
- Motivational workshops to launch customer programme
- Best practice safari including visits
- Informal mentoring of members of the SLT and management team
- Advice on key performance indicators and measurement
- What TfL said: 'RealService are completely in tune with the property industry in terms of the research it does, the networking and their understanding of the social piece, which is such a growth area. As a niche company they think a bit differently and have challenged us to do the same. (Siobhan Jared, Senior Business and Customer Performance Manager)
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TfL wanted their staff to be prepared to manage the impact of the pandemic on their customers and be able to engage with empathy and understanding.
The bespoke course covered the acquisition of broad customer experience skills and also focused on personal skills around communication techniques, building on empathy, understanding and assertiveness.
RealService have also run a Financial Skills for Property Managers course, while TfL have also been enthusiastic supporters of the Customer Experience in Real Estate – Future Leaders Programme. This course, co-directed by Howard Morgan and Professor Yolande Barnes at UCL’s renowned Bartlett Real Estate Institute, runs twice a year.
The impact on TfL: Feedback from TfL suggests the training had a significant impact on the relationship between surveyors / property managers and TfL customers who spoke of better communication and said TFL had become ‘absolute leaders in customer service’.
Having a purposeful customer experience strategy, backed up by effective in-house training and buy-in from property managers and surveyors meant there was a demonstrable improvement over all key metrics across the three surveys.
Impact on TFL: The results from the most recent study, delivered in 2021 showed:
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- A huge positive NPS shift
- Significant rise in overall satisfaction
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Howard said: “Transport for London have embraced every aspect of customer experience and injected it into their DNA. It has become part of their culture and the improvements in Net Promoter Score and feedback from their customers demonstrate their efforts have borne fruit.
“It’s fantastic to be working together on a new vision, mission and customer strategy, but they have started on the really hard work of actually delivering it.
“This award is a marvellous recognition of their progress, and is much deserved.”
“I would recommend Howard’s strategic expertise to any business wanting to put customers at the heart of their operations.”
Siobhan Jared, Transport for London
Siobhan Jared, TfL’s Senior Business and Customer Performance Manager, said: “We are delighted to receive the award because it recognises the progress we have made.
“Howard and his RealService colleagues have helped us from the very start of the journey and continue to provide advice, mentoring, education & training and Voice of Customer research so we can continue on this very rewarding path.
“We have worked with Howard since 2018 and I would recommend his strategic expertise to any business wanting to put customers at the heart of their operations.”
RealService are continuing to work closely with TfL.
