DAY 2: EFFECTIVE COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
9:00-9:45 - CASE STUDY: AUTOMATING COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS & THE ESCALATION PROCESS AT LYRECO NEW TOPIC
Roger Freitas, Director, Quality, Security and Environment, Lyreco Canada Incorporated NEW SPEAKER
Organizations spend reams of dollars and time in gathering customer information to benchmark, gauge and help develop their system to better address the needs of their customer base. With the change in quality systems and an increased emphasis on continuous improvement, the need for a well-established, live complaint management tool can provide an excellent source of information pointing out potential deficiencies in an organization's internal system. This presentation will detail Lyreco's new complaint management tool and how it is used to address customers' concerns.
- Overview of Lyreco's SAP complaints management tool
- The automated alert features
- The corrective action/preventative action implementation
- Use of information to measure service quality
- The feedback loop
9:45-10:30 - CASE STUDY: BUILDING BLOCKS FOR AN EFFECTIVE COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM NEW TOPIC
Ray Gerard, President, Customer Expressions NEW SPEAKER Glenn Williamson, Executive Director, General Insurance OmbudService NEW SPEAKER
Give your employees and partners the tools required to surpass customer expectations and build a reputation for service. Modern workflow and complaint management software makes it easy to communicate customer issues across the organization and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. This case study presentation will outline how the General Insurance OmbudService has used such software to improve its complaint management process.
- Understanding key system evaluation criteria
- Identifying key functional areas
- Understanding resources required to implement and support a system
- Establishing systemic root causes of customer dissatisfaction
- Implementing corrective actions
11:00-11:45 - CASE STUDY: INVESTIGATION STRATEGIES TO ENSURE THE VALIDITY OF COMPLAINTS AT ING DIRECT NEW TOPIC
Benita Singh, Complaints Officer, ING DIRECT NEW SPEAKER
As important as having a process in place to record complaints or any form of negative feedback, companies need to verify that those logged are indeed relevant. ING DIRECT takes steps to ensure the validity of our data, and this information is eventually communicated in a monthly complaint tracking report that is circulated to the senior executive team with recommendations to improve the client experience. Besides client feedback, ING DIRECT also conducts town hall meetings to obtain feedback from the customer service representative perspective.
- Collection and tracking of client feedback from all channels (i.e. phone, e-mail, letter)
- Logging and categorization of feedback by department, followed by division into issues and sub- issues
- Identification of predominant issues on classification
- Conducting further investigations to determine root causes: are they systemic or is this a one-time anomaly?
- Determining whether the customer impact is significant, and assembly of a team of individuals to troubleshoot the issue and produce recommendations
11:45-12:30 - HELPING EMPLOYEES LEARN HOW TO BETTER HANDLE COMPLAINTS OLD TOPIC
Jack A. Green, CEO, Entretel Incorporated
Typically, front-line staff does not like handling complaints. For many, the main reason is that they are cast in the role of “whipping post”; in other words, they are forced to take the brunt of the upset customer's behaviour but are not provided the “tools” to meaningfully “fix” the problem or resolve the complaint. This presentation will explore these tools (including, for example, resolution authority and diffusion techniques) and provide advice on how to teach your staff to use them appropriately.
- How to determine if your staff lacks the “tools” for effective complaint-handling
- What sorts of “tools” could ease your staff's complaint-handling work?
- How do you transfer these “tools” to your staff, along with the knowledge and motivation that will help them use each tool effectively?
- Providing management support for effective complaint-handling
1:30-2:15 - IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE NON-DEFENSIVE, NON-TOXIC & WINNING CUSTOMER SERVICE? NEW TOPIC
Geeta Prashad, Vice President, Customer Service, Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Despite all best intentions - our customer service strategies, staff training programs, our desire to ensure that team members are empowered to act positively and with the support of management - things will go wrong when you least expect it. This is not so much a “glass-half-empty” view of life as much as it is an understanding that stuff happens, and on a regular basis too. The trick is in looking at customer complaints when those things go wrong as a joyful event - a gift even. The even bigger trick is in taking on the complaint with tact and detachment and leaving behind the tendencies to be blameful, defensive or toxic. Ask any customer - they can detect a snow-job a mile off. In addition to group input, this presentation will cover:
- Listening and acknowledging, taking action, and saying “thank you” as critical hallmarks of customer service
- The follow up: when is it necessary? When can you keep it in the refer file?
- Self-check your conversation: are you being non-defensive and open?
- Complaints as gifts
- Can you tactfully tell a customer they are wrong and get them to agree with you? Does it matter?
2:15-3:00 - CASE STUDY: STREAMLINING COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT & RESOLUTION AT OMERS NEW TOPIC
Andrea Tayler-Coombs, Team Leader, Client Services, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS)
At OMERS, between 5 and 10 per cent of all contacts need to be referred to business areas outside of the call centre for resolution. In 2002, the call centre and other business areas agreed upon an internal process for complaint management known as the "Client Action Request" process. The CAR process has evolved since its inception, however the principles remain the same: resolve the client's issue as quickly and efficiently as possible, and while being accountable to the client. This case study presentation will highlight how OMERS has streamlined its complaints management and resolution process, including a look at:
- The case for change
- The proposed solution and how it was reached
- Getting staff buy-in
- Training and implementation
- Evolution of the process and results
4:00-4:45 - BEST PRACTICES FOR THE OMBUDSMAN PROCESS OLD TOPIC
Barbara Finlay, Director of Operations, Ombudsman Ontario
Having an effective system for receiving and responding to complaints from clients, partners, and taxpayers is a vital part of doing business. Such systems allow for a concrete assessment of whether a given organization is meeting its standards, and provides insight into how to improve its products and services. Ombudsman Ontario investigates complaints against provincial government organizations. When something is found to be wrong, the Ombudsman can make recommendations to fix the problem, and if these are not acted upon, cases may be reported to the Legislature. This presentation will explore how an Ombudsman's Office was set up from scratch at the Ombudsman for National Defence and Canadian Forces, and discuss foreseen changes to be made at Ombudsman Ontario in order to improve client service and ensure that the Office's services are relevant to Ontarians.
- Elements to consider when creating a new complaint-handling process or undertaking a review of an existing process
- The role of the Ombudsman
- Complaint and dispute resolution mechanisms that emphasize dialogue
- How to guarantee a complaint handler's impartiality and independence
- Complaint management lessons learned in public sector with practical applications across all industries
4:00-4:45 - CASE STUDY: MITIGATING THE RISKS IN PRIVACY COMPLAINTS NEW TOPIC
Trish Lindsay, Manager, eBusiness Strategy & Privacy, Xerox Canada NEW SPEAKER Terry McQuay, President, Nymity Inc. NEW SPEAKER
Complaints that reach the Privacy Commissioners' offices can have significant costs. The costs include the investigation, the customer settlement, litigation and the potentially huge investment required to comply with Commissioners' findings and orders. This case study presentation will provide an understanding of the risks involved in a privacy complaint, as well as reviewing Xerox Canada's complaint mitigation strategy and how they have managed privacy-related complaints.
- Strategies to minimize the number of privacy-related complaints
- Resolution strategies to avoid complaint escalations to the Commissioners' offices
- Best-practices in training call-centre employees
