Influencer improves customer service

Influencer improves customer service

The challenge

The staff at the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) Fort Wayne Of­fice felt overwhelmed as each day started. Their voicemail was full, the lobby was crammed with people, and the line went out the door. Customers who arrived at 8 a.m. felt fortunate to be seen by noon.

In September 2008, a customer service survey at Fort Wayne revealed that

1. three quarters of respondents were unhappy that they could not reach their caseworker by telephone and

2. 60 percent were dissatisfied with the way they were treated in person.

3. Two-thirds of respondents called the amount of wait time in the lobby “poor.”

As the backbone of the local economy—the automakers—floundered and unemploy­ment climbed to 15 percent, the office flooded with new applicants. Meanwhile, each of the 100-plus caseworkers was responsible for 700-800 clients. They were required to enter claims accurately and comply with government policies and regulations.

 “The staff has very high standards,” Patrick said. “Their managers emphasize job accu­racy to avoid federal sanctions for errors. However, when you have so many cases that need to be processed, it’s easy to lose focus on the individual customer’s needs.”

The Solution

To improve customer service at the Fort Wayne Office, Patrick and his team applied principles from the Influencer training model.

They began by identifying the vital behaviors to improve customer service—behaviors that if routinely enacted would lead to the desired results.

They identified 14 behaviors related to customer interaction that occurred in four crucial moments:

1.    calling the caseworker,

2.    interacting with the receptionist in the lobby,

3.    waiting in the reception area, and

4.    interacting with the caseworker.

Their research ultimately pointed to the crucial importance of phone calls and how caseworkers handled customers over the phone.

The research revealed that

1.    dealing with calls saved clients a trip to the office,

2.    shortened lobby wait times, and

3.    eased the burden on caseworkers.

Patrick and his team studied the vital behaviors of phone customer service by observing a unit of high per­formers and borrowing their techniques:

• Always answer the call if at your desk.

• Clear voicemail at least twice a day.

• Return calls in the first hour of the day.

Identifying vital behaviors was one thing—

get­ting stressed out and over-burdened employees to actually do them was another.

That’s when Patrick turned to the six sources of influence—a model to motivate and enable behavior change.

Research from changing behavior typically requires influence from at least four different sources:

Personal motivation.

1. When asked case­workers why customer service was important to them and not necessarily to the organization or to the customer. Their responses included, “Because clients are people and they deserve to be treated with respect” and, “That is how I would want to be treated.”

2. Patrick shared customer stories from recorded interviews in which clients relayed the impact negative customer service had on their already difficult lives.

3. The workers were surprised to learn clients wanted to be treated with compassion more than they wanted to be helped quickly.

Social motivation.

Some employees were hesitant to spend the first hour of the day re­turning voicemail messages. At an all-staff meeting, caseworkers from the unit that had already adopted this practice spoke about how doing so made their job easier. One person even admitted that she had been skeptical about this but had since found success.

Structural ability.

Before Patrick’s team be­came involved, the office used a screener to as­sist clients who came without an appointment.

The screener set appointments and handled some issues for the customer.

The district office manager observed that the screener created a disincentive for caseworkers to return calls and set appointments.

They knew they could avoid calls and the screener would handle the issue later.

This meant people with issues that could easily be handled over the phone subsequently filled the lobby.

So the management team re­moved the screener, leaving the caseworkers responsible to handle walk-in clients and mo­tivating them to return calls.

Results

During the worst economy since 1982, and in the midst of an ever-increasing customer load, the employees at the Fort Wayne Office adopted the vital behaviors and significantly improved customer service.

Percent of Satisfied Customers	Sept. ’08	May ’09
The wait time was reasonable	35%	40%
My caseworker was respectful	41%	57%
Phone calls responded to in timely manner	26%	43%