Britannic Assurance, a British financial-services company,
was moving from a decentralized branch system in which customer service
was handled locally to a centralized customer-service operation, including
a new call center, as part of a larger strategic shift.
They asked TDF International to help instill the vision, the culture,
the structure, and the resources to transform the operation quickly.
Through extensive interviews, we identified many expected themes around
dramatic change - nostalgia, confusion, insecurity - and a number
of themes specific to this change, including culture clashes, clashes
with sales, and weak leadership from supervisors.
We recommended work with the customer-service management team as the
most powerful intervention. If this group could step up to its leadership
responsibilities and function as a team, many of the other issues
would be resolved.
We did some individual coaching with the managers, but our primary
intervention was a major offsite. At this meeting, we focused on defining
what would count as success by the end of the year, creating a 100-day
plan to achieve this success, and the roles the managers would have
to play to make the plan succeed. We taught the team TDF to create
a shared language for this effort.
The team achieved all of these goals, and the outcome of this meeting
was a remarkable energizing of the team. The 100-day plan became the
centerpiece of the department's efforts, serving both to focus energy
and as a clear and convincing story to rally the employees.
We followed up with a second off-site with the front-line supervisors,
communicating the leadership's vision and to build a culture with common
purpose and language, ownership, and a commitment to making a difference.
The impact of the leadership of the management team was dramatic.
By the end of the year, most of the ambitious 100-day plan was achieved
and a second 100-day plan was initiated. Customer complaints were
down dramatically; customer satisfaction had risen significantly;
employee satisfaction was also up significantly; and quality measures
were showing consistent upward movement.
