Hi just interviewed Paul Weald of RXP and Penny Downs, Customer Service Manager at Arsenal FC about multi-media contact centres. Full version will be available at Foviance website soon but an area we explored a little during the interview and more afterwards was “change”.
Arsenal has introduced some funky new web technologies and call centre systems to enable them to provide a joined up customer experience and it seems they have the same passion for being the best off the pitch as they do on it (opinions will vary on this). Interestingly Penny felt that the people change was the most important factor in the entire programme and one area they were yet to cover off was that of the Stewards on match day.
Penny explained that the Stewards are employed by the facilities and security department but have a major impact on customer satisfaction at the ground. The priorities however are not aligned with those of the customer satisfaction team and so this is a new area of focus her.
At another club Paul was able to refer to a similar programme just beginning where they have engaged with the head of security from the outset – something Penny on reflection, would have liked to do. Although it has taken significant time and effort they have managed to turn and major detractor in to a major advocate. The results are starting to be seen on match days with Stewards extending their role from purely security and safety to customer satisfaction.
The start point for the change programme was addressing an organisation that was silo’d and completely lacking in a joined up approach to customer experience. Arsenal has managed to address this and the improvements are impressive, particularly in the area of productivity and cost saving which in these tough times many will be interested in.
What concerns me is how difficult it is to scale this type of programme up. Arsenal FC is relatively small operationally and located in one place. Transfer their challenge to a major retailer or bank and the change programme becomes enormous. As we find in our work, even getting someone to own the overall problem is a challenge and yet the benefits are substantial. I still hope that the recession will force the change that is necessary but time is running out.
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