It’s been a little over a year since we launched our Customer Experience Division and rolled out the new Customer Excellence strategy. What started as a vision to truly put customers at the heart of everything we do is blossoming into real, measurable progress.
We wanted to talk a moment to reflect on what's been achieved so far and share with like minded organisations the lessons we've learnt along the way.?
A Year of Putting Customers First?
From the start, the goal was clear: to better understand our customers, improve their experiences, and strengthen their trust in us. We committed to listening to customers, mapping their journeys, and addressing pain points with a “Customer Centricity” mindset.?
Here are some highlights of what we’ve accomplished:?
- Launched our strategy: We launched our new strategy back in March 2024 designed to elevate every aspect of our customers experiences. Pulling together existing activity and providing a structure for the new; this shapes our focus.?
- Mapping the customer journey: Our Customer Experience and Marketing Team collaborated with various departments to map out the end-to-end journeys for our various customer pathways. This process revealed critical touchpoints, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. ?
- Promise development: Our new promise is now in place, developed directly from staff input, which makes it particularly special.
- Intent statements developed: These statements are great because they clarify our purpose, making communication smoother and decision making easier. They help set clear expectations, keep everyone on the same page and ensure our actions align with our goals, no confusion, just focus. ?
- Achieved Matrix: Following five days of assessment activity we were re-accredited for three years to 2027 to have met the matrix Standard, which assesses the quality of our Information, Advice and Guidance services on behalf of the Department of Education. The positive feedback from the assessors highlights our continued commitment to ensuring that all our customers and our learners have access to high-quality advice and guidance.
- New Quality framework: We revised the Quality Framework for CSAPs, ILPs and APs. These are now all embedded across all contract areas. Action plans are the foundation blocks that support customers to progress.??
- New digital onboarding application: We now have a new application form that enters learner information for our training courses directly into our system. A collaborative piece of work between our Project Management Office, Data and Funding and Operations teams.?
- Launched the Funding Compliance Scrutiny Group: one of whose responsibilities is to ensure changes to funding rules, compliance standards and processes are communicated to all staff through the change alert process now in operation. This ensures customers experience a smooth journey through our services.
- Focus Group model and revisions to our Careers survey process: Customer Experience have implemented a new structured approach to gathering focus group feedback, enhancing the richness of feedback we get from our customers.
- Introduction of customer service training: Having customer service training on our annual cycle really demonstrates our commitment. For some, this may feel basic and a bit obvious, but we'd challenge that getting the basics right is the best foundation to start talking about what more we can do. We all work at Futures because we want to make a difference in some way shape or form, in whatever our roles are, and having the basics of customer service consistently applied across the entirety of the business is an essential starting point for making a difference to our customers lives.?
Of course, every journey comes with its challenges. We’ve learned that:?
- True change takes time. Some improvements were quick wins, but others require a cultural shift and ongoing effort.?
- Collaboration is key. Teams can’t work in isolation, it’s the partnerships across departments that drive meaningful change.
- Listening to customers is just the beginning. Acting on their feedback and then letting them know how their input influenced our decisions is where trust is built.?
As we move into year two, our focus is on building momentum. We’ll be deepening our understanding of customer journeys, exploring ways to personalise experiences through the Customer Support Hub, and diving into the impact of our services.?
As we start 2025, we’ll be continuing to embed a customer-centric mindset across the organisation. It key to remember that all roles are essential to this process, whether you're working with operations or customer facing service teams, every interaction shapes the customer experience.
Let’s keep raising the bar!?
Associate Director of Excellence, Futures
