United Kingdom - 26/11/08
Plymouth Governor Development Team Proves Itself With CSE Success

The Governor Development Team at Plymouth City Council Department of Children’s Services has achieved the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) award. The team of three offers advice, support, information and training to 1,600 governors and head teachers in the 105 city schools in the Plymouth area.

Supporting these customers demands flexibility, dedication and tact. Customers want their information pitched at the right level to help them execute their legal responsibilities.

The volunteer school governors are lay people from diverse backgrounds, responsible for setting strategic direction for the schools. The heads of schools are professionals responsible for the day-to-day operational management.

The schools can be high performing ones or needing to improve, and there’s changing government legislation to consider too.

“Servicing volunteers is a big challenge,” says Karen Powell, Government Development Officer on the team. “You have to provide information which is timely and in the format that the governor requires. Governors have other roles in their lives, which you have to fit around. You have to provide support in the way, and at the time, that they want it. So we’re always thinking, “How can we keep governors up to date with the ever changing world of education without substantially increasing the time that they already give to this crucial voluntary role?”

Why did the team chose the new CSE award?

The Government Development Team has held Charter Mark since 2001. “We chose the new standard because we wanted to measure the effect of the changes we had made since the last Charter Mark” says Karen Powell.

For the new standard, the fundamentals of good customer service stay the same, but in addition there’s greater emphasis on delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism, and staff attitude.

The journey

“It took us about two to three months to gather evidence and write and assess the application. In fact, we initially gathered too much information and had to leave some out,” says Karen Powell.

The journey involved the Government Development Team getting to know their customers needs better and gathering feedback to change and adapt their service to meet all their customers’ needs.

 “For the actual assessment we compiled a list of Heads and Governors, whom the assessor interviewed without prior warning.”

Throughout the journey SGS were in constant contact to offer support and advice.

Benefits of CSE

Customer Insight is key to what the new CSE standard is about. How can an organisation be sure it is giving customer satisfaction? Has it researched what its customers want? Is the organisation in the right shape to deliver?

“We have a good relationship with our customers already,” says Karen Powell. “We try to make it a personal, individual service.

“We have a good idea of the information our customers need because we have built up the relationships over time. All that information is held in a database.”

But the CSE criteria led the team to look deeper into every level of its operation. It wasn’t just a question of “Have we met the criteria?” but rather, “How can we improve?”

“Meeting the criteria gave us independent evidence that our work is valued. Because we gathered new evidence for this standard, our assessor could see we were a different organisation from the one they had previously worked with.

“The CSE standard enables us to measure our performance and demonstrate improvement. In fact, we have found out more than that. The CSE standard has proved an invaluable self-development tool.

“It was an opportunity to share our work with someone new – as if they were a new customer.”

Praise from SGS United Kingdom Ltd

SGS assessor, Helen Donnellan, was impressed. “This is a very small service that really focuses on its customers. The team has a ‘can do’ attitude and it far exceeds its legal and contractual requirements.

“Delivering excellent customer service in this team of three people means that they each have to demonstrate high standards, commitment to excellent service, and continuously deliver this. It is clear that this is established in the Government Development Team.

“The staff shows stunning adaptability in meeting the changing needs of schools and government legislation.”

She added that the achievement brought recognition for the team elsewhere in the service.

“The Director of the Children’s services is very committed to the Governor Development Team.  She recognises the crucial work they do. They are very highly regarded within the structure of the local authority – a crucial part of the directorate.”

Finally, Karen Powell has useful advice for similar teams considering going for the CSE standard. “I would strongly advise anyone to do this. It’s an invaluable self-assessment tool for anyone who’s been in post a long time, or someone new to post, like myself. But treat it as an ongoing project to constantly improve your services.”