Page 33 - Gi_May2021

igem news – yppc

and overall performance on a scale of
1-10, ten being the optimum score.
I track each question and the impact
on the overall score. Question 7 (Q7)
asks “How satisfied were you with
the communication from WWU (or
their contractors) while the work was
being carried out?” Earlier this year,
I identified a positive correlation
between Q7, communication and
Q11, the overall score. When I looked
at other questions in relation to the
overall score there is a substantial gap
before the next closest in correlation.
This highlights the impact of
successful communication.
The findings were briefed out to the
teams to highlight the importance of
communicating with their customers.
As a patch, we decided to commit to
improving our customer satisfaction
through successful communication
with customers on a frequent basis.
Typically, when we receive the survey
returns for each month, we struggle to
score high on the questions regarding
site tidiness and reinstatement.
However, Q7 on communication is
the highest source of complaints and
the cause of the largest outgoing of
goodwill payments. Payments exceed
reinstatement and site tidiness
combined. However, it is much easier
to fix within 24 hours of the complaint
coming in. Complaints regarding
communication are also much more
likely to be complaints that are
avoidable in the first place. In Bristol it
is clear – teams that score lower are the GOOD COMMUNICATION IS A KEY SUCCESS FACTOR
teams known to communicate less with
their customers. performance plans and commitment and often requires the meter position
I used this data to target two teams statements. Progress was checked on a to be relocated. This extends the time
who received low survey returns every weekly basis. This allowed me to work off-gas further as an engineer needs to
month. They consistently showed in a live situation. I called on those who reconnect the internal pipework as well.
poor communication and overall had been affected in the past week to Why is this worth targeting and
performance scores. Working with address any issues and those who were improving for our teams? Firstly,
Bristol’s Operational Controller, I due to be affected in the coming week to because we want to develop, improve
developed a strategy to present to the address concerns. and evolve with our customers and
teams. We visited the sites together, From this point, each team took the it’s only through acting on feedback
which showed us as a united front initiative off in different directions. that we can continually improve our
and that we all had buy-in for our new It became a case of monitoring the customers' experience. I feel that
commitment in Bristol. We presented teams’ progress and actions to see improved communication could
their feedback, both points for what worked for them. The two teams affect other complaints such as Q6,
improvement and positive feedback. were very different in temperament, which asked about how tidy our site
This reminded them that they do experience and attitude. The was during the work. We can help
get some fantastic feedback too. We commitments that each team agreed to customers appreciate what a tidy site
avoided delivering bad news and were mainly aimed at communication. means. One project team showed
damaging morale and motivation. We For example, they wanted to have images while the other team explained
also wanted to preserve some of the more contact with those that work in why we do certain things.
positive habits the team already had. the day by using cards to inform the To help the teams achieve the 10 out
We discussed our findings with the customers of next steps. The teams had of 10 goal, we fed back our customer
teams and talked about what they think other ideas that would impact customer survey results each month to the teams
their main blockers are for achieving service, such as reducing time off-gas using a format called a ‘one pager’. This
10 out of 10 on customer surveys. We by completing transfers before relays. included a year-to-date and monthly
read the comments and survey return Replacing the whole length of the score league table. Our target was an
data. The teams created their own service pipe takes longer to complete average of 8.95 out of 10. The teams

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