Amey’s defence customer service team achieve ServiceMark accreditation

05 Oct 2018

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Amey are delighted to announce that their Customer Service team have achieved ServiceMark accreditation from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), acknowledging staff’s commitment to delivering excellent customer service against the ICS’ world-class model.

The Customer Service team, including the Customer Service Centre in Speke and Local Customer Service Centres across the UK, have been working hard for last three years to raise standards against the ServiceMark framework.

The team were assessed by the ICS on a regular basis and, as part of the accreditation process, recently conducted independent surveys of staff and customers, as well as a two day assessment with an independent auditor. They have seen massive improvements take hold, moving from a score of 63/100 to 80/100 on the UK Customer Service Index, putting them well above sector and industry norms for the first time, and well above the 70/100 target that was set out for them by the ICS.

Geoff Robson, Chief Operating Officer from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), visited the Customer Service Centre in Liverpool for a celebration event to unveil the plaque to an audience of staff and senior guests from the DIO, the Armed Forces and the wider Amey business. He also said a few kind words about the work that the Customer Service Department does and the importance of our service delivery.

Staff from across the Customer Service team developed a nine point plan based on customer and employee feedback to enable the improvements required to meet the ServiceMark world class model. Outcomes from the plan include; improving employee engagement, happiness, professional development and making staff suggestions come to life, development of a behaviour framework of guiding principles and professional standards and simplifying all customer facing written communications. The team also worked on mapping out the customer journey and aligning the customer insight model to key customer touch-points, putting the customer at the heart of complaint resolutions, and providing an array of digital options for customer contact.

Stuart Jones, Customer Service Director said:

“We work with the Institute of Customer Service because we want to enhance our professional standing within our industry, they provide a framework that all members of the Customer Service team can get behind to drive improvements. When I asked members of the team why they wanted ServiceMark my favourite answer was ‘because we deserve it’ and I think that’s true! The team work 24/7, 365 to help our customers, the effort they apply and the empathy they generate is an inspiration, and we’ve had some very high-profile customers visit us this year who agree. I’m genuinely thrilled that the team have achieved this accreditation.”

Geoff Robson, Chief Operating Officer for the DIO, said:

“On my first visit to the Amey customer Service team I was immediately impressed by the energy, the feel of the place, the way that the staff were behaving on the phones, the way they interacted with the customers, the helpfulness, the friendliness and professionalism absolutely shone through. What I also took away was a really strong culture of continuous improvement and for me, it’s one of the most important things to see in an organisation and I think they have really outdone themselves in terms of demonstrating that.

It was really good to see the ServiceMark assessor’s comments come back and reflect upon those things that I picked up on my first visit and give the team the recognition that they deserve. What it means is that they’re providing a fantastic service to our Serving personnel and their families but also not resting on their laurels. Where things go wrong, and sometimes things do go wrong in operations, we all know that, the team are always looking at ways to learn the lessons and improve.

The improved scores achieved was absolutely fantastic and what that reflects to me is a true recognition of why it’s so important to have the culture and the attitude that this team has, because it reflects what customers end up thinking about the service they’ve received.”

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