Striving for Continuous Improvement Ben Johnson GM Ministerial Correspondence and Customer Relations RailCorp Email: [email protected]

Striving for Continuous ImprovementBen JohnsonBen Johnson

GM Ministerial Correspondence and Customer RelationsGM Ministerial Correspondence and Customer RelationsRailCorp RailCorp

Email: [email protected]: [email protected]

SOCAP Australia – 2006 Symposium

Overview

1. Introduction

2. Situation Analysis

3. Development

4. Implementation

5. Evaluation6. Continuous Improvement (Cycle Two)

7. Summary

(Cycle One)



1. Introduction

RailCorp

• Established 1 January 2004

• Key Responsibility: Safe operation, crewing and maintenance of passenger trains and stations

• Two main products: CityRail and CountryLink



Introduction

Ministerial Correspondence and Customer Relations (MCCR)

Three areas of responsibility:1. Customer Relations (131500)

• Manages feedback received for RailCorp from customers and the wider community through the Transport Infoline

2. Ministerial and Customer Correspondence• Conduit between RailCorp, the Minister’s office, the Ministry of

Transport and members of parliament• Written correspondence

3. Reporting• Tracks and monitors RailCorp’s responses• Reports trends for planning purposes


Customer Experience

+ -

Feedback


Service Delivery


Definition

Dictionary• Continuous = united, without a break,

uninterrupted, constant• Improvement = The act of improving; state of

being improvedRailCorp

• We will encourage and support each other to improve the quality and productivity of our work, our systems and our assets

MCCRDo it better tomorrow



Continuous Improvement Cycle



Cycle One

• February 2005 to March 2006

• Historical view of RailCorp:– Performance– Complaints data– Structural changes

• MCCR Background



2. Situation Analysis

• Why are we here?• What do we want to achieve?• How can we set measurable targets?• What are these targets?• What will be measured?• Can we do things better?• What are our roadblocks?• QUESTION EVERYTHING!



AS 4269-1995

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (“Deloitte”) 1. Assurance Assessment of the management

of complaints and disclosure of confidential information;

2. Compliance findings and recommendations against existing RailCorp procedures for managing complaints; and

3. Benchmarking these procedures against better practice.



AS 4269: Summary Sheet

• Overall Audit Result = 4 out of 5– “The internal control framework is

effective except for minor weaknesses.”• No significant recommendations• 7 out of 13 elements have no need to be

improved:– Fairness, Assistance, Charges, Remedies,

Data Collection, Systematic and Recurring Problems.



AS 4269: Findings

• Details of recommendations– Improve timeliness of ministerial process and

allocation of cases– Improve the drafting process– Improve knowledge of KPIs– Encourage a standardised referral process



AS 4269: Findings


Element Benchmarking Criteria

Processes/ Controls

Adequacy Improvement Recommendations

Commitment Policy and culture driven from top mgmt. Supportive procedures, roles and responsibilities.

Clear lines of authority.

Manual.

MOU with various business groups.

Position description.

Adequate. CEO statement.

Resources Adequate resources and training.

Various trained staff.

Temps not on training schedule.

Buddy system.

Adequate. Ensure temps are appropriately skilled.

Visibility Well publicised processes that are easily accessible.

Channels are published on multiple websites.

Adequate. Need to update and improve visibility on websites.


AS 4269: Findings


Element Benchmarking Criteria

Processes/ Controls

Adequacy Improvement Recommendations

Access Process – easy to understand and accessible to all.

All customers have access and right to offer feedback.

Adequate. Increase transparency of process.

Responsiveness Quick and courteous resolution.

Quality response.

Performance monitored weekly.

Style guide.

Adequate. Improve communication of KPIs.

Reviews/ Effectiveness

A structured plan to regularly review the effectiveness of complaints system.

New manual. Website-related cases are reviewed.

No formal survey.

Adequate. Introduce a survey to assess customer satisfaction with management of complaints.


3. Development

• What did we need to do to deliver the recommendations?

• What needed to change?

• Develop new goals and targets

• Develop strategies and enabling processes



RailCorp KPI Categories


7. Safety

8. Security

9. Service

10.Staff

11.Ticketing

12.Timetable

1. Claim

2. Cleanliness

3. Environment

4. Facilities

5. Information

6. On-time Running (OTR)


RailCorp KPIs


Telephone – Finalise cases within 5 working days

Web Lodgement – Finalise cases within 5 working days

Direct Correspondence – Finalise cases within 15 working days


4. Implementation

• Performance monitoring– PDAs and SLAs

• Motivation– Office mottos– Regular team briefings– Open communication between managers and

staff



MCCR – Process Maps


Customer calls

131500

CountryLink

DirectMoT

MO TIDCInternal

Switchboard

ICAC

Ombudsman

Case not recorded

CRM to investigate

Transfer to YSL queue

Reviewed by CRM

CategoriseAllocate to

case manager

Log by case manager onto

Satisfy

Is a callback required?

Is the case logged on Satisfy?

Case require investigation?

Advice request to busines unit

Contact customer

Add notes to the case

Customer contacted

Add notes to the case

Close case

No

Yes

Is the case resolved?

Case escalate to CRM

No

Yes

No

Advice received?

Follow up sent to business unit

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

If advice still not received from follow up

Customer/MP writes to Minister

Letter received at Minister's

Office & registered

Acknowledge-ment sent by

Minister's office

Ministerial sent from Minister's office to MOT

Ministerial file checked by MOT and

allocated to appropriate

agency

Ministerial file couriered to

RailCorp

Ministerial File registered in

Satisfy System at Ministerial Corro. unit &

document scanned

Ministerial sent to Mgr Corro

for review

Does Advice/Briefing note need to be

obtained from other business unit

Mgr requests Adv./Brief from Business Unit

File allocated to Case Mgr for preparation of

Draft Response

Advice Received?

Draft OK?

Case Mgr re-draft response

Return to RailCorp for

redraft

Send to Minister's

Office

Endorsed by Director M/CD

(MoT)?

Ministerial Response Approved?

File to MCD (MoT)

Signed by Minister

Response sent to

Customer/MP

File to MOT to close

File to RailCorp to finalise and

file papers

Draft response sent to MOT

GM MCCR reviews draft

responseNo

No

Yes

NoYes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

File movement noted in system

No

Mgr Corro reviews

response

Draft OK?No

Yes

Customer sends an email

CRM to investigate

CityRail

131 500

RailCorp

CountryLink

MOT

MO

Is the case logged on Satisfy?

Transfer to YSL queue

Reviewed by CRM

Categorise case

Allocate to case manager

Research case

Prepare draft

Transfer to CRM

CRM to review draft

Draft approved?

Transfer to case manager

CRM sends email to

customer

Case transfer to case

manager

Case notes added onto

Satisfy

Referral to business unit

Case closed

No

Yes

Yes

No

Customer writes a Letter

K349 CountryLink CEO GM MCCR

Is it received by MCCR?

No record

Does not meet Ombudsman's

and other compliance guidelines

Letter is stamped with date

received and case number

Logged by Administration

onto Satisfy

Reviewed by Manager

Letter scannedAttached to

case

Is advice required?

Referral to relevant

business unit

Advice received and attach to case

Attach advice to case notes

Allocate case to case

manager

Response drafted by case

manager

Transfer to GM for review

Is draft ok?

Transfer to case manager

Signed letter returned to

case manager

Letter sent to customer

Referral to business unit

Case Closed

NoYes

Yes

No

Yes

Other Internal

No


MCCR Instruction Manual



5. Evaluation

• What did we learn?

• What did we achieve?



Cycle One: Achievements

• Continued to show a downward trend for processing ministerials.

• Developed an Emergency Plan.• Aligned customer feedback procedures to

AS4269.• Improved report quality.• No staff turnover.• Developed MCCR Instruction Manual.• External interest in our customer feedback

systems.



Statistics


• Total complaint issues reduced by 24.11%• OTR complaint issues reduced by 64.45%• 56.37% of complaint issues were made by phone in 2006 compared to 79.57% in 2005.

44,701

36,501

14,582

43,633

27,700

5,184

All issues received

Complaint issuesreceived

OTR complaintissues received

No. cases

2004/2005 2005/2006


Statistics

Compliments

0

50

100

150

200

250

Jul-00 Jul-01 Jul-02 Jul-03 Jul-04 Jul-05



KPI Improvement


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Jul-04 Jan-05 Jul-05 Jan-06 Jul-06

Phone Letter Web


Cycle Two

• April 2006 to June 2007



6. Continuous Improvement

• New goals:– ISO 10002 compliance– Target 300

• External review



ISO 10002

Compliance and Complaints Advisory Services Pty Ltd

1. Improve timeliness of ministerial process

2. Continuous improvement in providing timely and effective information to customers at the point of service delivery

3. Improve root cause analysis of actionable systematic complaints

4. Improve feedback and accountability mechanisms for rectification actions taken



Continuous Improvement

• Customer Feedback Policy

• Customer feedback surveys

• Online information

• Database program

enhancements– E.g. Self-reporting



Continuous Improvement

• Learning and Development:– MCCR team;– Frontline employees; and– Transport Infoline.

• Building relationships

• Other projects



Challenges

• Frontline staff knowledge of processes at point of service delivery

• Internal information:– Timely?– Reliable?

• Possible investigative role?



Complaints


0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

Jul-00 Jul-01 Jul-02 Jul-03 Jul-04 Jul-05 Jul-06 Jul-07 Jul-08 Jul-09

Monthly complaints

OTR complaints


7. Summary

• Situation Analysis– Review current situation

• Development– Establish shared goals and strategy– Develop enabling processes– Assign responsibilities and roles

• Implementation– Monitor performance– Manage resources – budget, human, knowledge– Maintain motivation



Summary

• Evaluation– Reflection– Update knowledge

• Continuous Improvement– Continually review goals and performance– Organisational targets


Email address: [email protected]


Documents

Striving for Continuous Improvement Ben Johnson GM Ministerial Correspondence and Customer Relations RailCorp Email: [email protected]