Applying Systems Thinking Improves Customer Service

Companies should employ business consultants after an insurance company has applied systems thinking to its organisation after discovering they were providing poor customer service.

The Financial Times reported that Aviva, the sixth-largest insurance company in the world, found that the concentrating on hard performance targets such as call response times was resulting in unproductive behaviour among their call centre employees.

Amanda Wilson, Aviva contact centre manager, told the publication that while workers were answering 80 per cent of calls within 20 seconds, they were not actually dealing with the purpose of the calls.

This understanding lead to numerous misunderstandings and aggravated customers as their queries and complaints were not being responded to in an effective manner.

Employing consulting experts to examine their organisational processes through the application of systems thinking theory allowed Aviva to record and target performance more efficiently.

Systems thinking theory enabled Ms Wilson to discover that Aviva's previous method of logging customer service was incorrect as it gave a false impression of how long it was taking to complete consumer transactions.

It was originally thought that customer transactions took five days to complete but it was actually more like 39 days as the process was moved around various people and departments.

Aviva's main call centre has already experienced noticeable improvements since the introduction of system thinking which has enabled their employees to concentrate on customer service rather than ineffective targets.

The Norwich-based centre is receiving 20,000 fewer calls per month as employees are spending more time on dealing with customers instead of focusing on call response times.

Mark Hodges, Aviva's UK chief executive, decided to employ performance improvement consulting experts to apply systems thinking after learning the idea from Scottish Power and this could encourage more companies to do the same.

Many organisations may be wary of spending money on consulting professionals in the uncertain economic climate but consultants can deliver process improvements which will allow firms to benefit when the economy recovers.

"It's about getting the financial results we want. It's about costs, sales and service quality. In a competitive, price-sensitive world, you have to do something to stand out," Mr Hodges told the Financial Times.

A significant number of firms could benefit from hiring consultants to improve customer service as more and more business are being asked by the Financial Ombudsman to compensate their consumers due to poor levels of service.