TaxCalc Blog

National Customer Service Week with the TaxCalc Support Team

A round up from the week team TaxCalc joined in with National Customer Service Week for the first-time. 

A common question arose during the planning of the week was: What is National Customer Service Week?

To which a ‘text book answer’ is, National Customer Service Week is a week-long opportunity to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays in successful business practice and the growth of the UK economy. It takes place during the first full week in October between 1st and 5th October, 2018.

A further question then followed on: How do we bring this into the working environment within TaxCalc?

Looking after our customers’ needs has been at the heart of everything we do ever since we started back in 2005. Then our entire team numbered just five people. Today we’re in excess of seventy staff. And we’re still growing! Our UK-based Support Team lives our customer mantra daily and is on–hand to offer free telephone and email support, to back up our extensive Knowledge Base guides.

Since beginning my journey as a Director and taking responsibility for our Customer & Technical Support Teams I’ve been impressed by the consistently high level of customer service we deliver, responding quickly and knowledgeably to an ever-growing customer base. Which is why it made perfect sense to celebrate Customer Service Week with my team.

It proved an excellent opportunity to discuss top tips and share the successes of our Support Team with the wider company. It also allowed us to reflect on how far we have come as a company in improving customer satisfaction and provided a benchmark as to where we go next.

Each day covered a different area of focus and encompassed a wide range of Customer Service topics aimed at prompting discussion and thought leadership:

Monday: Insight – knowing our customers

Tuesday: Agility – adapting to change

Wednesday: Skills – identify and nurture service skills

Thursday: Leadership – championing CS with the board

Friday: Recognition – celebrate our Customer Service heroes

Each of the activities sparked interesting debate. I think I could easily turn this blog post into a book with the points that were raised. Choosing highlights would be hard for me to do as the week ran very well, and achieved the impact we had hoped for. Wednesday & Thursday certainly proved fruitful as we held an ‘open house’ within Support, allowing other members of the TaxCalc family listening into customer calls. A representative from almost every department volunteered their time and made some highly useful observations. Hearing feedback from their peers confirmed to the team that they were doing a great job. It was also a great opportunity for inter-departmental collaboration – and also for staff members to hear it directly from the customer. Nothing beats customer insight when it comes to developing and marketing better software.

On Friday, ‘recognition’ was the topic of the day and there was plenty to go around! Our usual Net Promoter survey review was accompanied by an internal survey for staff to vote for TaxCalc’s Support Champion. Votes came in from over 80% of the company, and each vote was accompanied with a comment on reasons for the vote. Our runaway winner was our Head of Customer Support Melissa Field, for showing dedication to the company and constantly keeping the team’s standards at the highest level. Almost every member of the team received a vote, which goes to show how highly the team are regarded within the company.

Our NPS (Net Promoter Score) during the week was at 93.33 and is considered to be a ‘World Class’ score. The 2018 score to date is up at 91.76 and is testament to the fantastic Support team we have.

Overall what a great week it was for showcasing the work of our Support team to the company. Takeaways from the event are to continue – with collaboration and understanding roles within different departments being a major learning. 

There’s certainly more to come from Support throughout the next year and a bigger and better National Customer Service Week in 2019. Watch this space for more info over the next 12 months. Team – the whole company is very proud of you!