How we performed in 2006-07

Communicating in partnership

Thank you to all our staff, customers and suppliers for the support you continue to show M-four.
If you are a customer, you may work with only one of our service areas and we value that. However, you will discover on these pages information that may help you meet your communication needs. Don’t hesitate to contact us to find out more. We’ve produced this article to let everyone know about our performance: the size of our operations, how we measure up against targets, how we handle compliments, complaints and suggestions, and how we consult people.
We have come on leaps and bounds in some areas as our feedback shows, while in others we have managed to maintain excellent levels of service. We have identified that we need to handle complaints in a more timely, systematic way so that we share and learn from the outcomes. This is something we’ll be working hard to improve.

Seamus McKeown, Head of M-four

M-four operate four service areas: design (which includes photography, copywriting and presentations’ management), printing, advertising and translations. We are part of Manchester City Council’s Chief Executive’s Department. We are allocated financial targets to achieve a surplus over and above our operational costs. Any surplus we achieve contributes to the departmental budget.
Our customers are primarily Council services; however, around 50% of our advertising and translations’ customers are non-Council public sector groups.

Raising our standards

A total of 80.5% of our customers say that we keep all our service promises, while a massive 98% of you think those promises are relevant to your communication needs.
Thank you to those of you who have submitted our online feedback form or completed a form at our customer forums. The form asks people whether they agree or disagree with each of our ten promises or service standards. Since the new more in-depth form was piloted in October last year (2006), we have received 112 responses. We wanted to change our previous form that had been in place since February 2005, because we wanted to give our customers an opportunity to be more challenging about specific service issues.

Last summer we also reviewed our customer promises because our staff told us that they were too service-specific, and that the terminology was linked too closely with design and print. We re-worked the promises, made them more inclusive of all our services, and they received approval from team leaders. We also used a random sample survey to ask our staff whether they think the new promises are relevant to our customers’ needs: 18 of the 20 agree they are.

As a result of customer feedback from our online form, we have decided to increase our targets for people agreeing or disagreeing with each promise. The target for each promise will rise by 5% from 1 July and our performance will be subject to continuous monitoring.

Feedback Results for 2006-07 for all service areas

Percentage of people who agreed or disagreed with each of M-four’s promises

People who strongly agree/agree with all M-four’s customer promises based on their experience of working with a particular service area.
Design 79.6% - Print (inc. Copy Centre) 84.5% - Translations 88% - Advertising 74.4%
We use the feedback forms to help us measure our performance because a link is sent to customers after we have completed a job.
We have identified promises 1, 4, 6 and 7 as key drivers for our service.
If anybody disagrees with those promises, since 1 June we have been treating them it as serious complaints.

The figures are for the period October 2006 (when we launched our new promises) to 31 May 2007. The old targets apply.

People who strongly agree/agree with all M-four’s customer promises based on their experience – figure for all our services.

100

66

86

100

66.6

79

100

94 

Eight out of ten customers say we keep all our customer promises.

Customer Forums

Our design and print customer forums are an invaluable way for us to improve our working relationship with customers. We emphasise the need for planning and communicating with us early in the process so we can identify the best approach to your communication objectives. We believe that better planning can save customers and the Council money in the production process. If a project has more focus at the beginning, and production timetables are adhered to, there are fewer corrections and less scope for error. The forums also offer an excellent opportunity for customers to say what they need from M-four to help them produce their work. At a forum in February this year, customers told us what they would like to see and we have put into place the following joint action plan:

Complaints

We treat complaints as a dip in our service performance and an opportunity to learn. We aim to resolve them with a quick fix where necessary and implement longer term policies and procedures if appropriate.
The number of complaints we received between April 2006 and March 2007 was 21 across all our service areas. We treated all the complaints as serious because of their nature. Treating people fairly and sensitively, on-time delivery, effective communication, and excellent work are our key service drivers, and we treat complaints about these areas as serious.

A key issue we have identified is that we are not treating complaints consistently. We have a robust procedure in place and we do address the complaints; however, the timescales were not met in all cases and this has been attributed to pressure of operational activity. In June, the service area managers met to discuss the need to approach complaints consistently, and we aim to improve.
Thank you to all our customers who complain. We always prefer to have an issue raised with us than for a customer to walk away in frustration.
Our feedback procedure and a fuller breakdown of these complaints are available on our this site.
Service area: number and type of complaints
Design: five, all concerning print quality, and three allegations of lack of communications during work. We reprinted the work on all occasions. Two of the jobs were reprinted at the supplier’s expense.
Print: four, all concerning print quality. Customers deal with the design studio when they require print-only jobs and supply their own artwork. There were concerns about unclear communication in three instances. We met our feedback procedure timescales in three out of four instances. Three of the above jobs were printed by suppliers, at their expense.
We have grouped the design and print complaints together for the purposes of any longer-term outcomes. We now have print contracts in place with suppliers after a thorough print tender and we will now performance-manage these suppliers. We also raised the issue with staff of the importance of the customer supplying a proof. The communication issue was raised with appropriate teams; effective communication during job delivery is
one of our key service drivers.
Advertising: We received one complaint where the person said that although the quality of work was excellent, he was not treated fairly and sensitively. Upon investigation within our timescales, we discovered that the customer was dealing with two agencies for the project and felt that neither Manchester City Advertising (MCA) nor the other agency was taking ownership of the project.
We agreed that, in future, MCA would be the customer’s main contact and that we would subcontract the other agency. The customer was satisfied with this.
Translations: There were 11 complaints:
five about freelance interpreters not turning up for appointments, two instances of perceived lack of impartiality, one instance of rudeness, an interpreter taking their child to a session, and two administrative errors – one not confirming a booking, the other entering the wrong date for a booking.
In both cases the customer contacted us but we did not return their calls within the agreed timescale. We dealt with all the complaints and handled six within our timescales. We addressed the non-showing with the freelance interpreters involved; we do not continue our relationship unless there are genuine reasons for not keeping an appointment. We host regular interpreter training and issue them with a code of conduct. The administration errors were explained to the customer and they were satisfied. We reiterated the importance of timely communication to our staff involved.

Suggestions

We welcome and encourage customer suggestions to improve and develop our service. Suggestions form a part of our feedback procedure. However, our records show that for the period April 2006 – March 2007 we did not receive direct suggestions. We did receive some comments from customers either during the customer forums or occasionally on emails. However, they did cover areas that we have actually addressed, such as publishing our structure. In these cases, we sent people a copy of the relevant publication.
We have also received comments about having an online catalogue for promotional items. We are in the process of publishing prices for all our services and we have links to contracted suppliers’ catalogues on our website. We also had a comment about having a single point of access for all our services, instead of having to communicate with various people across our service areas. This is our intention and is informed by the Manchester Improvement Programme.
If you have any suggestions about how we can improve, please contact us.

Listening to improve

Consultation is the cornerstone of our service development and involves us listening to customers in a variety of ways: through customer forums, our feedback forms, asking for feedback on our e-Newsletter mailing list, and meeting with people about M-four’s role as the corporate procurer of design and print. The key elements for our consultation plan 2007 are:
1. Host customer forums for design and print – aim for four each year with the theme of working better together (see article and
joint action plan in this publication). Two took place in February and June 2007.
2. Publish a report on staff survey conducted in November 2006.
3. Photography: survey customers about images they would like to see (this has been superseded by an email to customers asking for their views on providing a film-making service).
4. Design-tender consultation with internal customers: April 2007 until tender (date to be confirmed).
5. Involve internal print customers in performance, managing newly contracted print suppliers: September 2007.
6. Consult with customers, staff and suppliers about our wider community involvement: by December 2007.

Our staff survey showed what our staff think about working for M-four and what they would like to see changed. Staff welcomed the idea of a vision for our service and since then we have a new vision, which is to be recognised as excellent in the field of public sector communications and to be the supplier of choice.

To help us with our idea about setting up a film-making service within M-four, ten customers responded saying that they felt there was, need for it, if it was affordable. We did some benchmarking and believe that we can offer our Council and partners a competitive service for five-to-ten minute films for presentations and community events. We have met with two customers since and we intend to discuss the service further at a management review.
Point 4 is ongoing and we have already had some ideas from customers about what to include in the new design-tender documents, while points 5 and 6 are outstanding.We will keep our customers up to date with developments.

Compliments, complaints and suggestions

Compliments
Customer compliments invariably motivate our staff and we share good practice as part of our feedback procedure.
It is great to know when we’re getting it right. Thanks for your praise. We receive the compliments either as emails, or when people complete the ‘Tell Us More’ section of our feedback form. The types of compliments we receive show that there are distinct trends in the way we deliver our services. Customers are impressed with our staff’s polite attitude and calmness.
This may be during the delivery of a tight turnaround design and print job, or an interpreter working between an anxious service user and a provider trying to explain a complex issue. Our ability to deliver to tight deadlines is a recurring theme for compliments, as is our staff’s listening and general communication skills. This is what our customers say*:
Design
“ Our two projects were delivered on time, to budget and with good contact with us, the client, during their development.”
Jane Price, Manchester Partnership

Advertising
“ Manchester City Advertising staff are a credit to the M-four service. They are professional, efficient and always willing to help meet any deadline.”
Kelly Reynolds, Waste and Recycling

Translations
“ M-four Translations worked to our tight deadline without any fuss. What we asked for is what we got, and in a speedy and efficient manner – very impressed.”
Glenn Street, Adult Social Care

General Service

“ M-four understands our often complex requirements and always responds helpfully, efficiently and effectively to whatever requests we make.”
Jill Lewis, Electoral Services
*Comments from feedback forms May 2007

Mystery customers test our service

Our customers carried out a series of (mystery) telephone calls throughout May to see how our staff measure up. There were nine calls made across the service. The questions we asked the callers were:
1. Did the member of staff state their name? Yes in eight out of nine cases; in the other instance the member of staff needed to be asked. In two cases the staff member spoke too quickly for the caller.
2. Did they state the service? Yes in all cases.
3. Was the telephone answered in eight rings or fewer? Yes in all cases.
4. Was the communication clear? Yes in eight cases; one caller put on hold for transfer, waited 30 seconds and was cut off.
5. Did the staff member display a good knowledge of their own service area? Yes in six areas, no in one area (staff member did not know whether we provided work for external customers); one caller was unsure, and one caller didn’t get the chance to find out.
6. Did the staff member take your cues to tell you about any other parts of M-four’s services? This happened in only two instances.
7. Would you be confident about working with M-four in future? Everyone except the cut-off caller would be.
8. Were you treated fairly and sensitively? Eight people said they were and the cut-off caller was happy with the brief conversation.

The results are extremely encouraging and the test aimed to sample our staff’s compliance with customer care and Charter Mark standards. We also wanted to gauge how much our people knew about and/or had the ability to discuss our other service areas with customers. The latter point has raised some concerns and we will be addressing this in our management meetings and reporting back to you. Thank you to everyone who took part in the mystery shopping exercise. Sorry to the cut-off caller – thanks for trying again and we’re glad your experience greatly improved.

Are there any other services you think we should offer that may help you with your communication needs? There’s a prize of £50 worth of gift vouchers if we adopt your idea. We are always looking at ways to develop our services and widen choice where appropriate. We want our customers and staff to play a large part in this process.
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your suggestions. This is not the same issue about choice that we include in our customer promises, which states M-four provides sufficient choice with the services it offers; that is, within the current scope of services and not extra to what we already offer.