Did we keep our promises in 2008-09?

Did we keep our promises in 2008-09?
At m-four we are 100 per cent dedicated to great customer service and to improving the services we provide and we welcome any feedback we get from our clients.

We monitor all responses via our online and hard copy feedback forms, and ask our customers whether, through our service delivery, they feel we kept to our customer promises.

We feel this is an excellent way of gathering information, as it will help us to continually improve our service. Feedback requests are sent out all year round by our Account Managers and front-line staff across the full group. Throughout the period April 2008 to end of March 2009 we received 159 replies to our customer feedback forms.

From the 159 responses, an average of 97.9 per cent of customers agreed that we keep all our customer promises (against an average target of 91.5 per cent). The results are as follows:


Feedback Results for 2008-09 for all service areas
m-four promise    Percentage of
clients that agree    Target percentage
1.      Treats customers fairly and sensitively    100    95
2.    Services are easy to access    100    95
3.     Is flexible to work with    98    95
4.    Provides work of an excellent standard     97    90
5.     Provides sufficient choice with the services it offers    100    90
6.     Effectively communicates to customers during the delivery of services     98    95
7.     Delivers services on time     96    95
8.     Provides value for money     92    90
9.     Information for customers (eg. our website) is informative and relevant     100    90
10.     Customer promises are adequate and relevant to customers' needs     98    90
Targets update.
The target for Promise number 5, Provides sufficient choice with the services it offers, was 80 per cent. This has now been revised to 90 per cent, which in turn will raise our average target to 92.5 per cent.
Reviewing our responses
Our target for last year was to receive five feedback forms for each of the five service areas each quarter and we actually achieved almost double the target. We are delighted to say that we are achieving our targets on all our promises, with an improvement on the previous year's results.

We contact all our customers when they disagree or strongly disagree with one of our promises and treat those promises with a higher target with a greater priority.

Although we did receive a generous number of 158 feedback responses, we will continue to circulate the feedback forms, guaranteeing we grasp a full and thorough impression of customer perspectives. We will continue to monitor our feedback and act on the results where appropriate. m-four management also decided to maintain the quarterly targets of forms being returned at five per service.

Our research has shown that repeat customers, particularly in Advertising and Design, are reluctant to return feedback questionnaires on a more frequent basis than one per year. This obviously limits the responses we are receiving and makes the targets for responses unachievable in some areas. While our front-line staff are sending out the requests to customers, the overall response has fallen. Because of these changes, we will continue to trial the process for a further 12 months, with a review in 2010.

We really appreciate those who take the time to reply to the feedback requests, as it is nice to know we are doing the majority of things right, and when we get negative feedback it gives us a chance to improve our service to our customers. So, please keep those feedback forms coming.
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 and we thank you 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 when an interpreter working between an anxious service user and a provider tries to explain a complex issue. Our ability to manage tight deadlines is a recurring theme for compliments, as are our staff's listening and general communication skills.

This is what our customers say*:
Simon Gilbert from Children’s services had this to say about the Copy Centre “I needed the job doing ASAP and the turnaround time exceeded my expectations”.
Kate Fowler from Corporate Personnel was extremely happy with the service she received and said she was kept informed all the way along and was given useful advice about the products.
Andrew Blore from Corporate Performance said “Amanda and the whole team were excellent, many thanks”.
Customer Quotes

“Carole Crosby meet the brief I gave her and excelled in providing further options for me to make the most of my budget, but also managed to complete this is a very short timescale!”
–    Patricia McCarroll, Capital Programme

“The staff were extremely helpful and informative and managed to produce our documents within a short timescale.”
–    Sarah Crewe, Manchester Housing


“Great service from the copy centre, David's been really helpful and prompt from start to finish.”
–    Ruth Richards, Corporate Communications

“David is great to work with and often responds to very short deadlines. He is friendly and professional and makes our lives much easier!”
–    Michelle Hargreaves, Hospitality and Trading Services

“I have been very pleased with the service that M4 have provided.  I find the staff are friendly, approachable and extremely helpful.”
–    Jacinta O’Brien, Children’s Services

“The service was extremely speedy and efficient. I have also recently M4 advertising and translations who also provided an excellent service.
–    Kate Fowler, Corporate Personnel

“Fantastic service and very speedy”
–    Mike Ashman, Manchester Parking

“I would like to say that having dealt with David Hibbert, who was very helpful we would use M-Four for future training sessions where a large print run is required.”
–    Denise Jackson, Workforce Planning and Development

“The Copy Centre have on every occasion provided us with a perfect job on time with good communication in the interim.”
–    Pauline Maguire, Art Gallery

“Dave was keen to provide a good service and responded positively to all of our requests, which were often at short notice.”
–    Glenn Street, Carers Strategy Team

“I have used this service many times and David and Elaine could not be more helpful. Always out to please their customer. I would like to add my thanks to them.”
–    Margaret Coleman, Adult Social Care

“I needed the job doing ASAP and the turnaround time exceeded my expectations.”
–    Simon Gilbert, Children’s Services

“From first email I was told how long my job would take the price and the delivery date. Well-done thanks.”
- Robert Byrne, PSH Market Renewal

“I am happy with the job M-four completed for us, it was to a good standard and it was delivered on time.”
–    Nicola Gilmore, Parenting your teen in Manchester

“Many thanks for the excellent service Seamus”
–    Chris Barber, Head of Engineering Services

“M4 have always provided me with excellent service, I could not praise them highly enough.”
–    June Yates, Building Control

“Everyone I have dealt with has been very friendly and helpful”
–    Avril Davies, MEDC Business Support Team

“I found that m-four staff were very accommodating and prompt.  We received the goods very quickly once the order had been placed.
We were very pleased with the products produced.”
–    Linda Lester, Men’s Direct Access

“The service I received was first class and you can't beat that. I was kept informed of where the jobs were up to and received them within days of putting my order on SAP.”
–    June Yates, Building Control

“In view of the very short deadline we gave you, the work was produced well in advance of the meeting.  Even the amendments made were incorporated within the short timescale.  It really is a pleasure dealing with you.”
–    Marie Jones, Leadership Development

“Colin and his team were great. It took a while for us to agree on the images as a number of different people were involved during the process but Colin was very patient and provided us with amendments quickly!!  The residents are really happy with the end product. Thank you”
–    Vicky King, Private Sector Housing

“The service our team receives from Nicky and Colin is outstanding (especially Nicky as we deal with him mostly). We are treated with respect and all our jobs are looked after and dealt with in a professional manner. We are always kept informed and feel that they both try to do the best for us as a customer at all times. They are polite, easy to work with, responsive and quality-led. The one area where I am unhappy is being told we will potentially have to have another account handler, in light of the problems experienced earlier this year I find this most unsatisfactory seeing as our account is running so smoothly being sat where it currently is. We put up with a lot of problems for a sustained period of time, this had a great impact on our teams reputation within our service, which has taken a lot of time to build back up, and also took a lot of resource in dealing with and documenting all the problems. Because of this we are very weary of moving to anyone else as our account is very demanding and unique. Nicky has learnt the ropes very quickly and easily and we would be more than disappointed if we were to lose him. We hope that as one of your biggest spenders, you will take these comments into consideration. Thanks”
–    Joanna Nixon, Early Years and Sure Start

“Amanda and the whole team were excellent, many thanks.”
–    Andrew Blore, Corporate Communications

“Most of the requests for advertisements that come through my service are on the last minute and are needed urgently.  I know that this can often put additional pressure on the team in M4, however, they always do their utmost to ensure that the jobs are done on time and, as always, to a very high standard (for which I am extremely grateful).  The team also remain polite and good-humored even when under immense pressure.  Thank you M4 Advertising!”
–    Sue Davison, Senior Recruitment
“The service Nicky has provided has been great-he gave us definite deadlines to work to but was able to be flexible with us if needed. Once we had made some changes, he contacted us to let us know when it would be likely we would receive the final proof and managed to get this newsletter over to us in advance of what we expected. We look forward to working with Nicky in the future!”
–    Katie Rothwell, Capital Programme

“I was very impressed with the service I received in particular Sarah, please pass on my thanks to her”
–    Rebecca Stevenson, MMAGS

“A speedy and efficient service. Melanie was very helpful, efficient & pleasant.”
- Andy McLean, MSCB Learning & Development Officer

“Extremely happy with the service I recieved and was kept informed all the way along and was also given useful advice about the products.”
–    Kate Fowler, Recruitment Services

“On contacting M4, we began working with Diane Walsh. With the constant changing requirements of the promotional materials, and the shifting timescales we were expected to work within, Diane always responded and acted in an efficient and effective manner. Her patience and understanding throughout the whole process was greatly appreciated, and was one of the few elements of our own project that was a pleasure to deal with.
We look forward to dealing with Diane again in the future. Thanks once again.”
–    Gavin Dean, Children’s Services

“All of the materials that were produced for the Super Saturday event were delivered on time and the whole process, from design to print, was handled excellently by Nicky. He even personally delivered some heavy boxes of leaflets into the Town Hall for me when we were too busy to collect them - all his efforts were much appreciated.”
–    Helen Jones, Sure Start

*Comments received from feedback forms
________________________________________


Complaints
We treat complaints very seriously as we always try to ensure that our customers are satisfied with the service we are providing. We aim to resolve all complaints as quickly and efficiently as we can and to this end we have a policy of continual improvement.  In October 2008 we started to record how quickly we resolved any complaints to ensure there were no unnecessary delays to the process.
The number of complaints we received between April 2008 and March 2009 was seven across all our service areas. This compares with seven complaints for the previous 12 months, which demonstrates that even through changing times our customer satisfaction is being maintained.


We treated all the complaints seriously, because if a customer provides us with negative feedback, we want to use this feedback to rectify problems and to improve our services.

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 extremely seriously. A key issue we identified previously was that we were not treating complaints consistently. Our managers have worked hard over the past 18 months to address this and we hope we have improved in closing the loop and feeding back to customers following a complaint.

We have a robust procedure in place and we address all complaints and we have now included an addition to the procedure, which shows how quickly we responded to complaints.

We would like to thank customers who have taken the time to complete our feedback forms and hope we have been able to resolve any problems you faced. m-four aims to deal with customer complaints in a professional and consistent manner and to each customer's satisfaction. In doing so, we hope this will enable us to retain business with customers who were not 100 per cent happy with the service they received.
Complaint outcomes
Print Services
We received one complaint about our print services
Complaint 1
The customer complained as their job was not printed on the correct stock.
Outcome 1
On investigation it was established that because the customer could not leave a sample with us and that several people had been involved in the job and the specification had not been fully clarified at initial enquiry. It was subsequently printed on incorrect stock. The estimate had also been delayed as m-four had misplaced the artwork.
A full reprint of the job was delivered to the customer 24hours after the complaint was logged.
In future we must insist on a sample from the customer and if this is not available then we should provide sample stock to the customer for their approval.
Creative Services
We received three complaints about our Creative Services.

Complaint 1
The customer complained that the job took too long to produce and the costs were over the estimate
Outcome 1
Problems identified on both sides but m-four accepted that they were the major contributor to the delays.
Meeting held with the customer and compensation was offered. Meeting finished on a positive note with learning points for all to take away.

Complaint 2
An email was sent to the Head of m-four by a customer complaining that we ahd not communicated properly and delayed the launch of their website.

Outcome 2
An email sent to customer explaining m-four position. Unfortunately the account manager’s knowledge on website contributed to the lack of communication about the job. We were also unable to recommend an alternative supplier on this occasion.


Complaint 3
The customer complained that their printed job was of poor quality.

Outcome 3
The delivery was checked immediately by the account manager and made sure they were removed from the customers to avoid circulation. The print was of poor quality and the supplier was made to reprint the job over the weekend so it did not loose the deadline. The customer was obviously put out but was happy with the resolution.


Advertising Services
We received no complaints within this period.


Interpretations and Translations Services
We received four complaints about our interpretation service. We have addressed all of these complaints and all customers except one have responded to us and would be happy to continue using our service.
The four complaints received about interpretations were to do with freelance interpreters not turning up for appointments. All of our freelancers have been reminded of our terms of agreement that if they fail to show for appointments without good reason then they will be suspended from our register.

Complaint 1
A customer contacted us to say an interpreter had failed to turn up for an appointment and also had missed an appointment the previous week.
Outcome 1
On investigation it appears that there was some confusion regarding the dates and times by our freelancer. Also we could not find the second booking on email as we were told was sent by the customer. We have communicated our findings to the customer but as yet have not had a response.

Complaint 2
A customer contacted to tell us a interpreter failed to turn up on two occasions.


Outcome 2
On the first occasion the interpreter was held up at another job.  Unfortunately, they did not make it in time. 

The second occasion they informed our office they were unable to do the job and cancelled it.  Our admin staff failed to update this information on the database and inform the officer of the change. We accepted responsibility for this and apologised to the customer.
Staff have been reminded about the importance of making amendments to the appointments immediately they are received.

Complaint 3
We received a complaint from a customer after an interpreting session alleging that the interpreter arrived late accompanied with a friend and acted as an adviser rather than an interpreter.

Outcome 3
Following an investigation we have suspended the use of this freelancer and have apologised to the customer. No charge was made for this job.



Complaint 4
Customer complained that interpreter did not turn up for a hospital appointment and the patient was left waiting.

Outcome 4
Complaint was investigated immediately and we tried to get a replacement interpreter to the hospital but the patient could not wait any longer.
The interpreter unfortunately had forgotten about the appointment. We apologised to the customer.





________________________________________

Production performance

Design
Between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, we produced 2192 jobs in the design studio, including photography and presentations which represents on average 42 jobs per week. This compares to 1682 in the previous 12 months, which is a 30 per cent increase in production.

Print
Between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, we produced 2,687print jobs. Customers deal with Daisy Works print when they require print-only jobs and supply their own artwork. This compares to 2669 for the previous 12 months, which is less than a 1 per cent increase in production.

Advertising
Between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, we placed 2337 advertisements. This compares to 2370 for the previous 12 months, which is just over a 1 per cent decrease in production.

Translations
Between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, we provided 15,149 face-to-face interpretation sessions and 1920 written translation jobs. This compares to 15,730 face-to-face interpretation sessions and 2692 written translation jobs for the previous 12 months. The number of languages required has risen from 77 to 87 in the last year.

Face to face sessions have reduced by 3.5% while written material has reduced by 28 per cent, which is in line with government guidelines on only producing what is necessary.

Overall, production is steady or up in most areas of the service, which is very encouraging considering the economic climate over the pat twelve months. We also feel that our performance in recent months demonstrates that we provide value-for-money services that are improving year on year.

________________________________________

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 2008 to March 2009 we did not receive any direct suggestions from our clients.


________________________________________

Listening to improve
Updated July 2009

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, surveys, asking for feedback on our e-message mailing list, and meeting up with people about m-four's role as the corporate procurer of design and print.

The key elements for our consultation plan in 2008/2010 are:

•    To continue to consult with our customers and suppliers by developing more online communications.

•    To create a Friends of m-four groups with voluntary membership to provide feedback on a number of topics.

•    Customer journey mapping to establish the real customer experience so that we can learn and improve.
•    Publish the results with actions arising from the staff survey carried out in June 2009.

Progress/outcomes
Following last year's consultation programme, we carried a number of actions into this year and can now report on current progress, as of July 2009
Following consultation the Signs, Banners and Flags tender was completed and is now in place.
We met with all staff to feedback the results of the staff survey together with and actions from comments added to the survey.
We promoted a suggestion scheme in the Copy Centre with a prize of Love2Shop vouchers but only had one response, which had already been considered.

We continue to offer advice to customers on procurement particularly on the services provided by m-four.

It has been a difficult year for all users of IT due to the virus that hit the Council in December. This has unfortunately held us back on a number of initiatives we had planned to drive forward.
Staff survey
In June 2009 we carried out a staff survey, asking questions about communication within m-four, business planning, training and development and the introduction of Team Champions.

There was a high interest from our staff with almost a 70 per cent return.

It was concerning to see that only 53 per cent of staff believed communication was good across the group. This has resulted in the Head of m-four drawing up an action plan to have some drop in sessions for staff to keep them more up to speed on current developments. We also plan to introduce an internal staff blog and social calendar along with a regular eNewsletter to all of our staff to improve communications and ensure that they are better informaed of what is going on across the group.

Over 84 per cent of the staff agreed with our business planning strategy and 83 per cent felt they had developed their skills while working for m-four.

A massive 97 per cent thought the idea of team champions was good one and the majority of staff agreed to continue with m-four staff lunches where they all get together 3 time a year to share food they have made and have a good old catch up.

The results of the survey will be fed back to staff in the next group meeting.

Action points will be added to this update at a later date.

We also asked staff for additional comments and whether they would like a response from the head of m-four. Where people indicated they would like this kind of response, a one-to-one meeting will be set up to give feedback.



________________________________________

Mystery customers test our service (again)
Our customers carried out a couple of mystery telephone calls in June-August to see how well our staff communicate. We asked four customers to take part but only three calls made across the service.

The questions we asked the callers are in bold:

Did the member of staff state their name? Yes, in all cases.
Did they state the service? Yes in all cases
Was the telephone answered in eight rings or fewer? Yes by all three,
Was the communication clear? Yes, in all cases.
Did the staff member display a good knowledge of their own service area? Yes in all cases.
Did the staff member take your cues to tell you about any other parts of m-four's services? This did not happen in all cases
Would you be confident about working with m-four in future? Yes, in all cases
Were you treated fairly and sensitively? Yes, in all cases.
The test aimed to sample our staff's compliance with customer care and Charter Mark standards, and the results are encouraging! We also wanted to gauge how much our people knew about and/or had the ability to discuss our other service areas with customers.