The Conference & Events Team based at the University of Birmingham campus have been working with insight6 since early 2019.

Prior to engaging with insight6, the leadership team watched a presentation from Ian Kelsall (CX Specialist in North Staffordshire & Cheshire) at an Academic Venue Solutions Conference in late 2018 and as part of the post-conference support, received a mystery report on how one of their team handled an enquiry.

This report was presented by CX Specialist Stuart Plant (Birmingham & Leicestershire) which highlighted some key areas, notably customer service and lack of follow up, that needed addressing. The leadership team wanted a customer experience programme, to change the team’s behaviour and approach in order to deliver a consistently good customer experience. insight6 devised and implemented a full programme that included mystery enquiries, bespoke customer service training and coaching to embed learnings and best practice.

How insight6 Helped
The programme was very easy to set up with clear timescales. There was an initial programme of mystery enquiries that were a mixture of phone and email. Training took place with Stuart Plant over two sessions in September 2019 which focused on the key aspects of successfully handling a phone and email enquiry, by putting the customer first. Furthermore, it addressed team members knowledge about the university and what it offered.

A follow up series of individual virtual coaching took place, where the team members shared with Stuart Plant the range of enquiries they handled and how successful they were in following them up and then closing the deal. Following this, regular mystery enquiries took place to measure progress.

Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans
Between February 2019 and December 2019, our overall score improved dramatically, from 35% to 76%. insight6 were able to come in as a neutral party, highlighting concerns that we already had, and making suggestions as to how this could be improved. After some planning and training, working in close liaison with the team, we were able to put into practice improved processes of handling enquiries. This, in turn, boosted the morale within the office as we knew our customers were receiving a much improved level of service. As a consequence, our conversion rates have also improved over time as well.