The annual Capital Analytics independent survey of Registrars puts Computershare in first place – and you can’t have missed the fact that we’re delighted!
Over the past year, we’ve worked extremely hard to improve our performance in all areas, and are really pleased that this improvement has been recognised through the survey results. The effect of these changes, particularly in account management and service to company, means that Computershare has been ranked in first place for:
> Overall Satisfaction
> Willingness to Recommend Registrar
> Account Management
> Dividend Payment and;
> Internet Services and Accessibility.
What are we going to improve?
Whilst we’ve enjoyed our moment in the spotlight, our primary focus is of course on how we carry on ensuring that it’s Computershare’s customers who get the industry’s best service. Less than a week after the 2008 survey was published, we’d already completed our analysis of the results, and alongside our overall intent to carry on getting better at everything, we’d also identified specific areas that require an increased focus. These are:
- Better management of out of pocket expenses and invoices on your behalf
- Improving call centre knowledge about companies
- Improving the service to shareholders who telephone
- Improving the quality of written correspondence
- Increasing the proactivity of your Relationship Manager.
Out of Pocket Expenses and Invoices
We will re-focus on out of pocket expenses, and make sure that these are kept to the kind of levels you as a client require. We will also make sure that such expenses are adequately detailed on invoices to you.
With regard to invoices, this autumn, we have implemented the following:
> A web-tool for updating invoices, cutting out manual changes and thereby increasing accuracy
> An annual review of directly issued invoices, ensuring that any changes are made accurately
> A internal monthly credit note report which tracks the reasons for a credit note being issued month on month, allowing us to identify any trends and fix issues
> A review of all manual billing, with a view to identifying whether it can be automated going forward
All of these actions are designed to increase the quality of our invoicing process – however, if you have any comments on other things you think we should look to do, please do not hesitate to tell your Relationship Manager.
Communications Centre
Points 2, 3 and 4 all fall under the charge of our Communications Centre. We’ve worked exceedingly hard in this area over the past year or so, and as demonstrated by the year-on-year stats above have been largely successful in increasing quality, particularly in areas like speed of answer and general telephone experience. Indeed, during the recent Rights Issues that Computershare managed for RBS, HBOS and Bradford & Bingley, our improved systems and processes meant that in spite of 120,000 extra calls, we were able to keep our average speed of answer down to under 10 seconds for all of our other business as usual calls – a tremendous undertaking.
In the past year, we have also significantly increased the amount of permanent staff we have employed in our contact centre and reduced the turnover of staff. In order to make sure that we carry on improving, we are focusing heavily on the quality of customer experience across our verbal and written communications. Our successful implementation of an Academy to train, accredit and regularly update the knowledge of our contact centre employees is paying many dividends, with over 90 employees passing an NVQ in Customer Care. The next batch is to go through the NVQ shortly.
This approach is being replicated for our written correspondence, with an Academy for letter writers being established in November this year, delivering the same structured approach of training, accrediting and updating staff abilities.
Our Quality Assurance processes ensure that calls and correspondence are monitored and assessed, and that only the best customer service is delivered to your shareholders. If you have comments or questions on any of these initiatives, please do let us know via your Relationship Manager.
Proactivity of Relationship Manager
We have made great strides in Account Management in the year since the last survey, but are hungry to deliver even more. Your Relationship Manager would welcome any comments from you on areas in which you need us to be more proactive, and will then deliver on this. We really do need your input in order to make this work successfully for you, so please don’t be shy in coming forward with suggestions!
In conclusion
The Capital Analytics survey is only one barometer of how well we are performing, and we will continue to place primary emphasis on our own client satisfaction surveys and regular review meetings, as these are the times when you have the opportunity to give us direct, explicit feedback on how we are doing – and we will make sure to cover all of the areas listed above in our meetings with you over the coming months.
Thank you again for your participation in the survey, and your honest feedback on how we can further improve our services to you.
Naz Sarkar
Director, Investor Services