Past award winners

The judges were clearly impressed with the range of marketing techniques you use, particularly your annual customer satisfaction survey. Can you tell us about the survey and the feedback you get from customers?

The survey is conducted by telephone and carried out by an independent review team led by the Council’s Performance Improvement Manager. The aim of this survey is to give customers the opportunity to provide honest feedback (positive or negative) on how they perceive the overall level of service and for us to ask for their ideas or suggestions on how we can improve. The LLC team members do not actually participate in the survey because we want to provide customers with an opportunity to comment openly.

We call this our ‘10/10 Customer Satisfaction Survey’ because we ask customers to rate our service on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being low, 10 being high). This customer scoring gives us a satisfaction benchmark. We then ask customers to tell us what it would take to obtain a score of 10 from them. The answers to this question tell us what we need to do in order to improve or enhance the service.

Survey results are collated in a performance improvement database and are reported to management. We look at and analyse any issues and then build resolutions into our business plan.

You mention a business plan; do you think that is one of the keys to your success, that you look at local land charges as if it were a business?

Yes, I do. The delivery of our service is very much focussed on meeting the needs and expectations of our customers. Although we are a non-profit making service it is nonetheless critical that we understand and respond to our customer priorities. Adopting a businesslike approach has definitely helped us think about the way that we deliver our service from the customers’ perspective.

When you submitted your entry form for the award you included evidence of your marketing tactics, which two do you think helps you to get the best results?

Our customer survey and the valuable feedback is obviously very crucial and is a key part of our business planning process. Knowing what matters to our customers is vital. We use every opportunity to engage direct with our customers and they know that we are always willing to listen and be open to their comments and suggestions.

Highlighting unique selling points is an absolute must. It is important to differentiate and promote the added value and benefits that we provide.

How did you and your local authority publicise the news of your award?

Aside from the Land Data PR team issuing news releases to all our local and trade media, our communications team posted the news on the council website home page and an article also featured in our Chief Executive’s Bulletin. We also carried it on the local land charges pages on the website. Every email we send out now carries a statement at the bottom announcing our win and our highly commended award in the customer satisfaction category.

What advice would you give to someone planning on entering next year’s Marketing Innovation category?

My advice would be to firstly produce evidence of your methods to identify, anticipate and satisfy your customer requirements. Detail your marketing strategy and marketing activities. Secondly, you need to show the successful results and outcomes of your marketing efforts.

When we invite solicitors to vote for this category we always ask them to provide a reason and the two words that kept popping up in your votes were ‘helpful’ and ‘efficient’. Do you think these are the main factors which made you a winner?

We have made a huge effort to get to know our customers and understand the pressures they face. We take a lot of time to listen to them and really make an effort to engage in conversation and find out if there is something we can do to make their life easier. This has led to us creating some really strong relationships; we never say to a customer that we can’t do something. No matter how busy we are, our phone is always answered and we make sure it never goes to voice mail.

Can you tell me about the processes you have in place which help you to deliver a strong customer service?

Our council has a policy of ‘customer first’. So when a query comes in we make sure it is not passed on and bounced from department to department. We take ownership of the query and if we can’t answer it ourselves we find someone who does have the answers and get back to the customer ourselves. In 2008 the council undertook a lean systems review, planning managed to dramatically reduce the number of screens that they had to look at and local land charges also cut out a lot of duplication. Our staff learnt how to answer regular building control questions, which reduces the number of people involved in a search helping to make the service slick and speedy. Because we’ve saved on internal costs our fees are now the lowest they have been in 16 years. Our links with the county council have also improved, we now send a simple spreadsheet containing numerous searches plus plans, instead of the old system which involved multiple documents.

How did you and your local authority communicate the news of your award?

The Land Data press officer drafted press releases about our win and worked with our media team to distribute the news throughout the region. Six local newspapers and a selection of trade papers covered the news. An announcement was also made on Council website. As soon as we returned from the Awards dinner we amended our email signature to let everyone know we had won and included the awards logo. We also told all our customers by email, the reaction was really overwhelming, we got lots of congratulations and people stopped us in the street to congratulate us!

What advice would you give to other local land charges teams on customer service?

In the past we’ve tried lots of different marketing techniques, newsletters and surveys, but I think one of the reasons we are successful with our customer service is that we offer a personal touch. Many councils, for lots of different reasons, just are not able to do that. By building a personal relationship we create a level of trust. We try and see three to four solicitors per month, we find that they are genuinely interested in what we do. They often say Councils never come to talk us and are always amazed at what we can do! When we see them we don’t try to change their practices, but they often do, it really helps if they can put a face to the voice!

It does take a lot of time, patience and persistence to bring in change and you will need management buy in. A good way to start is to choose a friendly solicitor find out what they think works well and ask their advice, people think they won’t talk to LAs but they will. If solicitors like your service they will also refer you.