Borough Life Summer 2006: Phone Home
The Award Winning Centre
National accolade for call centre
According to the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) British contact centres are the best in the world. And in a world where you are three times more likely to have to ring an overseas call centre to have your problem resolved than a British one, one of the very best is right here at home. In fact, Wigan & Leigh Housing’s Contact Centre is so good that it was a finalist in this year’s ‘Public Servants of the Year Awards’, held last month at London’s swanky Grosvenor House Hotel.
Wigan & Leigh Housing (WALH), which manages 23,500 council houses, held off tough competition from nearly 300 exceptional teams from across the country to make the finals. The borough’s biggest social landlord was short listed for its remarkable work in streamlining and improving customer service through its contact centre based in the old Chapel Street magistrates court in Leigh.
Through extensive customer surveys, WALH knew that customers wanted faster, more reliable services from knowledgeable and polite staff. What they didn’t want was the curse of some modern call centres – poor service at premium rates. “Being nominated for the awards was a real privilege,” said Wigan & Leigh Housing Chief Executive, Peter Gee. “Judges recognised our staff ’s dedication and commitment to our tenants. We fully appreciate the need for keeping a highly trained and customer-focused work force, and our efforts have resulted in a first class service for local residents."
The centre now handles up to 17,000 calls a month from council tenants and answers 98 per cent of all calls within 90 seconds. What's more, you speak to a real person immediately. There are over 4,000 call centres in the UK - and a common complaint is that most of them are unregulated. That's not the case with Wigan & Leigh Housing - last year, the Call Centre Association awarded WALH the industry-coveted distinction of 'Best Practice Accreditation'.