Winners Stories: Smile with Tesco Mobile Capita

When the Tesco Mobile Capita partnership won the Best Voice of the Employee Programme at the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards 2018, Pamela Clifford, Communications and Engagement Manager, was in shock.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “The whole team was ecstatic. It was such a proud moment for us. To be able to go back to work and tell our colleagues that we had won was just fantastic and created a huge buzz.”

Smile to an uplift in ENPS

The programme that had given Tesco Mobile Capita the opportunity to win the award was ‘Our Smile’. The partnership wanted to create a shared charter. A charter that would see the team deliver 3 million smiles to customers in the year and be the number one in the UK for customer satisfaction, always.

As Pamela explains, “we knew that to achieve our mission it wasn’t just about making our customers smile. We had to give our colleagues a reason to smile too. We identified five workstreams that colleagues could engage with through Smile Days. As a result, 70% of our people are involved in shaping our future through planning, people, process, governance and technology.”

“People trust the Our Smile programme. They know that their feedback is not going into a black hole and will always be responded to. Anonymous questions can be asked via an Ask Matt Anything box. Updates are shared with colleagues every two weeks. This programme has no doubt helped to deliver an employee NPS score of +30 and an engagement survey score of 8.8. We are experiencing a 45% reduction in sickness, a 50% improvement in speed of answer and record breaking NPS scores of 55 points.

“We have created an environment that colleagues enjoy working in, feel valued and are happy; enabling us to deliver smiles to customers.”

The judging experience

Reflecting on the judging process and presenting their story to the judges in London, Pamela shared the experience:

“We had the opportunity to think about everything we’ve achieved over the past year and tell our story in 20 minutes. We made sure that we read through the briefing pack to understand what was required and worked through what the judges were looking for when putting our presentation together. We focused on the key messages and painted a picture for the judges of what life is like in the Tesco Mobile Capita partnership.

“It was important for us to show the judges how our Voice of the Employee Programme had touched colleagues at every level of our business. So, our presenters ranged from a frontline advisor right through to our Operations Director.  This helped us to talk about the impact that we’d made from a number of different perspectives, and as we had experts in each area, it was clear to us who would respond during the Q&A section.

“Although we were nervous before we went in to meet the judges, they quickly put us at ease.  Our presenters got so much out of this and found the whole judging process to be a really rewarding experience.  The trip to London also made it that extra bit special!”

The fame of winning

Since winning the award the team has used this when recruiting new colleagues. “We’re now able to promote the fact that they’re joining an award-winning organisation, which has helped with our attraction campaigns,” says Pamela.

“We’ve also been invited to share best practice with other areas of Capita as well as with businesses outside of Capita who have heard about the programme following our award win.”

Advice for 2019 nominations

We asked Pamela what advice she would give people looking to nominate for the ECCCSAs in 2019. This is what she said:

“Don’t hesitate to get involved!  It’s such a fantastic opportunity to reflect on everything that you’ve achieved in your business and we really didn’t appreciate how much we’d done until we started to put our nomination together.

“Make sure you read through the categories and pick the one that suits your initiative.

“Once you’ve decided, read through the nomination form to understand the areas that you’ll need to cover. Engage your key stakeholders at an early stage so that they have a clear understanding of what they need to provide and by when.

“Put some dedicated time aside to work on your nomination and stick to it – don’t be in a position where you’ll need to rush to complete it at the last minute.

“Think about the evidence that best suits your nomination and make sure you can back it up.”

On a final note, Pamela says “Just being shortlisted is a fantastic recognition and we were all very proud to reach the finalist stage. Even if you don’t win, celebrate this achievement with colleagues – it’s all their hard work that got you here!”