From claims to empowering others

Jess Baldock has been nominated as a Rising Star at this year’s Forum Awards. Here, she talks about her customer service journey at DAS and the positive changes that she has made to our contact centre.

Jess Baldock

Quality Assurance Specialist

DAS

I joined DAS in 1998, initially as a customer service agent. This job, in which I dealt with a diverse range of queries, came with its share of challenges: understanding complex policies, ensuring compliance with regulations, and retaining a wealth of information. But I thrived on connecting with customers. Each interaction was unique, and I made it my mission to treat every individual as just that – an individual, not a mere number.

Then, in 2006, the “Monitoring and Performance” (MPO) department emerged. Part of their function was to assess the quality of phone calls agents were having with customers.

Following an evaluation, an agent would receive an email notification from the MPO team detailing the assessment of a call.

However, agents would struggle to find time to read the assessments. The feedback often felt generic, lacking personalisation. I was a top performer, but I still found these emails daunting. I wondered how other agents coped with this approach; the “MPO” team seemed distant, more like enforcers than supporters, which created a negative atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2021. An opportunity arose: a secondment to the MPO team!

Colleagues encouraged me to take the leap. Despite my confidence in the contact centre, I craved a challenge. Focusing on “Customer Service Skills” became my passion. In short, I applied and got the job!

The technical side was a breeze, but writing feedback worried me. I wanted it to inspire and support. So, I proposed face-to-face feedback sessions with agents.

Meeting agents allowed me to articulate findings to them better, and playing recorded calls helped illustrate points. It transformed feedback from a distant email to a collaborative conversation. It was no longer “Them and Us”; we were a team striving for excellence together.

I’d done what I’d hoped for when receiving feedback myself, and the response from agents was overwhelming. Inspired by this, I initiated a 6-month pilot: face-to-face feedback for all monitored agents. Even high performers, sometimes overlooked in the past, appreciated the recognition. Scepticism faded as relationships blossomed. Agents even sent calls specifically for feedback – this was unprecedented.

Our successful pilot made face-to-face feedback the new norm, and other MPO team members adopted the approach. Now, we’re not policing; we’re empowering each other, and comments have since come in from other areas that now see us as a support.

When the secondment came to an end, I was taken on permanently as a Quality Assurance Specialist.

With consumer duty being high on our priorities, this couldn’t have come at a better time. Agents dealing with ‘Vulnerable Customers’ are required by The FCA to meet varying requirements to address their needs. Having open channels of communication, as well as sitting amongst the teams, has opened dialogue in a positive way.

And that is my journey – a path from contact centre to connections, from generic emails to meaningful conversations.

The last two years feel like a bit of a whirlwind, but they’ve taught me that stepping outside of my comfort zone allows me to achieve so much more.

I am incredibly proud of the comments I’ve received from my colleagues on our internal recognition platform, as well as being nominated for the ‘Rising Star’ Forum Award.