Contact Centre of the Year 26-75 seats

Contact Centre of the Year 26-75 seats - Sovereign

Our thanks to Sharron Botica for answering on behalf of Sovereign and supplying photos of their centre and staff. 















1. Congratulations on your win.  Looking at your website there is a vast
amount of products and services with Sovereign. Tell us what role does
the contact centre in Sovereign have, and/or how does the contact centre
fit into the Sovereign strategy? (ie: what products and services is the
centre responsible for).

Thanks.!  We were both stunned and delighted by our win.

Our team are a key part of the success and future of Sovereign, we
service over half a million customers who have over 1,500 products (we
have a history of products from multiple companies) and work from 16
systems - we have a hugely talented team to navigate this web of
systems, products and process.  For our future the team are core to our
service, retention, brand and growth strategies.

2. As part of your winning Award entry, you would have outlined some of
your targets -are you able to share some of them with the TUANZ contact
centre community.  If so, what are the and how do you meet them?

A core target is staff engagement which we measure formally annually
with informal temp checks through the year, we have a strong people and
culture focus and recognise that without an engaged team our service and
deliverables will not be achieved. 

Additionally we utilise most of the standard contact centre metrics and each CSC has a monthly scorecard which includes hard & soft metrics that link to their annual performance targets, they review these with their manager each month with a view on how they are tracking for the year.  The targets link to the strategic
goals for Sovereign.

3. In your opinion do you think entering the awards (evaluating the
metrice you use, articulating the successes your centre has had) was
useful. If so, can you provide us with tangible examples of what you
learned during the process?

Oh my gosh yes.  The process makes you stop and reflect on your success
and what you're most proud of.  For me it was the growth of staff
engagement in the area and seeing the correlation to tangible results.
3-4 years back our engagement was low, our results average and we were
rated 6th against our competitors for satisfaction. 

By focusing on our people our engagement and performance results are now world class and we've been voted #1 for service by the Adviser network in 2007 and again
this year.!

4. It's been over 6 months since the TUANZ Awards in April, what
difference has the win made to you and the contact centre?

There's an enormous sense of pride both by myself and team with huge
satisfaction to know that we're doing the right things which is then
acknowledged by our peers in the Contact Centre industry. 
It's been a delight to have people want to visit us and share and learn what makes
the team and Sovereign so special.  For each of the team it's been that
reinforcement that they are valued and recognised and really make a
difference.

5. Has the Sovereign organisation celebrated with you? and what about
your clients - have you received any reaction from them?

The accolades from across the Sovereign team have been fantastic and
have been acknowledged through various means (Company Feedback, internal
and external publications). 

We produce a six monthly newsletter to our customers which is being released shortly and has an editorial by our Managing Director, Simon Blair, speaking about Sovereign's successes and being a service leader, we look forward to the response from our customers.! 

Our Vision:  To be New Zealand's best insurer and financial services provider excelling in Customer Service. 
Our core purpose:  We provide New Zealander's with long term peace of mind.