Leading housebuilder Redrow was awarded the highly coveted Social Customer Service Team of the Year title at the 2019 UKCCF Awards.
The annual awards, held by the UK Contact Centre Forum (UKCCF), aim to recognise individuals, teams and company best practice amongst the 6,000+ contact centres based across the UK, rewarding innovation, teamwork, employee engagement, and the delivery of high-quality customer experiences.
Finalists in the hotly competitive cross-sector category included TalkTalk and Virgin Trains. However, it was Redrow, in partnership with social media platform provider CrowdControlHQ, which took home the title due to its innovative take on social media.
The housebuilder has trained more than 150 of its employees from divisions across England and Wales, from diverse functions including HR, Communications and Sales on its social media protocol and CrowdControlHQ platform. The judges praised Redrow for its strategy which allows customers to engage directly with the most relevant Redrow member, rather than a dedicated social media team. This approach has not only improved response rates, with average response times down from approximately two days to less than an hour during working hours, but it also improved the quality of responses.
Matt Grayson, Group Customer & Marketing Director, commented:
“Being named ‘Social Customer Service Team of the Year’ is a testament to the hard work and commitment that over 150 people across Redrow, from sales support to sustainability, have put into making this award win possible. The strength of our new approach is evident through the leading national businesses we successfully competed against and is a credit to everybody involved.
“Social media is the plumbing of any large, national business, so it doesn’t make sense to keep it siloed to a single social media team. By adapting our strategy and making social media everybody’s business, our customers are provided with quick, personalised responses, by the right people.”
James Leavesley, CEO of CrowdControlHQ, commented: “This award is well-deserved recognising the hard work that both the Redrow and CrowdControlHQ teams invested in the project. As a software provider, we know that it is both people and a partnership approach that deliver successful outcomes like this, and the collaboration between the teams has been outstanding.”
Trevor Butterworth, CEO of UK Contact Centre Forum, commented: “The judges were impressed with Redrow’s achievements and approach to social customer service. On the one hand, social media has opened up a new world of opportunities for companies to engage with clients, partners, employees and others but on the other it has increased customer expectation. Redrow has innovatively adapted to meet these demands.”
Redrow’s recognition follows the consolidation of the group’s customer service, sales, marketing and communications functions at an executive board level, which delivers an integrated, best in class and seamless customer experience as its responds to evolving consumer needs.
Within the last six months, Redrow has been recognised at various stages for its focus on customer satisfaction, health and safety, and producing a high-quality product. This includes Redrow being awarded the top Five Star rating by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), based on a survey of its customers in which more than 90% said they would recommend Redrow to a friend. It also became the first top ten housebuilder to join the Institute of Customer Services and this year was nominated for Best Customer Satisfaction Strategy at the UK Customer Satisfaction awards.
The 2019 UKCCF Awards took place at Milton Keynes Dons Football Club Friday 25th September.
