Trained customers carry out a mystery shopping exercise by listening to calls made to our customer services team. The aim of these exercises is to make sure our services are delivered equally by everyone and to identify training needs within our team.

We have seen an increase in the other methods of communication our customers choose to use and have expanded the Mystery Shopping project (October 2024) to include emails.

Hafod Housing Association a colleague talking on the phone

How it works!  

  1. Choosing the questions: The questions are set by our Customer Experience team to ensure they align with any key performance indicators we are using.
  2. Protecting our customers: All calls and messages are screened for suitability as we get a lot of very personal communications.  Once screened, all identifiable information is removed. e.g. you will hear the team member ask, can you please confirm your address, but you will not hear the answer.
  3. Method of collection: Customers who have completed online training around confidentiality in line with our GDPR process will be send a link to an online survey where they will be able to hear recorded calls made to our customers services team and view messages that have been sent.  This link can only be used once and will remian open for seven days. After this time the Mystery Shoppers will no longer have access.
  4. Collecting the responses:  The Community Engagement Manager will oversee the collection of the results. In line with GDPR guidance the full survey result will only be accessed by the Customer Experience team who will share the results with relevant colleagues.
  5. Thank you: Our Mystery Shoppers recieve a £20 online voucher as a thank you for their time for each survey they complete.
  6. Results: The results are published on our website and in our Connect eNewsletter, shared through our internal communications and discussed at our Scrutiny Panel.
  7. Frequency: The mystery Shoppers carry out a minimum of four exerices a year.

If you have any questions about this project or wish to become a Mystery Shopper please contact getinvolved@hafod.org.uk 

Find out more about previous mystery shopping results

Trained customers carried out a Mystery Shopping exercise by listening to calls made to our customer services team. The aim of these exercises is to make sure our services are delivered equally by everyone and to identify training needs within our team. Five mystery shoppers took part in October and gave the below feedback.

What’s going well?

  • 91% felt we were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 91% were happy with our identity checks
  • 74% were happy customers understood what’s next
  • 80% were happy with the overall experience

What do we need to work on?

  • 77% felt we needed to improve on our enhanced identity checks
  • 100% felt we needed to promote the self service options more
  • 42% felt we needed to improve on explaining time-scales
  • 86% felt we needed to ask if we could help with anything else
  • 31% felt we needed to improve on avoiding long silences

How customers have influenced our process

As a result of the mystery shopper feedback, we have introduced key performance Indicators to help us monitor our services, these include:

  • Team leader listening to three calls per colleague per month to ensure consistency of service and help identify any areas for training
  • Promoting the Self service options will be an agenda item at all team meetings
  • Importance of identity checks will be an agenda item at the next meeting

Our Customer Experience Manager would like the following to be taken into consideration: At the time of the recorded calls (June/July 2023) the team were experiencing technical issues with the phone systems, resulting in long silences and extended times in accessing customers’ accounts.

83% of the Mystery Shoppers were happy with the overall service

What went well

  • 98% were happy with the identity checks
  • 84% were happy that we were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 81% were happy the customer understood what happens next
  • 79% were happy with the chatting to avoid long silences

Where we need to improve

  • 93% felt we needed to promote the Hafod 24/7 app and website more
  • 68% felt we needed to improve on asking if there is anything else we can help with
  • 62% felt we needed to improve on our enhanced identity checks
  • 35% felt we needed to improve the explanation of timescales and give a reference number

How our customers have influenced our processes

  • Changes to our identity checks – minimum of four pieces of identity will be requested for all calls (Name, Postcode, Date of Birth, Telpehone Number, Address)
  • Importance of promoting online options – added to all team meetings and to the training programme
  • Closing call summary guidance – updated to include is there anything else/is that everything we can help you with
  • Repeated low scores – Team leader will explore individual monitoring/targets

100% of the Mystery Shoppers were happy with the overall service

What went well

  • 100% were happy with the identity checks
  • 98% were happy that we were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 97% were happy the customer understood what happens next
  • 89% were happy with the chatting to avoid long silences
  • 100% were happy with our behavious, showing empathy and understanding
  • 95% were happy with the explanation of timescales

Where we need to improve – Data below 70% satisfaction is reported as need for improvement

  • 63% were happy we confirmed the correct telephone number
  • 0% were happy we asked if there is anything else we can help with (question was not asked on any calls that were listened to)
  • 58% were happy with our enhanced identity checks

How our customers have influenced our processes

  • Identity checks – Introduced a data cleansing form for each customer who contacts us to to ensure we have the correct details and identify any missing data
  • Key perfomance indicators (KPI’s) – this includes the team leader listening to three calls per colleague per month to ensure consistency of service and help identify any tranining needs
  • Closing call summary guidance – Retintroduced asking if there is anything else they can help with and reminders added to team meetings
  • Repeated low scores – Team leader will explore individual monitoring/targets

We have expanded our Mystery Shopping to include other methods of communication!

Trained customers carry out Mystery Shopping exercises in two different ways. The aim is to make sure our services are delivered equally by everyone and to identify training needs within the team.

  1. Calls – Listen to recorded calls made to our Customer Experience team and answer a set of questions. The questions enable feedback on the process, customer experience and overall level of service provided. Customers also had the opportunity to leave a comment after each call.
  2. Emails – Recognising that phone calls are not the only method of communication from our customers, we have expanded the mystery shopping exercise to include emails sent to our enquiries and repairs inbox.  The mystery shoppers were issued scenarios to email from their personal email and complete a feedback form based on the reply they received.

100% of the Mystery Shoppers were happy with the overall service

What went well

  • 91% were happy with the identity checks (Calls)
  • 76% were happy with our enhanced identity checks (Calls)
  • 80% were happy with the explanation of timescales and a reference number was given to the customer (Calls)
  • 92% were happy the custoemr understood what happens next (Calls)
  • 96% were happy with our behaviours – showing empathy and tone of voice (Calls)
  • 96% were happy the calls were professional, friendly, helpful and polite (Calls)
  • 88% were happy we avoided long silences (Calls)
  • 83% were happy we were professional, friendly, helpful and polite (Emails)

Where we need to improve – Data below 70% satisfaction is reported as need for improvement

  • 21% were happy we asked if there was anything else we could help with (Calls)
  • 59% were happy we confirmed the correct telephone number (Calls)
  • 50% were happy we provided the information requested (Emails)
  • 50% were happy we asked for dat of birth as part of our identity checks (Emails)
  • 33% were happy we asked for name, address, postocde and phone number (Emails)

How our customers have influenced our processes

  • Continue with the newly introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) these include the team leader listening to 3 calls per colleague per month to ensure consistency of service and help identify any areas for training
  • Updated the call guidance summary to include asking if there is anything else they can help with and reminders added to team meetings
  • Introducing emails as part of the mystery shopping gives new feedback to the team and highlights we need to improve on asking for the data required when responding to emails. This will now form part of the our guides and reminders added to team meetings
  • We will be adding an apology on the calls if callers have waited over 90 seconds
  1. Calls – Listen to recorded calls made to our Customer Experience team and answer a set of questions. The questions enable feedback on the process, customer experience and overall level of service provided. Customers also had the opportunity to leave a comment after each call.
  2. Emails – Recognising that phone calls are not the only method of communication from our customers, we have expanded the Mystery Shopping exercise to include emails sent to our enquiries and repairs inbox.  The mystery shoppers were issued scenarios to email from their personal email and complete a feedback form based on the reply they received.

100% of the Mystery Shoppers were happy with the overall service

Calls – What went well

  • 97% were happy with the identity checks
  • 76% were happy with our enhanced identity checks
  • 77% were happy we confirmed the correct telephone number
  • 88% were happy with the explanation of timescales and a reference number was given to the customer
  • 97% were happy the customer understood what happens next
  • 97% were happy with our behaviours – showing empathy and tone of voice
  • 97% were happy the calls were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 100% were happy we avoided long silences

Calls – Where we need to improve. Data below 70% satisfaction is reported as need for improvement

  • 46% were happy we asked if there was anything else we could help with

Emails – What went well

  • 100% were happy we were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 100% were happy we added a name at the end of the email
  • 100% were happy we responded within one day

Emails – Where we need to improve. Data below 70% satisfaction is reported as need for improvement

  • 40% were happy no information was provided before requesting the identity checks
  • 50% were happy we asked for date of birth as part of our identity checks
  • 50% were happy we asked for name, address, postocde and phone number
  • 30% were happy we asked if there was anything else we could help with

How our customers have influenced our processes

  • Asking if there’s anything else we can help with: This area showed a gap in performance, with a 25% decrease from previous months. We’ll put greater focus on ensuring that every customer interaction is fully explored, offering opportunities to address any additional concerns or questions.
  • Avoiding long silences: We have improved significantly in this area, achieving 100% performance in recent months. Ensure we keep improving as effective communication is essential for a positive customer experience.
  • By continually listening to our customers, we can focus our efforts where they matter most, ensuring we meet their needs and exceed their expectations. We are committed to making ongoing improvements and will continue using this feedback to inform our decisions.

Six Mystery Shoppers took part and told us:

100% were happy with the overall service

What went well

  • 93% were happy with the identity checks
  • 80% were happy with our enhanced identity checks
  • 83% were happy with the explanation of timescales and a reference number was given to the customer
  • 100% were happy the customer understood what happens next
  • 100% were happy with our behaviours – showing empathy and tone of voice
  • 97% were happy the calls were professional, friendly, helpful and polite
  • 90% were happy we avoided long silences

Where we need to improve. Data below 70% satisfaction is reported as need for improvement

  • 34% were happy we asked if there was anything else we could help with
  • 60% were happy we confirmed the correct telephone number

How our customers have influenced our processes

  • Asking if there’s anything else we can help with: This area showed a gap in performance, with a 25% decrease from previous months. We’ll put greater focus on ensuring that every customer interaction is fully explored, offering opportunities to address any additional concerns or questions.
  • By continually listening to our customers, we can focus our efforts where they matter most, ensuring we meet their needs and exceed their expectations. We are committed to making ongoing improvements and will continue using this feedback to inform our decisions.