Severnside hails world-beating customer service

The company, which has its head office at Bedwas, near Caerphilly in South Wales, said that the high standard had been achieved by the 40-strong team in the customer care centre – which is known as the facilities management centre – as they responded to thousands of calls every month.

Kate Dally, national commercial manager for Severnside, said: “We take around 10 to 12,000 calls a month and we achieve KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for over 99%, which I would say is exceptional in any industry.”

The company target is to answer calls within three rings – or 14 seconds – and Ms Dally claimed that the current time is just four seconds. She said: “I would say that is world-beating”.

Ms Dally praised the work of the team and said that there was a very low staff turnover rate at the Caerphilly site, which was also one of the main employers in the area, and that this led to a greater level of consistency in the handling of customers. The company moved to the site in December 2008.

The facilities management team has grown from just four people 10 years ago who worked separately to around 40 who work closely on one floor. The team is split up to handle collection times, third party subcontractors and general enquiries.

In addition, Severnside has established dedicated teams to handle contracts from the larger companies it caters for. Severnside is currently helping supermarket giants Tesco's to avoid landfill (see letsrecycle.com story) and is also heavily involved in Marks & Spencer's Plan A sustainability scheme.

Tim Price, communications and acquisitions manager, said: “We don't call it a ‘call centre'; we call it a ‘customer care centre' because they don't work from scripts. Customers may call to find out when a collection is due or to arrange a collection.”

“We have benefitted from always keeping a core part of the workforce with very low turnover and the managers in the centre started at entry level positions and have grown with the company,” he added.