Hilltops Council have recently launched their Customer Request Management (CRM) system via TechnologyOne.
This project has been critical in reshaping Hilltops’ response to customers; it provides a unified platform that allows customers to access and submit requests to council from any connected device, any time anywhere but retains the ability for staff to continue providing personalised service to customers who prefer this method.
The success of the project can be traced to the appointment of “CRM Champions”. Each directorate within Hilltops Council appointed specific CRM Champion staff members to advocate, mentor and support team members within their department as they transitioned to the new system.
The champions role specifically involved: the organisation of information and demonstration sessions for key staff in their directorate, setting up training sessions for end users, helping deliver the broader CRM training programme, becoming experts on CRM and assisting in the refinement of questions and templates for each specific directorate CRM category.
Not only did the CRM Champions assist in the preparation and implementation of the CRM system, but they also continue to play a large role in the ongoing maintenance of the customer service system.
These champions maintain the CRM resource pools within their directorate, ensuring that the appropriate staff are tasked with customer requests. Champions also continue to follow up on directorate outstanding and overdue requests. This has created further accountability in the workplace and also has been of benefit to teams who can now work in a more collaborative online space.
The ‘champion’ implementation method of Hilltops Council’s new CRM system has ensured the success of the project. These champions ultimately assisted the entire organisation to have a consistent, well informed, team-based approach to customer service. Hilltops Council’s staff and customers have both been positively impacted their CRM champions.
