Meet Healthcode’s Customer Service Team Manager

Give us an overview of your role at Healthcode?

My job is to ensure my team can provide high standards of service throughout all our interactions with customers. With the introduction of multi-channel support, users can now contact us through live chat, email or by phone and it’s down to us to respond promptly and resolve or escalate queries appropriately so they have the best possible experience.

Ultimately, we’re here to represent Healthcode so it’s important that everyone has the knowledge, communication skills and enthusiasm to help customers and be an asset to the company.

How do you support your team?

I’m responsible for the training, development and support of customer services agents so we meet our performance objectives. For example, I have monthly 1-2-1 sessions with every member of my team where they can talk about their day-to-day interactions with customers and discuss feedback. It’s a good opportunity to identify recurring issues that need to be addressed or any other ways we can make things better.

When someone joins the team, I’ll arrange for them to sit with senior agents during their training and listen into live calls to get first-hand experience of what’s involved and the expected standard. It’s the nature of what we do that some queries can be quite complex and can’t be resolved there and then: what’s important is that our agents explain this and keep customers updated on progress.

What sorts of queries do the team deal with?

Customers tend to contact us most when they’re having difficulties with invoice submission. That could be for several reasons such as the incorrect membership number or if the practitioner isn’t recognised. We’ll explain and help them resolve these issues and even help them register with The PPR so they can apply for recognition with insurers like AXA, Aviva or Vitality.

Our new customer relationship management (CRM) system means we can create a unique case number to keep track of the progress for each query. If we have to escalate something, we’ll inform the customer and give them the case number as a reference and follow up with an email. Unlike those frustrating ‘do not reply’ messages that companies sometimes send, our customers can just hit reply if they need to contact us about an ongoing query and view the email thread if they want to check something.

What’s the next step for your CRM system?

We want to continue making things better for customers so we’re going to look at all the interactions – phone calls, email and live chat. This info will give us a deeper understanding of the most common issues they face and allow us to focus on improvements to address these.

What do you love about working in Customer Services at Healthcode?

I love being part of a team where we’re all free to express ourselves. It’s not like a generic call centre in a big company where you go in every morning and spend the day doing one thing. I think everyone in the team feels like their voice is important, that they can raise issues and see something done.

Our Director of Service, Daniel Byrne sits with us in the office and it’s not the kind of hierarchical culture where you must report up the corporate ladder if you have concerns – everyone’s door is open.

I’m in no doubt however that the biggest thing is making a difference for customers. There’s been so many times when a customer has been delighted because one of my team has helped them out and they’ve taken time out to write a review on Google or Trustpilot saying how great the service was – it’s a real morale boost.

Can you give us an example?

On one occasion, I assisted an anxious user who really wanted insurer recognition but said they didn’t have time to complete The PPR registration. I took the call, was able to reassure them and we went through the registration process together. They later gave a positive review saying how grateful they were for our support and it wasn’t as daunting as they had feared. I also flagged this call to my colleagues and our development team are now working to improve the registration experience for future PPR applications.

What’s been your proudest moment?

Customer Services is one of the busiest teams in the company because we’re on the frontline when new products and features are released such as Appointments in ePractice, as well as helping customers when they have an issue. With that in mind, I’m proud that my team continually exceed expectations when it comes to hitting our response targets and getting positive feedback.

From a personal perspective, being awarded Manager of the Year was a real highlight of 2023, especially as this is my first management role after stepping up in March 2023. I was pleased with how I adapted to the demands of the job and for that to be recognised by the company was an added bonus

And finally, what do you like doing outside work?

It’s all about new beginnings for me as I got married recently and I’m spending as much time as I can with my wife. Having said that, I generally find the best way to unwind after a stressful day is to go to the gym and get stuck into some weight training!

Away from the bench press, I also like to socialise with the rest of my team. Last year was a hectic time at work which made me realise how important it was for us all to have ‘time-out’ away from the office, whether that’s a night at Topgolf or a lovely meal. As well as being great for team building, it’s a chance for us to make friendships outside work and have some fun.