Insight

Staff from Dignity’s Client Service Centre receive their best call centre in the UK award.

No.1 for customer service

Dignity’s Client Service Centre in Sutton Coldfield has beaten many major brands and household names to earn the title of best call centre in the UK for customer service.

Without doubt this is a fantastic achievement. With a first place and three consecutive Top 5 finishes, Dignity is by far the most consistent performer in the UK Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service competition. Dignity received the awards at a glittering ceremony and gala dinner at The Park Plaza, Westminster Bridge on 24 October. The full results of the study were detailed in a special supplement in The Sunday Times in November.

The Client Service Centre achieved an overall score of 96% against a Top 50 average of 88%. Dignity received awards for Best in Calls, Best in Insurance and Financial Services Sector for their funeral planning advice, Best Small Call Centre and Best Overall for Calls and Emails Combined. They were awarded this last trophy of the evening by Jade Jones, 2012 Olympic taekwondo gold medallist.

The UK Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service study is commissioned by Call Centre Focus magazine and modelled on The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For Programme. Over a period of 12 months a series of exercises were carried out to benchmark call centre experience in this country and was conducted by independent market research company GfK. The Top 50 was compiled by mystery callers made up of differing gender, age groups and background and the service tested for timeliness, ease of use, reliability, staff knowledge and personalisation. Each organisation received over 400 calls at different times of day and on varying days of the week.

"I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve received this award as everyone in the Client Service team has worked so hard this year," said Sue Oakes, Head of Customer Services. "At Dignity we are a company that strives to provide the highest standards of customer service so The Top 50 Call Centres initiative provides us with a mechanism to understand where our service sits relative to other organisations and where we can improve if we are to exceed our clients’ expectations."

Ashley Williamson, head of partnerships at Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service, commented: "The performance of Dignity really does demonstrate that their clients are treated with genuine understanding, care and sincerity. Clients get what they need, when they need it and can rely on Dignity advisors to go the extra mile for them."