Testimonials

"Following a decision to implement a migration of call centre operations between sites in the UK, CCL were engaged to design and deploy training in a very short period to fit in with some tough challenges from the Orange board.

To add to the scale of the challenge, we asked them to take previously service orientated call centre staff and train them to make sales to non-Orange customers in an extremely competitive environment.

It is a testimony to the quality of their work that the team is already exceeding all their financial targets so soon after the project has been completed. Indeed, we also have a training model that will be adaptable to the future needs across our business.

Feedback from both course attendees and the project team demonstrates that they are also a great bunch to work with!! Many thanks."
Andy Wicken, Sales Development Manager, Orange UK

"CCL is a respected organisation that in various 'lives' both at Orange and elsewhere, has provided skilled professionals who really deliver change. They are passionate about the customer experience and know how to analyse what's happening to ensure the right actions can be taken to succeed.

CCL possesses specialist skills in developing and implementing customer strategies which directly improve performance, customer growth and retention. Their consultants have 'hands on' experience and can design and deliver, with a real people-centric approach. It's an organisation that realises true customer value and doesn't outstay its welcome."
Jackie O'Leary, Vice President of Service, Orange UK

For the last 24 months Customer Consulting Ltd (CCL) has been helping the UK division of National Express Group in a variety of areas, from assisting in the analysis of customer satisfaction, improving the cleanliness and presentation of its buses, right through to improving its contact centre operations.
 
“We are very pleased with the results and staff feedback is positive.  CCL has brought key benefits, including wide contact centre experience. We have good people internally who have grown up through centres within our business, but have had little external experience.  CCL brings a useful external perspective as well as needed additional resource.

Practical assistance from CCL has been a great benefit, as the challenge for us has been having the resources in-house to do the task.

Unlike larger consultancies, where there is a fixed way of doing things, CCL has been very flexible.  They are not precious about their skills and experience either; and our people internally are learning alot as they carry the project forward.

CCL has helped to take the frustration out of the process.  Now calls go through to a contact centre, customers are asked to key in the bus route, and the call is automatically diverted to the right bus garage.

Without this programme we would be unable to deliver the experience we want to customers.”
David Bird, Customer Services Director, National Express

I have had experience of working with CCL over the course of the last three years on several major customer programmes, both within the transport sector and currently within the Norwich Union Life operation.

CCL have a demonstrable track record in delivering financial, operational and customer benefits and results.  They are very effective in helping organisations' design customer service strategies and have a unique ability to turn these strategies into reality.  CCL have a wide network of consultants with very diverse skills knowledge and experience.  They are passionate about delivering success for customers and organisations.  

I would highly recommend CCL as a potential partner to work with.  I have always found the quality of work to be of a very high standard and CCL are extremely responsive to their client needs and requirements.
Michelle Drage, Director of Customer Experience, Norwich Union

"The Body Shop commissioned CCL to assist us in evaluating our call centres in the U.K. and the U.S.A. Both centres had grown exponentially commensurate with the growth in our direct channel businesses in those markets and we needed to improve both service and productivity, as well as begin developing a strategy and platform for expansion into additional markets, all within some significant budget constraints.

CCL not only helped upgrade both centres in the short run, producing immediate results, but also delineated the KPI's and a development roadmap, and set out a vision and template for future growth.

The consultants were thoroughly professional, quickly gained the confidence of our key people, and offered practical advice throughout. The project was brought in on time and on budget, and positive results both in service levels and productivity were quickly realised."
Jim Hurley, President, Americas Region, The Body Shop

"We focused upon the areas our customers were telling us they were not satisfied with. One of these areas was customer information (particularly during disruption), something we had worked to improve many times before.

Using the customer focused, challenging perspective that Customer Consulting Ltd offered, we have been able to ensure the development and implementation of effective processes and procedures, necessary to drive improvement.

Working with Customer Consulting Ltd for over 12 months, the team provided guidance, provoked fresh ideas and challenged inherent bad practice that in a few cases was deemed acceptable.

I have enjoyed the challenges CCL presented and the focus they gave South West Trains to produce a top class, industry 'first'."
Christian Neill, Project Manager, South West Trains

"Customer Consulting Limited worked with South West Trains on two projects during 2005/06. Firstly a benchmarking review of our Customer Call Centre and development of an improvement plan and secondly on a complete overhaul of the company’s processes and procedures that underpin the delivery of customer information to passengers at times of disruption. Both projects were supported during implementation by supporting and coaching the project manager. We have been very pleased with their involvement in both projects.

Our experience is that they work hard to understand the issues in detail, have excellent project planning and management skills, develop practical solutions and are effective at challenging established thinking. We would seriously consider working with them again."
James Burt, Operations Director, South West Trains

"CCL were able to provide qualified and driven people very quickly to support an urgent piece of programme review work. The individuals fitted into the wider team successfully and delivered on their commitments in terms of timing, quality and budget."

An additional attraction was the extent to which CCL were able to bring an external 'benchmarking' perspective to our discussions and analysis. Their expertise and experience in the area of contact centre development and management, allowed us to formulate and present our recommendations with the confidence that we had built in a pragmatic 'best practice' component to our conclusions."
Mark Severn, Project Director - QA Review, Barclays Bank Plc

"We wanted expertise in the areas of customer management, customer care and direct channel development. With Customer Consulting we got what we asked for and more. We got a whole approach and an attitude to this area that has stretched our thinking. Through constructive straight talking, they told me what I needed to hear. They showed us the real issues, helped us to understand them and told us what we could achieve and how to approach it. They then helped us implement the solution. Here their consistently flexible and responsive approach was very valuable."
Mark Mortell, Commercial Director, Aer Lingus

"I have an extremely positive view of Customer Consulting. There's no 'them and us'. We are a cohesive team and it's always acceptable if we change our minds. In relationship to other consultancies it's one of the most positive experiences I've ever had."
Rachel Hick, Project Manager, Aer Lingus

"We wanted to build call centres as a very important component of the future marketing strategy of Heidelberg and needed a pragmatic approach. (In choosing CCL) I am quite sure we took the right decision ... The consultant team managed to define best fit to make the call centres work in each of the country situations. ...The call centre built in the UK is now a showcase and particularly in the last period of the project CCL did an excellent job."
Thomas Pflug, Corporate Marketing Director (Global), Heidelberg

"CCL always managed to see a positive side to every difficult challenge... and provided excellent support to establish clarity when changes were happening at such a fast pace and business focus was sometimes lost. When you are in the thick of what feels like organised chaos, it's easy to sometimes feel as though everything is against the project succeeding. It was during these times that CCL offered the right balance of knowledge, support and humour to the project."
Deborah Terry, Direct Marketing Manager, Heidelberg UK

"There are so many things that I have appreciated - Emma's personality, style and management as well as her skills. Her approach and way of teaching has inspired me. What have I learned? How long do you have? For me, CCL is the people I have met - Brian's stable, professional, truthful and direct approach was very valuable. He can stand by his views and recommendations. This is my view of CCL. It's the quality of the people that counts."
Carina Sikström, Direct Marketing Manager, Heidelberg Nordic

"Working with the CCL consultant helped me keep a focus on priorities as many things needed developing in the very short term. The consultant provided us with good support in the recruitment process and her input on telemarketing techniques was very useful. Overall her personal contribution was greatly valued by myself and the team."
Elisee Hazan, Direct Marketing Manager, Heidelberg France

"CCL led a project to produce a road map of the developments we must make in our customer contact centres across the next five years if we are to satisfy changing customer demands and achieve our strategic aims. The road map provides a detailed picture of the innovations required in all areas including people, process, technology and customer experience. We chose CCL for this work because of their ability to cut through the hype, articulate the future in simple, concrete terms and support their recommendations with industry evidence, knowledge and a sound business case for Year One.

CCL met (and in some areas exceeded) our expectations and produced a compelling picture and plan of what we need to do and how we need to do it. The quality of their input, flexible working style and genuine commitment to the client means I would have no hesitation in recommending them. Indeed, they went on to support us with another major piece of strategic work as a result of this assignment."
Graham Duke, Head of Change Implementation, Lloyds TSB

"Having been given an urgent brief during the latter part of 2001, you responded with a thorough, well researched and challenging report. You identified the key issues and helped us identify the key solutions. It is all too easy for consultants to give us answers which come from the shelf. On this occasion, CCL provided true value and bespoke solutions, and we are all grateful for your inputs."
John A Spence, Director, Retail Distribution, Lloyds TSB

"Irish Permanent invited several major consultancies to propose how they would help us to develop a strategy, business case and operational blueprint for the centralisation of our mortgage processing function. CCL won the pitch because of their extensive experience and overall approach to the challenge. They demonstrated that they had a proven methodology and a holistic understanding of the industry and our requirements in all key areas. In particular, their understanding of best practice and how to create a true performance culture was very evident. In carrying out the work, CCL fully met our strategic and operational requirements and they passed on important know-how to our project team. Overall, my impression of CCL is a company who possess extensive experience in transforming business vision into operational realities. By using a thoroughly professional approach and proven methodology in identifying the key steps, issues, risks and opportunities, they support the business in creating the necessary infrastructure and thought process leading to the realisation of tangible business benefits."
Paul Marshall, Workstream Manager, Irish Permanent

“Your contribution has been exactly on the button and frankly I didn't expect it to be so 'easy' for me. The value you have delivered has been excellent and I appreciate, almost more than anything, the lack of fuss in its creation and production."
Bryan Lloyd, Executive Vice President, Spring.com

"I brought in CCL having worked with many of the team in a previous role at Xerox. My initial requirement was for management support in our central resourcing centre with an audit of the current situation. CCL responded very flexibly and provided experienced personnel able to hit the ground running, which freed up the relevant director and provided pertinent, useful feedback as to areas we could improve. We then used CCL to facilitate our business planning process and a key strategy workshop. We will be considering the use of CCL in the future in an implementation support role. Overall my experience of CCL has been very good. Their response has always been extremely practical, at the same time they are able and willing to explore the theory. This has been good learning for those managers who have to implement, much better than the 'report on the shelf' style of consultancy."
Ged Thompson, Managing Director, IT Personnel, Spring.com

"I worked on a project with Simon and found him and his colleagues to be highly competent. When we in Waptv needed help recently (to procure the external customer support/ help desk for the e-mail service) we commissioned CCL to manage the procurement process and provide strategic consultancy for Waptv support. The work was done professionally and effectively and CCL had some very interesting ideas on how we could use customer service as a differentiator for our interactive services."
Gary Smith, Commercial Manager, BSkyB - Sky Interactive

"Initially we invited CCL to provide interim management support due to the absence of our Direct Marketing Manager. SAP were six months into a 3 year contract with a major call centre outsourcing company and there were major problems in terms of their performance and managing our expectations. CCL provided experienced call centre staff to show the outsourcer what areas needed to be improved to meet our expectations.  The outsourcer, in spite of significant input, was not able to respond and/or provide the necessary levels of expertise. As a result CCL were asked to help negotiate an end to the contract and also run a procurement process to identify an alternative supplier. In addition, CCL also provided planning assistance to help bring in-house part of the outsourced operation.  Both of these activities, i.e. finding an outsource supplier and also bringing the operation in-house proved to be very successful and provided SAP with a significant increase in results for the money they were paying. Overall the CCL staff created an experience of trust within the SAP team and dealt with the outsourcing companies in a very professional and fair way. I would certainly consider using CCL in the future."
Sally Hanson, Marketing & Communications Manager, SAP

"Alliance and Leicester's corporate vision is to be the most customer focused financial services provider in the UK - bar none.

We have a multi-channel operation providing a broad base of financial services products to over five million retail banking customers. Our focused network of retail branches is complimented by a direct contact centre operation based at six key sites across the United Kingdom.

In 2001 we committed to a significant programme of investment in our contact centre technology platform, the drivers of which were to improve customer service, increase income and reduce cost through virtualisation, integration and optimisation of our retail banking operations, in particular our contact centres.

To optimise the return on this investment, Customer Consulting Ltd were commissioned to work with us on the development of a holistic and integrated contact centre strategy, balancing change around technology, processes and our people and culture.

The CCL team were invited to work with us because they demonstrated a thorough understanding of the contact centre industry, they have a proven track record of strategic development and delivering major change programmes across the world, and they had a clear desire to understand our business and its people first, enabling us to design a tailored change programme with the right cultural fit and where skills gaps could be recognised and addressed.

CCL's flexible approach allowed us to set the change agenda and determine the pace with which we progressed, balancing the deployment of our own resources alongside experienced contact centre professionals. This approach ensured key stakeholders were aligned to the programme, it facilitated early progress and enabled the transfer of knowledge to our people. Evident from the outset has been a rational, structured, and thorough approach; the deployment of proven methodologies facilitated focus with pace and purpose, which accelerated the review of our existing operations and resulted in the early implementation of a new senior management structure. This provided the platform upon which to develop our core strategic aims, customer service proposition and business operating model all of which will shape the change programme moving forward.

CCL have helped to energise our team towards a shared vision and more importantly encouraged our thinking towards a holistic and balanced programme, set in the context of a pragmatic, achievable delivery schedule, which will create long term value for our key stakeholders. The thinking and strategising complete, we now move into the all-important delivery phase and we are delighted CCL wish to continue to provide their support during this phase".
Phil Beech, Contact Centre Strategy Programme Manager, Alliance & Leicester

"LEG commissioned CCL to carry out an important diagnostic to analyse senior management skills and competencies against our contact centre strategy, taking us out to 2004. CCL's brief was to identify skills and structural gaps and provide recommendations on how those gaps could be bridged.

CCL handled this assignment with great professionalism and sensitivity. The quality of the analysis was first class and throughout the assignment I was kept informed weekly about progress, any issues which needed addressing and the 'next steps' in the process. CCL demonstrated expert knowledge and real hands-on experience. I was delighted with the results of CCL's work and they are excellent people to do business with. They take care to get the chemistry right and are good listeners. They really understood what we were looking for and delivered on time, to cost and to specification."
David Harris, Director of HR, LE Group Customers Branch

"We needed to put together a strategic plan to present to our Executive as the way forward for this aspect of the business. Although this plan had to be put together in a very short space of time, it could not be lacking in any way and the availability of resources were limited. It was not the type of project that you could give to a consultant and then sign on it. We needed an integrated process where we could keep complete control and ownership of our strategy building.

We chose Customer Consulting because of their track record and their understanding of our challenge. They have been very efficient at providing what we required; a robust input, in terms of knowledge, a willingness to keep the team focused on the deadlines, and a permanent challenge to our views. We have been able to deliver on our objectives because of this approach and the professionalism of CCL has been key to this. Part of the way through the project, we found that we needed to make slight changes to its scope and they proved to be very flexible and adaptable. In addition, they were very good at managing a French/British environment and being able to meet the needs of the two cultures".
Michel Marchand, Deputy Managing Director, LE Group Customer Service