Dear members,

As an organisation we seek regular feedback from our members and it is very important that we respond to this feedback. A key theme recently has been the need to improve our front line customer service, in particular the answering of phones. As a result of this a staff working group was established in September 2018, to explore these issues in more detail and identify appropriate solutions that will improve the relationship and quality of interaction between London FA and our members and wider stakeholders.

Following an extensive period of data collection relating to the incoming calls to the London FA office, the following changes will now be made to improve customer service:

• A dedicated Front of House Customer Service Team has been established, and their primary role will be to respond to phone calls and manage our email traffic
• This team will be in place between the hours of 10am and 4pm, as our data tell us that this is when virtually all of our calls come into the office.
• This team will comprise three staff at all times, working on a rota basis
• Specific customer service training has been provided to this team and will continue to be provided
• If you call and all three team members are busy, your call will join a queue system. This will ensure that your call can no longer ‘ring out’ and go unanswered, which was leading to significant frustration
• Office phone hours of 10.00am – 4.00pm will be introduced, and staff will have more time to monitor emails outside of those times. If you need to contact the office before 10am or after 4pm then we would recommend you do this via email as we will be able to respond more effectively
• Phone options (departments) to remain the same
• This new system will now allow us to track our customer service by recording key metrics (call volume, call waiting times, etc). We will be reviewing these metrics regularly to monitor progress and reporting this information back to our members

These changes are to take effect from Tuesday 11th December 2018. This process will be in place for a trial period up to the end of January 2019, after which we will review it and seek further external feedback. This is all part of our commitment to continually improve the service we provide our members, as set out in our annual plan.