Client Open Day Seminar
Directors of Rossendales Ltd host Client Open Day Seminar.
Client Open Day
After 19 years at the rather inappropriately named ‘Hardman Mill’, the Board at Rossendales took the brave decision to relocate just over 2 miles away to Wavell House, the former MyTravel (Airtours) building. To celebrate this move and to invite our clients to view our new surroundings we decided to hold a Client Open Day on the 17th September 2009.
To make the visit more worthwhile we arranged a half day seminar, which was repeated in the afternoon, because of the nationwide coverage of our services, so that clients could choose their visit time to suit their travel arrangements.
The event was a huge success with 75 clients attending over the day, drawn from all the four corners of England and Wales there were clients as far away as Newcastle Upon Tyne, Carlisle City, Chelmsford, North Somerset and Anglesey.
Our Managing Director, Julie Green-Jones gave a welcome to the company before introducing our first speaker, Bob Trahern (Asst Director of Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services North Warwickshire DC). Bob gave a talk entitled ‘Delivering in Partnership in the Recession’, addressing the difficult times we in Revenues and Benefits are working in.
In his usual inimitable style, Bob captivated the audience as he covered the topic explaining how even against a national backdrop of having to deliver more for less with capping, pressures to reduce public spending, targets and job cuts, Local Government is still a significant success story with world leading collection rates, to which half the group responded by saying that they were, even now, ahead of last year in their Council tax collections.
Bob then took the delegates through his North Warwickshire collaboration journey of shared initiatives and joint working projects, where the geography between partners was not as important as the will to succeed!
Bob talked of putting the customer first, establishing links to improve the community, maximizing the use of technology to promote quality of access, even how social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube can be exploited to engage with hard to reach groups. But the jewel of the speech was the reference to the NWDC major outreach project the ‘Branching Out Bus’ or the BOB bus as Bob jokingly said, “You know you’ve been somewhere too long when they name a bus after you”.
Our next speaker was Cathy Mendez, (Corporate Debt Manager at Liverpool Direct), Cathy gave a talk about the ‘Joint Venture’ journey which Liverpool City Council and BT began together in 2001 with the formation of LDL Ltd.
The Joint Venture initially comprised ICT, HR and Revenues and Benefits and now after a very successful 8 years, comprises much more than that initial scope. The audience were enthralled to hear how in 2001 Liverpool City Council services were described in the media and by the Audit Commission as ‘at rock bottom’. In need of significant investment and service improvement, against the backdrop of the requirement to reduce costs and increase quality, the partnership with BT was struck.
Cathy explained how the business process management skills of BT were married with Liverpool City Council staff knowledge and skills to transform the customer experience, expectations and satisfaction culminating in national recognition by scooping the IRRV Excellence in Customer Service Performance Award in 2005, followed by the Civil Enforcement Award for Customer Service in 2008.
LDL collected £293M in 2008/9 (with some help from Rossendales), including £170K of Community Charge, yes the Poll tax! They now take a single view of debt through a corporate approach working alongside the CAB and their latest initiative ‘BT First Contact’.
The final speaker was our own Customer Services Director and IRRV Council Member, Dave Chapman, who gave a talk on ‘Taking the Initiative in Collections’. Dave began by analyzing the effects of the current recession on revenues collections, exploring how Local Authorities were reacting with examples of good practice around the country.
He then talked about the importance of making contact with those in debt, which now include those in debt for the very first time, and the value of achieving realistic payment plans. He detailed that with the use of income and expenditure assessment training, debt advice awareness, the use of Common Financial Statements combined with negotiation skills, revenues practitioners could achieve very effective outcomes.
Dave explained the impact of the recent Government increase in Committal Fees and how there was still an opportunity to use the effective threat of committal but in a very different way. He ended the talk with a demonstration of how effective negotiation techniques, combined with outbound telephony can result in a win – win for both client and customer.
During the lunch interval, clients overlapping both seminars were taken on guided tours of the new facilities, which proved to be somewhat of a challenge as groups of clients passed each other in and out of the different departments. A hot and cold lunch was provided in our fully equipped canteen and all in all the day went fantastically well and may become an annual event, and I don’t mean we will be moving premises every year, once in 20 years is enough!!!
Since hosting the Client Open Day we have received fantastic client feedback which can be seen below:
“Just wanted to thank you for your hospitality and to let you know how much Jan and I enjoyed ourselves at your open day yesterday. Your new offices are very impressive and there’s such a positive atmosphere. It’s clear that you have a committed and dedicated workforce who enjoy what they do and it’s good to know our work is in such capable hands. The speakers were all excellent and we’ve picked up lots of great tips and ideas which we’re planning to introduce here. It was probably the most helpful and informative seminar I’ve been to in a long time. Well worth the trip”. Chelmsford
“I would like to thank everyone at Rossendales for an excellent open day. The tour of the office was very interesting and informative, and the three presentations contained very good information and helpful advice some of which we shall certainly be using. Please pass on my good wishes to all”. North Kesteven
“I would like to thank you and all the team for the welcome Helen and I received on your open day and particularly Mick Ferguson who showed us around your offices and made the tour interesting. It was good to meet with you all. Could you also please pass on our thanks to Bob & Dave who made their talks entertaining and gave us some useful information. Many thanks again”. West Lindsey
