Survey confirms Echelon's quality and value for money
Organisation development specialist Echelon has received a strong vote of confidence from its customers via the results of its recent ‘Client Survey’ – which, in particular, rated theeffectiveness and value for money of Echelon’s solutions highly.
Echelon’s client survey asked its clients, that include public transport operators , public sector bodies such as NHS Trusts, academic bodies and professional institutes, to rate – anonymously - its performance over the last year against eight criteria. Every response rates Echelon as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ for each of these criteria.
This year, the top scoring criteria overall are ‘designing innovative solutions’, followed by ‘understanding your needs’ and ‘implementing solutions on time and budget’ .
Commenting on this, Alistair Morrison, Echelon’s CEO, said: “Last year, our clients were particularly impressed by Echelon’s ‘attitude’ and ‘flexibility’. This year, perhaps in a reflection of the current generally gloomy economic situation, our clients have given us a huge vote of confidence by rating the ‘fitness for purpose’ and ‘value for money’ aspects of Echelon’s solutions highly.
“While there is never any cause for complacency, we’re delighted with the survey’s results – which suggest that we have become a more efficient and agile organisation over the past year,” he added.
“The survey provides further recognition of our commitment to quality and continuous improvement and its results affirm the internal systems that we have been putting in place. These culminated, in March, in Echelon being awarded the internationally recognised ISO 9001: 2008 quality assurance accreditation.
“We have now analysed and challenged every aspect of Echelon’s operations, involving every employee and a number of clients. This has resulted in many refinements to both what we do and how we do it,” Morrison explained.
In addition to providing its ‘LearningMatters.com’ online learning resource to a number of new clients this year, including the Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) and the Scottish Borders Council, Echelon’s innovative approach has seen its clients improve levels of customer satisfaction and stakeholder ‘value for money’. Within the public sector, Echelon’s ‘service DNA’ programmes, focusing on customer loyalty, have seen:
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One NHS Trust - over two years - score significantly better on issues that mattered to patients.
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A 65 per cent increase in compliments and 40 per cent reduction in complaints sustained throughout 2008 by this same business.
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One Council consistently outperforming the top quartile for customer service performance by seven per cent.
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Over 1,000 improvement ideas collected in three months from staff at one organisation in the health sector.
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A two per cent overall increase in passenger numbers for an organisation in the public transport sector.
According to Jenny Hill, who heads up Echelon’s consultancy team: “Our research for these clients is showing us how to ensure positive satisfaction among their customers, converting them to ‘fans’ and ‘advocates’ of the organisation. It requires an understanding of their specific needs - particularly the demographic levers - and ensuring that these needs are met consistently.”
Morrison commented: “Sustainable success depends on people and process being closely aligned with strategy and having an adaptability to exploit opportunity. We deploy a four-stage cycle of research, design, implement and sustain to ensure that the key needs of customers are understood clearly, by everyone.
“Having been doing it on behalf of our clients, we are focusing on the same principles within our own business – with similarly positive results,” he said.
Echelon, Angles House, 210 Sheen Lane, London SW14 8LB; 020 8274 9965