Monitoring customer service feedback
Customer service is monitored by an online exit survey from both the account pages and the registration pages. Once a customer has completed their activity within the service they are presented with the option to leave a satisfaction rating and any feedback around improvement suggestions.
At this stage the customer can opt to bypass this page and end the journey. If the customer does decide to complete the exit survey, they are presented with the following option;
Overall, how did you feel about the service you received today?
Once the customer selects the relevant option they can then leave any improvements suggestions in a free text box. We receive details all of the feedback and survey results from each day in a weekly report.
We also get details in Google Analytics of the survey results and can analyse the % rates using that tool. Each month a sample is taken from application feedback and account feedback to produce a monthly ‘Postcard’ which details the key themes customers are telling us about the issues they are having with the service as well as the positive feedback left too.
Customer Surveys
HMRC have set up a comprehensive research and evaluation programme to monitor, understand and improve parent and providers experiences of the service. During the implementation of the childcare service, we have been monitoring performance against six Rollout Success Indicators:
RSI1 – Parent take up
RSI2 – Positive parent experience
RSI3 – Positive childcare provider experience
RSI4 – Positive reputation of Tax-Free Childcare
RSI5 – Minimise error and fraud within Tax-Free Childcare
RSI6 – Efficient service providing good value for money.
Our customer experience survey for the childcare service has been conducted on an ongoing basis since 2017 by IFF Research. This is conducted on a quarterly basis with parents and every six months with providers. The survey covers both Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours childcare customers, and helps us understand their experience of the key touchpoints of the service – e.g. application/sign-up, account usage, support usage; as well as providing an understanding of the impact of the Tax-Free Childcare. We also conduct in-depth research with customers through this research.
IFF Research also conduct qualitative research that seeks to understand what the key triggers and barriers to parents and providers taking up Tax-Free Childcare. This research is being conducted in several stages to understand how these change over time, and to allow us to feed in any findings into communication/marketing plans.
Ipsos MORI are currently conducting research with parents and providers. This study aims to understand the perceived impact of Tax-Free Childcare amongst parents and providers. For parents, it will explore the impact of the scheme on the decisions, choices and behaviour of parents in relation to childcare. For providers, it will seek to understand responses to the policy, focusing on decision-making, and drivers of behaviour in relation to organisation, pricing and profitability structures.
Customer satisfaction rates
The satisfaction scores have gone from around the 76% mark in summer last year to 84% with an underlying steady increase as a result of the analysis done from the survey results leading to crucial insight for our development teams to implement IT improvements. We have seen issues involving, vouchers and the 30hrs claims being resolved which in turn has seen the customer satisfaction scores improve to their current level. The following table shows historic satisfaction ratings. Below that are listed notable events in the timeline.
|
May 17 |
June 17 |
July 17 |
Aug 17 |
Sept 17 |
Oct 17 |
Nov 17 |
Dec 17 |
Jan 18 |
Feb 18 |
Mar 18 |
Apr 18 |
|
72% |
76% |
76% |
73% |
71% |
73% |
77% |
76% |
75% |
78% |
82% |
83% |
Last week of April 2017 – Tax-Free Childcare begins its national rollout
September 2017 – start of the first term of 30 hours free childcare in England
January 2018 – start of the second term of 30 hours free childcare in England
April 2018 – start of the third term of 30 hours free childcare in England