The client, a leading transport organisation needed change management support whilst replacing its Customer Relationship Management system, part of a wider £30m Customer Service Transformation Programme.

I joined a year into the Programme, four months before the planned Go Live, with training having been delivered and testing was going through the final stages.

To date, the focus had been on internal stakeholder engagement, with minimal engagement with external stakeholders. With four months to Go Live, the organisation was looking to increase engagement with the external stakeholder organisations (other transport operators) impacted by the transformation, in preparation for Go Live.

To help prepare them for Go Live, I was asked to manage the relationship with the Customer Service Managers and their teams from the 17 external stakeholder organisations (other transport operators) that provided a service on behalf of the client transport organisation, which included around 150 customer service staff spread across the 17 organisations in different geographical locations, all being impacted by the system replacement.

Understanding the “real” current situation

Focusing on understanding the priorities over the next four months, I contacted the Customer Service Managers at each organisation to introduce myself and to let them know I would be their key point of contact, supporting them leading up to and post Go Live. I was surprised to receive a very negative response from them, with one manager being very vocal and influencing the rest of the group.

I found the stakeholders:

• were concerned about the lack of consultation and involvement to date
• didn’t understand how things would work with the new system
• felt they had received training that didn’t make sense or relate to the way they worked or the way they interacted with the transport organisation

As a result, they didn’t feel confident their staff would be able to meet the contractually agreed service levels following the system implementation. Despite the current system being inefficient with downtime being a constant problem and creating more work for everyone, they appeared to want to stick with it instead of moving to the new system.

They were refusing to support the Go Live, if things didn’t change. This could have delayed the planned Go Live and with the current system due to be decommissioned, it could have had an impact on the overall programme budget. And without the support of the external stakeholders, the transport organisation wouldn’t be able to provide a fully operational Customer Service to its customers, which would have a serious impact on reputation.

So I had to quickly respond to this situation, to bring the stakeholders on board.

Time to listen, reflect & agree actions together 

I proposed holding a “Joint Stakeholder Workshop” to the client, which was agreed and budget signed off by the Head of Customer Services and Programme Manager.

I invited the Customer Service Managers from the 17 stakeholder organisations to the workshop (with tea, coffee and biscuits!) along with key representatives from the client transport organisation, so that we could better understand their concerns and together agree how to address them, which was welcomed by everyone.

In advance of the meeting, I agreed a structure with the Head of Customer Services and the Programme Manager, to provide focus for the joint discussion and agreeing actions.

The focus for the Joint Stakeholder Workshop included:

Part 1 “Listen” – time to enable the stakeholders to share their concerns and frustrations (resulting in a wall covered with post-it notes)

Part 2 “Reflect” – referring to their concerns and frustrations we pulled out and agreed themes, to help focus the conversation (with post-it notes grouped into themes)

Part 3 “Action” – we used the themes to agree and highlight which ones:

• “could be influenced” and agreed actions to address them
• “were outside our control / unable to influence” which were either parked or flagged for escalation to the Programme Board for decision

For example, the external stakeholders couldn’t influence that the old system was being replaced or which one would replace it, as this had been an overall organisational wide decision.

But they could influence how some of the processes would work with the new system, help to inform the revised training we would deliver, help to co-create the user guides we would produce and get involved in other activities needed to ensure everyone was prepared for Go Live.

Having delved a bit more, it turned out that many of the stakeholders had been around when the current system had been implemented a few years ago, and it hadn’t gone smoothly and they were concerned the same thing would happen again. Due to the minimal communication and engagement to date, the stakeholders didn’t feel they had the visibility, understanding, knowledge or ability to prepare for the change and Go Live.

Working together to prepare for Go Live  

The following actions, agreed during the joint workshop, were formalised into focused change, communication, engagement and training plans aligned with the overall delivery plan:

• joint organisation and stakeholder workshops were arranged to go through “as is” / “to be” processes, change impact assessments and readiness planning, to ensure everyone understood the bigger picture, share good practice / ideas and ensure local plans were in place too
• we carried out training needs analysis linked to processes and roles and how each stakeholder interacted with the transport organisation’s customer service team
• focused demos were used to start to familiarise users with the new system linked to the “to be” processes and to help them understand what would change
• working with the newly appointed Training Manager, stakeholders were asked to contribute to the revised tailored training design and provide feedback on pilots before we rolled out to all users
• following the training, we provided access to a”sand-pit area” for users to gain confidence in using the system supported by drop-in sessions
• stakeholders helped to create user guides and quick reference guides based on relevant use cases / scenarios
• stakeholder organisations got involved in user acceptance testing and the most vocal Customer Service Manager even volunteered to help with the final pre-go live system testing, coming in at the weekends to do this!
• regular readiness check-ins took place with all stakeholders

The engagement activities were supported with focused 2-way communication including regular messaging, progress updates and opportunities for questions and concerns to be addressed, ensuring everyone was prepared for Go Live and achieving the agreed timeline.

Time to learn and build confidence

To help with user adoption, building confidence in using the new system and embedding the new ways of working, I arranged post Go Live support in the form of:

• a helpline, floorwalkers, “live case” surgeries, sharing of good practice through Super User Groups, setting up subject matter experts

In addition, the Programme Board agreed the stakeholders wouldn’t be measured against their agreed customer service levels for the first month, whilst their staff got used to the new system and processes. This took away the stress of trying to meet targets whilst learning new ways of working with a new system.

Achieving Go Live and lasting results together 

Listening to and understanding the concerns and involving the stakeholders in agreeing the approach to prepare for Go Live:

• built trust in the approach and messaging being shared
• increased their confidence, ensuring operational readiness for the client organisation and all the stakeholder organisations, creating a positive approach for Go Live within the timescale
• turned around initial negative perceptions about adopting a new system and facilitating transition to business as usual

With the stakeholders feeling comfortable that the new ways of working had been embedded and were working well:

• 1 month after Go Live – we reintroduced the monitoring of customer service level measures
• 6 months after Go Live – they agreed to implement and work to improved service levels as part of their updated Customer Service Agreement

Lessons learned for the future  

The client took forward learning from this programme including:

• ensuring a robust joint internal and external stakeholder engagement process was in place from the early stages for future programmes and projects
• starting to develop an internal enterprise wide change capability

• Stakeholder Engagement
• collaboration
• Business Change Management & Communication
• Workshop facilitation

• Transport and Logistics