Alan Smith

Experience

• 

  Sheffield Newspapers, Sheffield

  Feb 2002 - Jun 2004

  Customer Services Supervisor
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  Creyfs Recruitment, Doncaster

  Jun 2004 - May 2005

  Recruitment Agency Branch Manager

  Managing the Doncaster branch of an international recruitment agency, managing a team of field sales and office based recruitment consultants responsible for personal and branch targets. Running a recruitment desk specialising in call centres, financial services and retail operations.

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  Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  May 2005 - May 2015

  Working in a large fast paced organisation managing a portfolio of customer/ patient experience services and cross functional customer focussed projects including customer experience strategy, customer insight, complaints, interpreter services, customer service team and customer information services.o Implemented a customer care framework, including a customer experience strategy, complaints policy, feedback processes, service quality standards, mystery shopping programme and monitoring and evaluation processes.o As the Trust lead for carers, I coordinated and developed a Sheffield wide carers strategy, working collaboratively with other health and social care providers and commissioners.o Managed large diverse high performing teams, stakeholder groups and associated budgets, including operational management of the customer service team, customer insight teams and other customer facing teams, and chairing a number of disability steering groups. Improving individual and team performance through development and coaching to achieve personal goals and deliver strategic objectives. o Introduced and produced customer experience reports, triangulating and analysing all methods of customer insight, identifying trends, themes and exceptions, synthesising complex and diverse data and translating this into reports appropriate for the relevant audience, making recommendation to the Board of Directors. o Engaging with stakeholders influencing a number of national initiatives, through participation on a number of Department of Health and national NHS initiatives.o Writing business cases and funding bids to develop innovative projects including volunteer services and arts in health projects, over £850k secured over 18 months. Show less Development of customer experience strategy, Design, Development and Implementation of Customer Service Standards, Project Management, Staff Management, Budget Management, Operational Management of Complaints, Compliments and Other Feedback, Information ManagementWorking in a large, fast paced target driven organisation, main duties include implementing a customer care programme across the organisation, including the development of a customer service strategy, service standards, mystery shopping programme and evaluation processes.Agree, set and monitor operational and financial KPIs.To strategically manage a number of multi site hospital support services, including large diverse staff and stakeholder groups and budgets including operational management of the customer service contact centre, reception services and customer insight team.To customise practice and policy from the commercial sector for suitable implementation in the NHS.To design and introduce effective processes to respond to feedback in a timely mannerCoordinate participation in national customer surveys.To produce Trust wide customer experience reports, triangulating and analysing all methods of customer insight. To design and deliver staff training programmes. Coaching and supporting staff within my remit and across the organisation to develop skills and set standards to ensure a high class team.To project manage a number of modernisation programmes, which included profit generation, target setting, cost savings and evaluation utilising design tools and techniques and change management models and methodologies.Report, analyse and make recommendations on management information triangulating all methods of feedback, and present findings to the Board of Directors.Networking and sharing good practice at a regional and national level.; Show less Launching and managing the first of its kind programme in the NHS, supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority communities to undertake volunteer opportunities across the trust, providing personal and professional development opportunities. Over 100 young people secured employment, including 25 at the trust, with over 30 going into further education. Worked collaboratively with the People Group, to develop employee training programmes for customer service, an initiative to develop our customer commitments, and our employee values. Developed a successful funding bid to the Arts Council. The programme offered arts and engagement activities to patients on a number of wards including reminiscence sessions on dementia wards where patients would join in sing-a-long sessions. Developed the volunteer strategy, highly praised nationally across the NHS. One of three NHS advisors on the Department of Health's national volunteer strategy team. Ambassador for the Trust at regional and national forums on behalf of the Chief Executive and Chief Nurse, such as Sheffield Carers Forum, Sheffield Disability Steering Group, and the national Patient and Public Involvement Network. Delivering training and presentations to large, diverse groups including volunteers, employees, and stakeholders. Orgainsing and facilitating a broad range of events and trainng including public health programmes, employability training and a high profile launch event for the young peoples volunteering project. Show less

  • Deputy Head of Customer and Patient Experience

    Oct 2012 - May 2015

  • Volunteer Services / Customer Service Manager

    Jan 2008 - Nov 2012

  • Young People's Volunteer Coordinator

    May 2005 - Jun 2008
• 

  AQA

  May 2015 - Feb 2021

  Managing a portfolio of support services (5 teams) including customer experience, associate experience, resource management, customer relationship management (CRM) quality and continual improvement, and planning.Business wide customer experience lead, leading and developing a broad range of customer activities including the development and implementation of the national customer experience strategy, through collaboration with all staff groups using influencing and negotiation skills, performance monitoring and a continual improvement approach. Leading and providing strategic direction for CRM across the organisation to meet AQA’s strategic needs drive improvements for our customers and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Developing and leading projects to engage our community of senior associates, working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders including internal teams and senior associates ensuring plans and projects have a focus on improving associate experience. Show less Develop, plan and implement a customer experience framework, including a customer experience strategy, annual plans and reporting framework across the business. Creating and leading initiatives to improve senior associate experience, including a new advisory group, and engagement plans.Embed an open customer focussed culture committed to change, focussing on high performance to meet customer needs and expectations. Engaging and building strong working relationships with customer facing and customer influencing teams and other key stakeholders.Conducted a comprehensive review and introduction of a new approach to the complaints service ensuring processes are customer focussed. Introducing root cause analysis investigations, a risk matrix and complaints policy with supporting guidance ensuring continual improvements.Communicate strategy and best practice to a wide range of stakeholders across the organisation with a commercial focus ensuring that it translates into business practices. Customise best practice from other industry for implementation in an education setting.Develop and manage people within my portfolio through effective leadership, coaching and support to introduce structure and consistency, developing skills, empowering others to build a high performing team. Support and deliver strategic priorities through the customer experience strategy, senior associate experience plan and CRM plan, ensuring work streams are high profile and recognised as high value, demonstrating their abilities to enable and support strategic objectives.Leading a project to support the compliance of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as Q&M lead. Leading and supporting others to coordinate activities, including the development of an action plan, collaboration with other areas of the business, managing and escalating risks, monitoring and reporting on progress and key challenges. Show less

  • Head of Customer Experiece / Operational Support - CX, CRM, quality, continual improvement

    Dec 2018 - Feb 2021

  • Head of Customer Experience and CRM

    May 2015 - Dec 2018
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  Halton Housing

  Feb 2021 - Dec 2021

  Director of Customer Experience

  Business wide strategic customer lead – designing and implementing a comprehensive customer experience strategy, working collaboratively with a broad range of stakeholders including customers, Local Authority, Board Members and the Executive Team. Coaching and mentoring colleagues across the business Strategic responsibility for the delivery of a transformation programme, including programme governance, benefit realisation and project delivery. Design, introduce and lead the customer insight function, ensuring robust meaningful customer data and insight is captured, analysed effectively and translates into meaningful action driving tangible improvements for customers through the delivery of thematic feedback across business areas.Leadership responsibility for brand and reputation, including management of the communications and marketing team, stakeholder strategic lead for partnership planning, and the introduction of a new digital platform including customer app. Show less

• 

  Self Employed

  Dec 2021 - now

  CX Consultant / Coach

  Working collaboratively with well-known brands such as Amazon UK, and a number of organisations in the Education Sector, to design and deliver customer experience and coaching programmes, events, and key note speeches.