Meet the Prima Donnas, The Incredibles and The Allstars: Behind the scenes at the CII

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) gets criticised for everything from focussing too much on insurance brokers to losing exam papers. But when you have a question, who are the people behind the royal charter picking up the phone? Laura Miller finds out...

"Some callers just want a bit of reassurance and clarification. Studying for an exam is a big thing to embark on."

Jason Cowan manages the telephone team at the CII's Southwood customer service centre.

The day I visit the red brick suburban office, Cowan announces he's recently been off sick, but has come in to explain to "the journalist" what it is his unsung team do.

"Our guys are trained to deal with questions on everything across general insurance and advised financial services. They have no idea what the question will be. I have a lot of admiration for them."

The ‘guys' are 23, mainly young, men and women wearing headsets in front of computer screens and telephones. Fewer than you'd think given that from January to September they answered 195,000 calls.

To add a touch of competition, and keep service levels up, they are split into teams; the Prima Donnas, the Incredibles and the Allstars.

Mellissa Shannon, early twenties, is six months into the job. She explains that, the day before I arrived, she had reassured an adviser who was worried a mis-printed bracket on his Statement of Profession Standing (SPS) would ruin the effect when he hung it on his wall.

While I was there, Shannon talked a chartered tax adviser through the exam exemptions he qualifies for. She did the same for his colleague with a completely different qualification. She pulled up the information on screen and guided him until he understood.

She's polite and helpful and patient.

The CII has a 35-day turnaround time for accreditation of qualifications from other bodies. Verifying gap-fill has a 60-day target. Every document must go to a referral panel to be individually checked before an email can go out to say ‘yes, you've got all of your gap fill verified, you can now apply for your SPS'. Fraudulent certificates are rare, but have been found.

"Quality is one of the most important things to us," director of customer services Kim Glenister explained.

New entrants undertake a six week induction programme, measured on knowledge and competence, before hitting the phones under supervision.

Ongoing targets for understanding must be reached at three months, six months and 12 months.

"This way we are able to see if it suits people early on," Glenister said.

The implication is those it doesn't suit don't get asked back. Managers listen in to calls twice a week and measure the performance against the centre's guidelines. Staff must achieve results of at least 92%.

Glenister reckons it takes about 18 months for staff to have knowledge of all the areas of the CII they may get calls on. FAQs are on the RDR, gap-fill, the quickest way to get a diploma and the SPS.

There are some complaints, of course.

"We do get more bad feedback than we do good, but a lot of people find it much easier to call and complain but won't as quickly go out of their way to say thanks," Glenister said.

When the team receive a complaint they aim to resolve it in five days. If they can't, they let the individual know within that time with details of what they are doing to fix the problem.

In addition the customer service team sends out a survey once a year to all those who have contacted it in the three months previously to collect feedback and try to improve the service they offer.

Glenister said: "We do listen and try to make changes where we can."

The CII customer service team know they don't get it right all the time. When they don't, they want to hear from advisers. But where they do, they wouldn't mind a little appreciation for that too.