In this series, we’ve been chatting to some of our talented people about their experience at By Miles and the fantastic things they’re up to.
This time around, we’re talking to Rio, the Training and Development Manager from our Customer Experience team.
Over to Rio.
There at every step.
“The CX (Customer Experience) team works across three live platforms – phone, chat and email. Our teams are available on all of those throughout the week to support members with their insurance policies. Obviously, being a pay-by-mile car insurance provider, we do things a little differently. So that support may go a bit beyond your traditional insurance company. For example, we might be helping members activate their Miles Tracker or find a lost car.
“Of course, we get all sorts of standard insurance questions as well: ‘what’s the coverage on my policy?’, ‘can I add people and remove them?’, and other things like that. Essentially, our job is to make every step of the journey as easy as possible – even cancellation when that comes up.”
Supporting the support team.
“Over the years, my role as Training and Development Manager has very much been shaped by the needs of the team – and the skills and strengths I could bring to them. Faith and I really started the team together, as I was the second person to join it.
“It became very clear that she was able to bring that creative juice to foster the tone of our approach to how we treat customers. My background meant that I was more geared to bringing new people on board, teaching them everything that they needed to know, and helping to hone their skills.
“Over the last couple of years, the focus has been very much on training. We’ve roughly tripled in size since the pandemic, and there’s been a lot of ebb and flow in terms of numbers during that time. So the focus was on recruiting and onboarding and training the teams in our products – which are fairly unique in the industry.
“We’re now approaching a really exciting time in the team where the development aspect is shifting more to the forefront. We’re seeing all of the wonderful skills that our CX team have and looking to help them achieve even more.”
A constantly evolving process.
“Our training programme is a living beast that’s always changing over time – to the point of developing practically every time we onboard someone new. We’re really proactive about going out for feedback with every new starter. And so each time we’ve done it, we wanted to make it better the next time.
“On top of that, our product has developed a lot. So, our training has to be flexible and intuitive as we go along. As it stands at the moment, we’ve designed a really thorough training schedule that takes place over your entire probation period.”
Building a great experience.
“We think it’s really important to have a super-focused period at the start of the journey where new starters have the time and space to really absorb all they need to know about the product and get familiar with our ethos and with how we do things. At By Miles, we’re really focused on creating that customer experience rather than just a service.
“So we spend a lot of the first three weeks focusing on that. And we’ve had feedback from our team that that’s something that’s not necessarily been available to them in other companies. So we’ve really strived to keep that time as a sacred space for them at the beginning.
“It’s still important to talk to members during this phase, but in a really safe environment where they can feel free to make mistakes and learn and grow from them. We then get them working on our live platforms, where they have a support system set up within CX.
“Me and the rest of the team are there to take on a buddy role and support them in their first few weeks. And then we continue to drip the training to them in the more advanced areas of our product as they grow with the team.”
Navigating challenges and reaching milestones.
“A big change for us was the pandemic. Suddenly, we had to work out how to do this over the Internet. When we first started, training was very much hands-on in the office. You’d have a person sat next to you and you could work problems out then and there.
“In a world where we’re working and hiring remotely, as a necessity we’ve had to develop the training program so that it can be done independently. We don’t want that just to be reading a ton of information, though. So we’ve developed live presentations, recorded presentations, interactive activities, quizzes – different approaches to make sure that all of the learning styles are covered and we’re meeting people’s varied needs.”
Delivering for members.
“Effective training enables our agents to be their best selves and gives them the confidence to really hit the ground running. The reason that we have that protected time to read and learn is that when they do start to talk to members on live platforms, they’re really equipped with all the tools that they need to answer efficiently and to really take ownership of that interaction.
“We have what’s called the Four P’s: Product, Processes, People and Player Skills. And by focusing on those four different areas, we make sure that they have the right support to promote their strengths and identify areas they can work on.
“By having that clear view of their own progress, they can be very evaluative of their interactions and take ownership of them – and keep continually developing whilst there in their role.”
Favourite moments.
“I really did enjoy the work of speaking to customers and members whilst we were all in the office. But since taking on the role of Training and Development Manager, I feel like I’ve been able to come into my own and help shape the team. From my perspective, my favourite moments from day-to-day are with the team.
“After the pandemic settled down and we all got together again, I got to meet people who I’d only ever met online but had developed really close relationships with. So it was amazing to see them in person. This will sound cheesy, but for a lot of the people who I trained, I really felt like I’d introduce them to the company and set them on their journey.
“It felt like coming home and meeting family after a very long time. It was great to realize that, even with all of the challenges of the pandemic and working remotely, we’ve been able to create this really strong culture together.”
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