Sept. 13, 2010
Marc A. Courtois, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Canada Post, announced today that the Office of the Ombudsman at Canada Post has been awarded one of the prestigious Canada Awards for Excellence by the National Quality Institute.
The Ombudsman's office, led by Nicole Goodfellow, won the Gold Trophy for quality in the Public Sector-Small Organizations category. The Canada Awards for Excellence is an annual awards program to recognize business excellence in quality, customer service and a healthy workplace. The news release announcing all the 2010 award winners can be found at www.nqi.ca.
"Canada Post enjoys one of the most recognized and trusted brands in the Canadian marketplace," said Mr. Courtois. "The Ombudsman's office plays an important role in helping Canada Post improve its service to all Canadians. The Canada Awards for Excellence seal of approval will enhance the credibility of the Ombudsman's office."
"Business excellence is about driving better organizational performance," said Ombudsman Nicole Goodfellow. "This national recognition speaks volumes about our entire team's success at changing our processes to create a truly customer-centered operation, as well as generating meaningful data and insights that help Canada Post serve customers better and makes us a valuable business asset for Canada Post."
The Office of the Ombudsman at Canada Post, created in 1997, is the final appeal authority for postal service complaints that have not been resolved to the customers' satisfaction by Canada Post. The Ombudsman operates at arm's length from Canada Post and reports directly to the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
The Ombudsman strives for impartiality, fairness and objectivity in the consideration of complaints and resolves them through recommendations to Canada Post.
In 2009, the Ombudsman's office responded to 6,209 requests for assistance from Canadians; 3,708 required an in-depth investigation. It also became the first Ombudsman's office to apply the NQI's Business Excellence framework to its operations.
"Once we understood that quality is quality, regardless of an Ombudsman's unique role and mandate, we made drastic changes in how we manage the relationship with our customers," said Goodfellow.
Among other things, the Ombudsman is now providing customers with an up-front service promise to close their case within 8, 10 or 20 days, depending on the complaint, and has met the target in 99 per cent of cases. Customers also consistently give case managers a rating of 9 out of 10-a score that signals best-in-class performance in customer value management.
The National Quality Institute (NQI) is a not-for-profit, independent organization whose goal is to help Canadian private and public sector organizations to implement programs of excellence. The NQI works with organizations to manage self-assessment activities, review business processes and develop improvement programs.
The Ombudsman's award follows a submission to NQI, plus on-site verification by certified NQI representatives who examined leadership's approach to the quality principles and how the team and processes were used to drive organizational performance.
The awards will be presented at the 2010 Canada Awards for Excellence Gala at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto on October 20, 2010.
