User research about customer relationship management at Health Education England

We were asked to undertake a user research project about customer relationship management (CRM) across Health Education England (HEE). 

There are a range of different approaches to managing information about contacts and stakeholders that are currently in use across HEE. Some staff use dedicated CRM tools, but there is no consistent approach, and much of this type of information is stored in shared spreadsheets.

The HEE team wanted to better understand who has needs around CRM at HEE, what these needs are, and how they are currently being met.

We engaged with a range of stakeholders and users through one-to-one interviews, remote observation sessions, and surveys. 

The relatively small number of users who are consciously engaging in CRM related activity at HEE posed a potential challenge in terms of recruiting people to take part in research activities. 

However, through working closely with the HEE team, we were able to successfully recruit the participants we needed through a targeted approach.

We presented our work, including 27 prioritised user needs, to HEE stakeholders. The findings are now being used by the HEE team as they seek to streamline how CRM related needs are met across the organisation.

“Lagom Strategy were a pleasure to work with. They put in a lot of effort to ensure they clearly understood the brief and all factors/people involved in the work. They set up a well organised process and timescale for delivering the project, with regular updates and key points to seek our feedback along the way. This helped to ensure that they delivered a through piece of research, along with supporting materials. The team were highly personable and felt genuinely engaged with the work of HEE.”

Kellie Espie-Whitburn, National Stakeholder Relations Manager, Health Education England