Meet Jenny Murray, Director of Operations
Jenny joined Healthcode in 2015 as a Finance Assistant and has just been appointed Director of Operations, responsible for ensuring that the company is set up to deliver the best service for customers. She shares her vision for Healthcode and outlines some of the exciting changes in the pipeline.
You joined Healthcode as Finance Assistant and are now Director of Operations – how has the company supported you to make such rapid progress?
I joined Healthcode’s finance team in 2015 with a degree in accounting and then started my post-graduate ACCA qualifications. Healthcode were behind me during my studies but most importantly, as a small company they allowed me to experience different aspects of the business – financial, commercial, legal and governance operations. It was an invaluable opportunity to develop real-world understanding that I couldn’t have obtained from university or training courses.
How has Healthcode changed over the last six years?
When I joined Healthcode there were fewer than fifty people sitting in one office and it felt like a small family. A lot has changed, particularly in the last three years, as we have almost doubled our headcount and entering a period of transformation for the business.
We still have the familiar faces but we have brought in new talent with a raft of experience from other areas. The new blood has been really good but what really matters is that Healthcode has kept that friendly, family culture. A lot of companies would struggle to do this and it’s something we are very proud of.
Can you describe your current role and what it entails?
I have three main responsibilities: Customer operations, IT operations and Business operations. The first includes our Customer Registrations team who set up new users on our systems, Customer Services who support our customers with their queries, and our Coding team who look after our clinical coding and code mapping.
The next is IT Operations who ensure our systems, servers and applications run smoothly for our customers, as well as supporting our internal users so they’re able to do the same.
Business operations look after our people, offices and everything in between, and are the lifeline for our teams.
It sounds like a lot, but I’m delighted to have very strong heads of department who are leading and transforming the teams.
It’s logical to bring these departments together under one umbrella as they intersect so closely. For example, if we have a server issue, we need our Customer Service team to be fully briefed to ensure they can respond to customers, advise of the issues and keep them informed. Its important to have someone in the middle to communicate across teams and ensure everything works in harmony.
What was your reaction to being appointed to this new position?
Of course, I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t looked after such a large team before. However, it’s an exciting time because we are going through a period of transformation and I get to see the changes happen at close quarters. I think it’s important to feel passionate about what I’m doing.
How is your work making a positive difference for Healthcode customers?
On the customer operations side, we need to be available, approachable and experts in our field. We have a people plan in place to ensure there are always fully trained people available to respond to customers and that they communicate clearly and consistently. We have appointed a second tier of experts who can take on more complex queries and ensure that the system works more efficiently. And we are now offering free training to customers through our Healthcode Academy so they can better understand how to navigate and make full use of all the features on the system. I’m delighted to say we are already seeing a huge difference. For example, we now have an abandon rate on customer calls of under 4%, compared to an industry standard of 5-8%.
We’re also in the process of launching an omnichannel support service so our customers can get in touch in any way they choose, and the system provides our teams with the best customer record visibility to ensure we’ve got all the information needed.
On the IT Operations side, we’ve migrated to AWS which are ‘best of breed’ servers to maximise performance, reliability, stability and efficiency.
How would you like to see Healthcode evolve over the next five years?
Healthcode occupies a unique position at the heart of the private healthcare sector, helping to streamline processes such as billing. While that core purpose won’t change, I want us to be consistently excellent in everything we do.
To meet this objective, we are rewriting all our customer-facing systems and applications from the ground up. In addition to a completely new and intuitive user interface, they will also be faster, more reliable and more user-friendly.
What are the most rewarding aspects of working for Healthcode?
I love the people here. Everyone in the team is driving towards the same goal which creates a certain magic that you don’t find in every organisation.
Another big reward is customer feedback. It makes my day when the hard work that the teams are putting in behind the scenes has a positive effect, such as when someone emails to say that our systems are lightning fast or thanks one of the customer service team for talking them through something. Seeing that impact on the customers is gold.
How do you switch off outside work?
As a big foodie I can usually be found in a restaurant, but I do try to keep a balance and enjoy the odd spin class, the harder the better!
I’m also a big animal lover and supporter of animal welfare. We’ve got two house rabbits (Barny and Betty) which could be considered quite an unusual house pet but they make the most wonderful companions. They even have their own Instagram page with around 15,000 followers.
