Having spent time in the business to carry out our diagnostic, we understood the operational challenges employees faced day-to-day. Delivering outstanding customer service became particularly challenging during the peak summer period where numbers of passengers and, historically, complaints increased.
Using customised conference trucks and multimedia presentation techniques, Class Leaders on the Road was designed to bring about a significant mindset change in dealership management and staff. It opened with a glossy, ‘company propaganda’ film presentation. The film was immediately challenged with a brutally honest ‘telling it like it is’ intervention by a ‘dealership technician’ (one of our professional actors) planted in the audience.
These events re-engaged those attending, tapping into their fierce brand loyalty and winning support for the next part of the strategy; ‘Best In Class’ training events. These training events were delivered by Brand Biology behavioural change consultants and professional actors, to over 3,000 customer-facing managers and staff throughout the UK. They were followed by specially adapted events for head office personnel and the development of ‘Class Leaders at Your Place’ training kits, for delivery on-site by dealership managers.
Specially adapted ‘Best in Class’ events were also staged for dealership personnel from across Europe, held at the headquarters of parent company Daimler AG in Stuttgart.
Following the success of the UK programme, we are now working with Mercedes-Benz in the Middle East, helping them to achieve their target of a 50% increase in sales across the region.
Brand Biology was appointed to create a customer experience initiative for the British Gas credit and operations department, comprising two teams, both responsible for debt collection. The 275-strong contact centre team was office based, while the 100 field representatives visited customers at their homes and business premises. Senior management was keen for the department to move away from a ‘cash is king’ culture to a customer-centric focus.
We conducted two in-depth fact-finding missions to understand the challenges facing the teams. Using this insight, we developed ‘real life’ scenarios, which were delivered by our team of professional actors in a series of interactive group events.
Virgin Atlantic’s brand is synonymous with consistently high-quality customer service. When making plans for the new Terminal 3 (T3) facility at London’s Heathrow, they knew they needed to listen to their customers and deliver what they wanted.
The events were delivered by Brand Biology’s behavioural change consultants and professional actors, working in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic’s own licensed trainers.
“97% of our airport team said that the training they received was the single most important factor in preparing them to deliver a new service experience. I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Five years on and our customer service team at airports still talk about ‘that training we did with the actors’ and it’s not unusual for people to refer to the different customer types, which suggests the message sunk in. Brand Biology’s style and content meant employees were able to hold the mirror up to people’s behaviour in a safe, fun way and inspire people to change without telling them. Customer satisfaction continues to be high.”
ActNatural®, Brand Biology®, Learn.Love.Live® and Total Reality® are all registered trademarks of Brand Biology Ltd.
