The challenge:
A leading water company was facing the challenge of establishing itself within the new world of competitive supply to business customers.
With many operational and system requirements to deal with, they also set out a vision to deliver world-class customer service and create the right culture from day one. They engaged us to help them establish that culture, and to equip their team with the skills and behaviours they’d need to make their vision a reality.
What we did:
We began with Discovery, spending time with the teams, to develop a deep understanding of the current culture, quality of service, and internal factors behind that service. We used our Employee Engagement Survey to give measurable insight into how people were feeling, and to highlight priority areas for attention.
To bring clarity to their service delivery aspirations, we worked with an internal team to create new Customer Promises and Quality Frameworks. They became a foundational tool in driving sustainable change through ongoing coaching and quality measurement.
We created a high-impact ‘communication and influencing skills’ training course which we delivered to managers and front-line colleagues. This equipped delegates with immediately usable skills and generated real enthusiasm for delivering the Customer Promises.
We also designed and delivered a bespoke leadership development programme for the management team, to help them drive long-term development through their teams. This 12-month programme was a mix of classroom training and individual coaching, using a variety of development tools and styles.
Benefits:
Our involvement has brought a range of benefits, including:
- Improvements in the quality of customer interactions, evidenced in NPS results
- Increase in phone contact with customers; reduced reliance on written communication (one of the client’s key objectives)
- Delivery of a more consistent brand image across different communication media
- Establishment of a performance coaching culture, supporting ongoing colleague development
We’ve consistently received excellent feedback from all the training and coaching we’ve delivered. The following quotes provide a snapshot of delegate comments from the leadership development programme:
“Just a big thank you. You have really shaped the way I am and I’m massively grateful. I didn’t think this could impact me as much as it has. I’ve also adopted different approaches outside of work and generally feel more positive around things”
“Thank you to Pete and Nickie for your patience, kindness and common-sense approach to the challenges we brought. You went above and beyond a trainer role and provided us with support and guidance with how to handle a broad range of issues; you listened”.