News: A Tasty Experience

Following closely on the heels of our launch event in Edinburgh last month, it was Dundee's West Park Centre's turn to showcase their service excellence for special guests of Quest Scotland and ICD's clients in HR & Training and other disciplines.  A range of organisations from local authorities to bio-tech were represented from Aberdeen to Edinburgh to hear about our forthcoming Customer Experience Masterclass series.

We chose West Part because they have many of the necessary components in place to deliver a consistently good service and so are a good example of managers and staff that "walk the talk". Following a short introduction from Quest MD Laura Mason, West Park's Business Development manager, Caroline Rankin shared some of the initiatives and practices they have put in place on what is an ongoing journey.

Delegates then elected to attend a choice of 2 from 4 taster sessions conducted by Laura Mason, Russell Biggart and Liz Moody (both of ICD) with a break for an excellent lunch and networking in between. The focus of these sessions was varied but sampled the aspects that the Customer Experience masterclasses will go into in more detail, namely:

1. How can we get frontline staff engaged in improving the quality of service to customers which is fun, memorable but encourages an attitude of continuous improvement? What role do managers play in that?

2. We all know good experiences when we have them but what is it that lies behind the experience that makes it work well, time after time?

3. Expecting staff to step up to the mark at every interaction with customers often comes down to their attitudes and motivation - how do we maintain a positive culture and ensure that this rubs off on how they treat customers?

4. When the customer experience is poor, we can be quick to point at staff when in fact there are a myriad of reasons - systems, information, structures and our culture that are the root cause of problems. Training can help but it isn't always enough - what's the symptom and what's the cure?

From our evaluations we got a really positive response and this confirms our research and client feedback that there is much work to be done in this area. We will be following up with those who are ready to move to the next step but if you would like to attend a masterclass, discuss a training need or pursue any of the issues and challenges for your organisation please contact Rachael at Rachael@icd-partnership.co.uk in the first instance.