Driving a Customer Experience Culture

“The workshops were tailored to our business, hit the nail on the head in terms of the brief and delivered some great outcomes that helped shape some huge improvements in our service delivery, commitment to our customers and some positive change in how my leaders lead their teams.” 

Testimonial from our Local Government – Leisure and Aquatics client regarding the recent training program designed and delivered by Marana.

Our Client

Our client provides Leisure and Aquatics facilities across multiple locations in their local government area.  Visitors of all ages are welcomed and programs and services are offered including learn to swim, aquatic facilities, fitness classes, gym services and a golf course.

The Challenge

The Executive Team have a comprehensive direction and strategic plan for the Leisure and Aquatics facilities and required practical skills to support People Leaders and staff to lead and drive change. Part of the strategic direction is to have a Customer Experience Culture at the core of everything Leisure and Aquatics do.

It was identified that some staff may require assistance with adjusting to and embracing culture change including new ways of working. People Leaders needed the skills and knowledge to lead and drive change and staff would require the skills and understanding to implement this into both internal and external customer interactions.

Some of the key challenges were:

• Mystery Shopper survey results revealed that customers wanted staff to be able to assist with their enquiries at the first instance.  Staff were accustomed to helping only with enquiries for their section, and weren’t working as a whole team across the Aquatics and Leisure Team.
• Staff understanding the importance of taking ownership for consistent service delivery and how their interactions reflect the Council as a whole.  It is important to promote that Leisure and Aquatics are not separate to Council, they are Council.
• People Leaders required the practical skills and knowledge to create, develop and maintain a Customer Experience Culture. This includes being able to facilitate difficult conversations with staff when actions or behaviour were not in line with agreed expectations.
• Staff required understanding of how Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) fit in with the bigger picture and People Leaders required skills to measure the quality of customer experience / service and how to effectively use measures to support a positive customer experience culture.
• The Customer Experience Charter was identified as outdated and required revising to underpin the Customer Experience Culture change.

The Solution

For People Leaders this consisted of a two-day Leading a Customer Experience Culture program that was designed to support participants to lead, champion, develop and maintain a customer experience culture.

During the program People Leaders developed skills in identifying customer expectations and linking these to the Customer Service Charter, working with and measuring KPIs, understanding change management, skills to praise and recognise staff as well as how to provide redirection when standards are not being met.  It also included the importance of being detailed and specific when providing feedback related to service delivery.

For staff, this consisted of 3 x half-day Living a Customer Experience Culture workshops in a series that were delivered two weeks apart to allow for the application of skills and reflection in the workplace. 

The staff sessions were designed to equip staff to deliver consistently high levels of customer service and to effectively manage difficult customer situations. Participants were provided with the time and space within the workshops to practice applying methods to practical experiences they would likely encounter in their role. They were also provided with an understanding of change and strategies to deal with and drive change.

The Result

All participant outputs were captured and provided to our client to inform the new Customer Experience Charter. Staff felt valued that their input would be included in the development of a new charter. The engagement of participants in the workshop within the Leisure and Aquatics Team fostered a “One Team” approach and provided a valuable collaborative learning opportunity.

Our client has provided the following testimonial regarding the assignment:

Sarah, Mary and the team from Marana are incredible at what they do. I have never worked with consultants when it comes to training and development, that have put so much time and effort into understanding our business to tailor training and workshops to get the best possible outcomes. Sarah delivered some engaging, interactive and specialised workshops for my leadership team and frontline staff in the areas of customer experience and change management, and the team members that participated are still talking about and referring to what they learnt in the session’s months down the track. 

The workshops were tailored to our business, hit the nail on the head in terms of the brief and delivered some great outcomes that helped shape some huge improvements in our service delivery, commitment to our customers and some positive change in how my leaders lead their teams. 

The workshops were tailored to our business, hit the nail on the head in terms of the brief and delivered some great outcomes that helped shape some huge improvements in our service delivery, commitment to our customers and some positive change in how my leaders lead their teams. 

Manager Leisure and Aquatics

Tags: change, communication, customer service, dealing with difficult situations, emotional intelligence, excellence in service, Government, leadership, Public Sector Service, team, Working in Public Service

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