Dynamic Solutions in action...
Travel

Britain’s busiest commuter railway
The Challenge
Britain’s busiest commuter railway company servicing 142 million passengers a year.

A number of barriers were identified, including a lack of a recognised customer service strategy, cynicism amongst employees towards the customer and alike, and staff deployment issues.

The Solution
Centre Stage, South West Trains’ unique training facility for its 5,500 employees, is run by Dynamic Solutions.  The facility enables employees, trainers and facilitators to act out a series of role playing scenarios in such a way that employees do not feel personally threatened in their jobs.

The training course set up, called “Best Way”, accommodates groups of 15 and lasts two days. Scenes are played out in which customer service is alternatively good, great and bad and the trainers then skilfully translate these same principles into life on the railways. Employees thus learn about customer care but in a way which is personally non-threatening.

Documentary clips, sound bites and “vox pop” surveys are used to remind attendees of the industry’s origins and negative public preconceptions.

Delegates are given the opportunity to develop their own skills in a safe environment, to recognise the contributions made by colleagues from different grades, while the managers’ presence breaks down the “us and them” barriers, equipping them with a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

Each employee attends the course within 12-15 months of starting work. The investment in the bespoke – and unique – training has undoubtedly paid off. Follow-up post training is crucial to the success of the overall programme.

Holiday Reps take action
Creating a presentation structure to enhance sales

A holiday company needed to train its representatives to approach their “Welcome Meeting” with a more positive, proactive attitude. Apart from the opportunity to disseminate information, the “Welcome” is crucial to establishing an early positive atmosphere among guests and to cross-selling services such as excursions in order to meet sales targets.  Historically, reps were not given a standard script, as the company placed value in the style and personality brought to the occasion by each rep.

Most holiday reps are young people who see the job as an adventure; a chance to work and have fun while doing so. For some it is their first time away from home and the first time they have had to take responsibility for people outside their age group. Yet enthusiasm, when coupled with inexperience, carries attendant business risks.

The course Dynamic Solutions developed to enhance rep performance was based on presentation skills and dealt with confidence building and structuring the welcome meeting. Training in sales technique was also blended into the course in order to maximise the selling opportunity. The reps were able to understand that once they had a structure to the meeting they had a structure to the meeting they had freedom to make the meeting their own.

All aboard the Eurostar express
The Challenge
Eurostar has 2,000 staff, many of whom will be relocating to the new Headquarters at St. Pancreas station, London in readiness for the next phase of growth.  Cross-border working is reflected in the diverse nature of the teams employed, ranging from English, Irish, Scottish, Turkish, French and Dutch.  The tendency for nationalities to group together was affecting performance, resulting in the Onboard Service Managers (OBSMs) being the lowest performing team in the business.

The Solution
Under a scheme known as Star Management, the six UK OBSMs attended a three-day course aimed at bringing them closer to train managers in order to help them deliver even better service. OBSMs also spent a day with each train manager in their team, looking at their performance, setting targets and discussing training needs. 

The Outcome
As a result the team has been transformed into one of the top performing teams in Eurostar.

The training and the launch of a Performance Portfolio, enabled the OBSMs to view their train managers in a different light and understand their motivation in a focused way.

Public Operator company No.1
A team from Dynamic Solutions is working with First ScotRail, helping 600 managers with team dynamics, customer service and motivation to help achieve the stiff targets for business growth and, at the same time, achieve zero customer complaints alongside the desire to gain an enhanced reputation for excellent customer service delivery. Of course, a bespoke service may not be ideal for everyone, it may be deemed too expensive or simply thought of as “not for me”. However, alternatively, a business needs to ask itself, “can you afford not to?”. The customer who can elect to go elsewhere or defer spend, may be lost forever and may also heavily influence a large number of colleagues, family and friends not to purchase from the organisation either.

 If you would like to know more about how Dynamic Solutions can help your company email: info@dsleurope.co.uk