THE CHALLENGE:
Brown Thomas were receiving complaints regarding customer service. People expect more from Brown Thomas than most department stores, as it is the premiere department store of Ireland. When people walk through the door, there is an expectation that service is premium. Customer complaints, in person, by phone, and in writing, did not bode well for business.
THE SOLUTION:
We developed a programme on the topic of Service Recovery, on how to improve relationships with displeased customers.We gathered examples of real complaints that had been made by customer either in writing or verbally to Brown Thomas. We created scripts and interactive processes based on these complaints. We ran the experiential training sessions with groups of management nationwide. In the live trainings, as well as using the real examples of scenarios and bringing these to life to enable awareness and practice, we also ran exercises to build confidence and develop rapport between staff and customers. All attendees were coached on how to improve relationships with displeased customers.
THE RESULTS:
The managers nationwide didn’t want us to change anything about the training before we brought it to all staff. They believed it was perfect. We were also regularly complemented by the managers on how well we worked together as a team and how easy we made it feel for them to engage with the sessions.
FEEDBACK:
Feedback from various managerial staff at Brown Thomas (Dublin, Cork, Limerick) included the following:
“This training should be mandatory for all staff members. It was excellent and was well focused all the way through.”
“A fantastic and powerful training method. Allows sales people to interact and see first hand how they can improve themselves. I didn’t even feel like I was at a training. It was a fast and effective way to learn.”
“The training method and the combination of the lead trainer and actors were excellent and very smooth. Actors carrying out roleplays and then showing what a difference small changes can make to a situation was very, very useful.”
“The team were easy to work with. It was very enjoyable.”
“Excellent, interesting, engaging and created awareness for all involved.”
“We were able to challenge eachother and push the service levels to the limit.”
“A refreshing method bringing scenarios to life, something we could all relate to, and kept all of our attention throughout.”