Steps

East Thames Group ‘Sparkle'

Steps worked with East Thames Group on the first phase of a culture change programme to improve customer service. Steps worked in partnership with the Group to support the embedding of their new customer service focussed acronym of ‘SPARKLE'.  Steps designed and delivered training sessions to 428 staff across all levels and departments at the East Thames Group. The purpose of the sessions was to engage all staff in thinking about what SPARKLE means in practice.

Aims & Objectives

The objectives of the session were to introduce staff to the SPARKLE behaviours, and to allow delegates to consider and determine what they are going to do differently in order to fully live the SPARKLE behaviours.

In order to make the training as relevant as possible to their experience in social housing we undertook detailed research, speaking to a number of key stakeholders at all levels across the organisation. In this way we were able to develop scenarios which were credible and had strong resonance for the delegates. The scenarios also recognised the reality that some business activities are difficult to SPARKLE in, eg. telling a customer they owe rent.

Key Learning Outcomes

• Engagement with, and a greater understanding of, the SPARKLE behaviours.
• That it's ok to challenge other people about their behaviours
• How to SPARKLE when providing services where people don't have a choice
• The need to take personal responsibility for getting things done
• Transferable learning, not only for external customer service but also internal customer service facilitating 
  better interaction between departments.

Evaluation & Results

The SPARKLE programme recently won two major National Training Awards: the UK National Training Award (Large Employer) and the UK Regional Training Award (Large Employer).

'The training itself has been well received and has translated well into action....it`s had a hugely positive impact on how we work with customers and each other' said Victor da Cunha, Director of Resident Services at East Thames.

And the real proof of success rests with East Thames' customers.  Resident satisfaction is up 10% in the past 18 months while the number of compliments staff get from customers has doubled.

Steps received 90% good/excellent feedback from delegates for the overall quality of the course and for the calibre of our facilitation skills.  After each delivery we provided the client with key learning points that had arisen during the session which helped towards deciding on future provision and succession planning.

The experience has given us a great insight into training focused on customer care for a large number of staff at different levels within the organisation. It also provided us with excellent experience of working in partnership with a client to embed and reinforce existing organisational vision and values.