Gatwick Express has developed a training scheme to assist frontline customer service employees to identify different types of customer. This is in order to deliver customer service to meet individual passenger needs.
Leading Lights is about achieving targeted, long-term change in day-to-day behaviour and performance. ”It is not about imparting knowledge and skills that never make it back to the workplace,” the rail operator said.
A specific training room has been transformed at Gatwick Express”s Learning and Development Centre to reconstruct real life settings where participants can act out scenarios. The programme employs actors to simulate authentic and challenging work situations and environments. Participants are immersed in reality while they learn.
Gareth Jones, Head of Customer Services at Gatwick Express commented, ”as the UK”s most successful rail customer service company with two years at the top of the National Passenger Survey for UK train organisations, Gatwick Express has used successful customer service to enhance all aspects of its operation. Using guiding principles of being positively helpful, friendly and polite, we are building on our success and looking to provide an even better service for our passengers. We have developed a training programme which proactively engages our workforce by using drama and theatrical elements to spark interest and maintain attention in our trainees.”
Jill Dean, Client Services Director at training company Power Train, adds,” For too long, customer service training has been confined to sterile classroom environments, littered with artificial exercises and supported by role-play which can be amateur and unpredictable. Working in life-size sets adds a ”total reality” atmosphere, and with the aid of our actor consultants, we inject a greater degree of realism into our training programmes”.