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Taylor Woodrow

Customer Service Excellence and Conflict Management at Taylor Woodrow

“CragRats interpreted the brief well. They worked with us to deliver a memorable and effective training day, which encouraged all those who attended to enjoy, participate and take useful learning points from the day.”

Lisa Griffiths, Customer Training Manager, Taylor Woodrow

/challenge

Taylor Woodrow is one of the foremost property developers in the UK. CragRats is working with Taylor Woodrow to promote a culture of customer service excellence, and to motivate and inspire sales and marketing staff.

The need was identified for all customer service staff to receive training to enable them to operate on a consistently customer-focussed level, with each region implementing ‘The Customer Journey’ successfully.

Customer service staff needed to receive training which left them feeling empowered that they could deal with anger and aggression, and also be able to reassure the customer that their complaint was understood and would be resolved. In addition, they wished to recognise the commitment of those delivering excellent customer service whilst empowering staff to handle complaints, saving management time and finding solutions more quickly.

Due to the success of the training events, CragRats was asked to be involved in Taylor Woodrow’s sales and marketing conference. The challenge was to motivate, encourage and inspire 100 members of staff from across the organisation to achieve targets. This was whilst facing a potential slowdown in the housing market, at what is traditionally the busiest time of year.

/approach

The Customer Service Big Day Out events started in Spring 2004 and have since been rolled out to over 200 staff from 11 regions throughout the UK. To be successful, the Customer Service training had to be totally relevant and easily applicable in the workplace. The learning design focussed on particular strategies for successful communication. This included the six core human values, and how to identify which are most important to the customer. These values were evaluated in terms of ‘The Customer Journey’, so that they could be applied specifically to the role of the customer service staff in communication with their customers.

The sales and marketing conference began with an entertaining post-dinner performance predisposing the delegates to the issues which would be explored. The following day four workshops were delivered simultaneously, with delegates moving from one to another as the day progressed, and included experiential exercises such as Forum Theatre and Origami Wars. The day started and ended with further CragRats’ performances to illustrate the learning and emphasise the key messages.

/results

• Presenting training in an innovative format helped to break down barriers to training, making those who attended more receptive to new ideas and concepts 
•  Since the training was held there have been numerous requests to hold something similar for a wider audience and Taylor Woodrow’s Customer Satisfaction Index has increased

Sample comment from post-event evaluations: “[Nick] visited a very angry customer the next day, who (after three other people had tried and failed) applied the 6 human needs and left having pacified the customer and having given them some certainty that things would be done. Attending the course helped Nick realise that he already recognised the human needs (subconsciously), and can develop this further to deal with the extreme cases.”

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