Economic pressure combined with increased competition resulted in a client approaching us for a transformative experience. A family-friendly restaurant chain, they had limited resources and budget to introduce and upskill their staff on a new strategy for customer service. Further to this, they had hundreds of locations up and down the country with staff on shift patterns, making it challenging to host traditional training. They needed a radical new approach.
The client identified three main objectives for their transformation strategy:
- To improve the restaurant environment
- To improve the restaurant menu
- To deliver guest attentive customer service
Scripting The Perfect Learning
Our team alchemised a plan to use video to deliver training to staff in the style of a Netflix series. In essence, a sequence of short, streamable videos was made available across the country, one episode at a time.
The streaming service provided a portable, engaging learning experience with a real point of difference. The series featured six presenters, who were all servers and managers themselves. Their internal knowledge of the real-world challenges that staff faced daily was invaluable.
The presenters were trained by Alchemist through an Academy in partnership with the client. The Academy programme honed their talent and allow them to express the training messages with personal style and relevance. They were taught a series of key elements such as presenting skills, acting, compelling storytelling and how to create effective content.
In total, 27 short programmes were delivered covering a range of aspects. These included aspects of managing and delivering customer service. They were made available one episode at a time over the course of 12 months. This put the power in the learner’s hands, giving them freedom and flexibility to learn when and where was convenient to them.
The Audience Reaction
The programme maximised the client’s budget while delivering valuable learning. By finding innovative ways to deliver engaging modules, it overcame the practical limitations that can often occur with conventional training.
In terms of client satisfaction, in this instance they experienced an increase in sales and guest visits. This was evidenced by 20% sales growth in the sites that adopted the learning, compared to the previous year. Not only was there financial benefit, but the programme helped to cement a grounded culture that felt authentic to team members. It helped to eradicate the traditional top-down feel of old-school training videos with a new, blended approach.
This programme in customer service was a resounding success, winning the CIPD People Management Award for Best Use of Technology in 2015.
Level Up Your Customer Service With Alchemist
If you feel inspired to create an innovative learning programme that inspires your people with engaging and accessible training, get in touch with Alchemist today.