World Class Customer Service for 2012 and Beyond - Research Report
Date: 22 December 2008
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World Class Customer Service for 2012 and beyond (full report)
- World Class Customer Service for 2012 and beyond (summary report)
Customer Service
Good customer service will be crucial to ensuring that people have a positive experience of the Games. The implications are far reaching in terms of the effect that perceptions of London could have on inward investment and future tourism, especially those of journalists and opinion formers.
Background
The LDA and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) jointly funded People 1st as part of a consortia of Sector Skills Councils to research customer service training provision across sectors which impact on the visitor experience, and to identify or seek to develop world class provision. The consortia included:
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SkillsActive (active leisure and learning)
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Creative and Cultural Skills (including cultural heritage and the arts)
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GoSkills (passenger transport)
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Skillsmart (retail)
As customer expectations continually rise, meeting and exceeding these expectations is becoming increasingly important to businesses, in order to achieve a competitive advantage. The 2012 Games provide a timely opportunity for businesses, and government, to invest in the customer service skills of the current and future workforce.
Recent research by Sector Skills Councils has highlighted ‘customer service’ as a key area in which employers are training their staff, and in many sectors is identified as a skills gap within the current workforce. There are currently dozens of customer service courses and qualifications, which provide no coherent benchmark for service industries or their customers.
Research aims
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Identify all existing customer service training provision
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Evaluate the effectiveness of different programmes
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Identify best practice (in terms of in-house provision and international programmes)
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Make recommendations regarding the content, method of delivery, time of delivery, and length of customer service provision
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Make recommendations as to whether:
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The public sector should direct funding to existing programmes
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Existing programmes need updating/improving
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New programmes need to be developed
Key recommendations
1. Establishing a high-profile customer service campaign
2. Providing branding to recognise excellence in customer service provision
3. Specific interventions to improve the customer experience for 2012:
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Developing a destination-based approach to raising standards
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Developing collateral specifically for those working at ‘Games-time’
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Accrediting a specific ‘Games-time’ training unit for a skills Legacy
4. Developing a best practice framework against which training, qualifications and trainers are assessed
5. Improving and rationalising existing provision, where appropriate
6. Taking a consistent approach to the development of new qualifications and modules
7. Improving training delivery through CPD for trainers
8. Working with employers to stimulate the demand for qualifications
9. Embedding the customer service qualification in pre-employment programmes
