Mary Gober International

Establishing a Customer Service Ethos

Introduction

Freebridge Community Housing is the largest provider of affordable housing in West Norfolk.  With around 7,000 properties, Freebridge is responsible for managing relationships with a large number of customers located across the borough.  At the heart of Freebridge is a commitment to ‘customer focus’ which is also one of the organisation’s five values.

To ensure that this commitment is translated into tangible results, Freebridge decided to establish a dedicated contact centre which would provide a one-stop shop for all customer enquiries.  By dialling just one number, customers can get answers to questions on topics such as repairs, rent payments and the Decent Homes Programme, amongst many other subjects.  All calls are answered in person, with no automated responses.

In advance of this and as part of Freebridge’s approach to developing an organisation-wide customer service ethos, Freebridge engaged Mary Gober International to deliver a two-day training course for every single member of staff. Tony Hall, Chief Executive of Freebridge Community Housing explained:

“We wanted to equip our staff with the skills and techniques to deliver excellent customer service in all of their dealings with our tenants, partners, stakeholders and staff.  The ‘Gober Method’™ is internationally renowned for its effectiveness and success and so it was an obvious choice for us as we wanted to ensure our staff were receiving the very best training available.”

Freebridge ran a number of two-day courses for their 200 members of staff at their offices in King’s Lynn.  The courses were attended by people working across all areas of the business, including property services, finance, housing management and assets.  The response to the training was excellent.  Tony explained:

“Many of the staff who attended the training fed back that it was the best course they had ever attended.  The interactive way in which it was delivered and the accessible style of the teaching meant that our staff really took it on board.  Our staff were fully engaged in the course and as such, were able to quickly understand, and buy into, the importance of customer service excellence to Freebridge.”

Taking it forward

Freebridge was keen to maintain the momentum towards embedding the ‘Gober Method’ into the organisation and following the training, held a staff conference which focused solely on customer service.  The day, which again was attended by all staff, saw presentations from the Executive Team which reiterated the importance of  customer focus before groups worked on customer experience scenarios.  The idea was to identify the most effective ways to respond, through the use of the ‘Gober Method’ principles, to potential scenarios that staff might face.  Jo Whaley, Freebridge’s Assistant Director of HR said:

“The purpose of the staff conference was to help staff to think how they might use the Gober tools and techniques they had learnt in real situations.  The event sparked lively debate and the staff were able to see how their responses to situations impacted on how a customer would feel about the organisation.”

Keen to engender a supportive environment which would enable staff to develop and improve their use of the ‘Gober Method’ in their every day dealings, members of Freebridge’s Management Group took part in the two-day Train-the-Coach course. The purpose of this course was to enable senior members of staff to learn more deeply the skills and techniques which would enable them to support members of their teams to effectively deliver the ‘Gober Method’.  As Jo Whaley said:

“We wanted to establish a group of people in the organisation who would act as champions for the ‘Gober Method’ internally.  Through providing key members of staff with this training, we have established a resource for staff to go to for advice and guidance on delivering customer excellence.”

Embedding customer excellence

The Executive Team underlined their commitment to embedding customer focus and the ‘Gober Method’ even further by participating in a bespoke course which would allow them to deliver the principles of the ‘Gober Method’ to all new inductees.  The course was extremely fast-moving and interactive and saw the Chief Executive and the two Executive Directors learning how to deliver the principles in an accessible and interesting way.  Sean Kent, Executive Director of Resources said:

“Through this training, the Executive Team is now able to share the key principles of the ‘Gober Method’ with every inductee.  What this means is that every new member of staff will be exposed to the ‘Gober Method’ very early on in their career with Freebridge and will understand that customer excellence is at the heart of the organisation.”

With all staff now trained in the ‘Gober Method’, Freebridge is ensuring that it remains current in the organisation through a variety of methods. Members of staff will be coached regularly on their use of the ‘Gober Method’ through their one-to-one sessions with line managers.  This will enable managers to identify any areas for improvement, or examples of best practice.  A ‘Gober Method’ resource centre has been established on the intranet where staff can find PDFs of the posters, as well as case studies and any news updates on Freebridge’s approach to customer service. In addition, the staff Customer Service Excellence Awards which are run monthly are now awarded on the basis of how effectively staff have been following the ‘Gober Method’ principles – with some impressive results.  Tony Hall explained:

“The entries for the Customer Service Awards are evidence that our staff have taken the Gober principles on board and are fully committed to customer excellence.  For example,  one of the winners of the Customer Service Excellence monthly award was a member of our team in ICT who had used the Gober principles to turn a customer complaint into a compliment.  Through using the techniques he had learnt, he had provided an effective solution to the customer’s complaint.  It is this kind of result we are seeing every day in Freebridge thanks to our adoption of the ‘Gober Method’.”