Actor-led training helps Origin Housing increase customer satisfaction

Citation

Shepherd, L. (2013), "Actor-led training helps Origin Housing increase customer satisfaction", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2013.37212caa.007

Actor-led training helps Origin Housing increase customer satisfaction

Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 12, Issue 3

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR

Louise Shepherd, Jon Harris and Alex BushLouise Shepherd is based at Louise Shepherd Management Consultancy and Training Services. Jon Harris is based at The Jon Harris Partnership. Alex Bush is based at Origin Housing.

Delivering an exceptional service to tenants is very important in the housing sector. However, this can be tough as difficult situations arise, so it is vital that staff are fully trained to handle a variety of challenges.

To improve the service Origin Housing offered its tenants, Louise Shepherd Management Consultancy and Training Services was appointed to roll out training, calling on the skills of former West End theatre producer Jon Harris to bring the courses to life.

This case study examines a specially-designed customer service training program based around the core use of “forum theatre” techniques, undertaken by Origin Housing and Louise Shepherd Associates between 2010 and 2012.

Introducing the players

Origin Housing provides essential affordable housing and care and support services to 5,500 homes in North London and Hertfordshire. With approximately 235 staff, it operates with an express commitment to core values, including a focus on customers, a drive for open and trusting relationships and a desire to add value to communities.

Louise Shepherd Management Consultancy and Training Services is a training provider, owned and managed by Louise Shepherd who started the business after a 14 year career in learning and development in the housing sector. She offers a variety of training and coaching programs and specializes in public and third-sector organizations. Her programs concentrate on improving customer service, management and personal development.

The program described in this study was devised and delivered in collaboration with The Jon Harris Partnership, a training and business psychology consultancy managed by Jon Harris.

Training needs and issues to be addressed

Origin Housing, as common with many similar providers, has sought to give its residents a high level of customer service and has continually developed its methods to do so. Like many organizations, Origin Housing had run customer service training in the past, but found it limited in terms of shifting staff behavior. Therefore, it wanted a program that would address the needs of the staff in an exciting and engaging way, enabling them to implement what they had learned on the program into their day-to-day roles.

In response to this, Louise Shepherd and Jon Harris devised an individual program using a technique called “forum theatre,” a type of dramatic style characterized by the following two key differences from ordinary theatrical performances:

1. 1.

   First, the action periodically stops so that the audience can discuss it, led by a facilitator.

2. 2.

   Secondly, the facilitator encourages the audience to speak to the characters in the play during these breaks, allowing them to attempt to influence the characters’ behavior and change the outcome of the drama.

When trainees watch a play in which characters struggle with the dilemmas of the trainees’ actual everyday working life, they are able to think about, reflect and comment on those dilemmas in a very free and entirely unthreatening way. They relate closely to the experience of the drama, but without any of the feelings of “exposure” and nervousness that participating in a role-play can often bring.

Solution selection and design

The program for Origin Housing included the following three areas:

1. 1.

   A customer service “foundation” course. This would be delivered to every staff member across the organization, built around a forum theatre play presented by three actors, telling the story of a customer whose home requires several repairs which are mismanaged by her housing association.

2. 2.

   A course examining scenarios involving customers who exhibit challenging behavior, targeted at the staff most likely to meet such customers in the course of their work.

3. 3.

   A course designed for the managers of customer-facing staff, to help managers address customer service issues in their teams.

A core principle in the design of scenarios for forum theatre and role-play was that staff should meet and be required to comment on realistic and challenging situations closely relevant to their own daily work. Louise Shepherd also developed a customer friendly letter writing course and a complaints management event.

Implementation of the program

The course took place between November 2010 and the autumn of 2012 with approximately 200 staff members attending the Foundation course, 100 the challenging customers course and 50 the managers’ course.

On the Foundation course, trainees watched the play during the morning, after a short introduction about customer service principles and challenges they face in their own jobs. In the play trainees were introduced to Helen, a somewhat overtired and harassed housing officer, who deals poorly with Yasmin, a young Asian mother with a host of difficulties in her home. During the play, Helen seeks the advice and support of Carl, a rather ineffective maintenance surveyor. The play examines Helen and Carl’s failure to give Yasmin the service she was entitled to expect, and also the organizational failings which manifest in their poor working relationship.

Jon Harris (our facilitator) stopped the action regularly, allowing staff to discuss and respond to what they had seen and to offer suggestions to Helen and Carl about how to do their jobs better. This was followed by participation and discussions about the skills and attitudes required by staff to deliver a high standard of customer service. The other two courses in the program also begin with realistic cases presented as a piece of forum theatre, progressing to role-plays in which trainees are asked to role-play with one of the visiting actors.

A boost to customers and staff

The training program was extremely successful. Origin Housing surveyed 995 tenants during June/July 2012 and measured a 12 percent increase in the overall satisfaction of its general needs tenants. David Dent, head of Business Improvement at Origin Housing, commented on the survey: “We’ve worked hard to improve our customer satisfaction levels, and the training is one of a number of initiatives to achieve this.” Delegate feedback was very positive, with employees saying it was the best training they’ve been to as they felt very engaged.

The factors behind the success

There are two main factors that make this form of role-play training successful. One of these is that trainees find role-play easier when they are doing it opposite a properly trained and experienced actor, as opposed to a colleague. If they role-play with a colleague the exercise will often break down with laughter or embarrassment, but this rarely, if ever, happens when trainees are placed opposite an actor who they do not know personally. They tend to find the experience much closer to the actual experience of dealing with a customer.

Secondly, it is easier for trainees to role-play without embarrassment if they have first been in the audience for a piece of forum theatre. This is because their first encounters with the material and their first publicly-spoken words of the day are not conducted in an atmosphere of exposure when they first speak. These factors combine to make this kind of program more impactful and far-reaching than a standard role playing program.

The biggest challenge faced with customer service training is that participants do not want to attend as they expect to be patronized, bored and believe they have heard it all before. However, this training overcame that as it was very different, engaging and true to their experiences – staff were actually asking when they could attend.

About the authors

Louise Shepherd’s career has spanned more than 20 years, including working in local government and at Circle 33 as assistant director of corporate services. For the last 13 years she has worked as an independent training consultant working mainly for RSL’s delivering customer service and management development programs for clients including Circle Anglia, Broomleigh Housing Association, NSPCC, VSO and Imperial College. Louise Shepherd is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: louise@louiseshepherd.co.uk

Jon Harris has produced theatre shows in the West End and on tour all over the world. An expert in business training using actors for role-play, forum theatre and playback theatre, he teaches the UK’s only specialized professional course for actors training in these areas.

Alex Bush is a HR representative at Origin Housing. He is a qualified employment lawyer with nine years’ experience of working in private practice and seven years’ senior level HR experience. As a qualified coach and an expert in organizational development within the public and housing sectors, she holds substantial employee relations and employment tribunal experience.