With councils facing cuts of up to 9%, it is as important as ever to maximise budgets and with training being an area that is often hit hard, the shape of training projects and the objectives driving them are changing to adapt. Recently Righttrack worked closely with a north-easterly council on a customer service training project that was driven by two clear objectives: to achieve Customer Service Excellence across all services; to minimise the need for external support by utilising internal resources to communicate and sustain new customer service standards.
Working closely with the organisation, a customer service training programme was designed and documented as a comprehensive, branded manual complete with handouts, slides, and training notes. Instead of handsomely investing in having an external provider train the hundreds of staff across the entire organisation, the council looked to nurture the capability of internal training talent instead. After a string of sessions providing professional input, support and feedback, by the end of the project the council were equipped with a confident and eager training team capable of rolling the bespoke customer service training programme out across the organisation.
This highly successful project has confirmed that staff development doesn’t have to be struck off the agenda completely even if the budget isn’t as healthy as perhaps it might once have been. By exploring options creatively, exciting and effective solutions can be found to make the most of any training budget.
By Claudia Cooney | Righttrack’s Sales & Key Account Executive