A County Council was implementing training and workshops to support a key Strategic Objective to improve all aspects of customer service within the organisation. Significant amounts of training had already been delivered to the Council’s new and existing staff, however, there was a requirement to revisit this for those who hadn't attended courses in the past.

It was also felt that a repeat of the current course, even in a revised style, would not have had any significant impact particularly because some were interpreting this as they were ‘not doing their jobs correctly’.

Staff were also having difficulty with the ‘customer’ concept due to their perception that ‘customers’ weren't using the Councils services by choice but of necessity.

The solution was a custom designed redhotactive development programme called Salt Cay. This was purposely designed to bring to the surface the following:

Salt Cay involves a scenario where a group of holiday makers have flown to the Caribbean island of Salt Cay, only to learn they have no accommodation.

The scenario detail is amazing, designed to mirror real life and the expectations of a broad range of different customers. Between the disappointed holiday makers and the travel agent representatives, the participants have to work out how they will maintain customer satisfaction and deliver what was promised.

This excellent learning activity came complete with facilitators in holiday shirts and a range of props and focused attention on the following: