Author: David Pollitt Stena’s Stranraer to Belfast ferry line
The “wow!” factor that many of the passengers on Stena’s Stranraer to Belfast ferry line experience doesn’t come simply from travelling on the world’s largest ferry – the Stena Voyager, which can carry up to 1,500 passengers and travel at speeds of 40 knots – but also from the hands-on customer-service training provided for 127 front-line ship and shore staff.
The line, also plied by a more conventional ferry, the Stena Caledonia, which can carry up to 1,000 passengers and travels at around 20 knots, employs around 500 people, split into operations ranging from sales and marketing, ship staff (masters, engineers, onboard services) and port staff (operations and customer services).
The so-called “experiential” training targeted employees from catering assistants (food, retail, bars) travel centre and operation managers through to senior managers.
Stena training officer Jim Gaffney explained: “We were looking for training and coaching techniques that could mimic specific real-life situations so that the delegates understood how to represent the company in what can sometimes be difficult situations.
“We are constantly striving to improve our customer care and continually monitor our service for compliments versus complaints with the assistance of our dedicated customer-care department for this route. In previous years we had received four complaints to every compliment. Now that the training is complete, we have reversed this to four compliments to every complaint.
“An important goal was to deliver a ‘wow!’ factor for all our guests. To help to achieve this we required our staff to be aware of, and able to deal with, customer emotions.
The selection of experiential training
Experiential training – a relatively new technique that brings together an individual’s self-discovery with the needs of the organization to develop new skills in its staff that they can quickly apply to support the desired ethos and culture – was the method selected.
Debra Stevens, director of Sold Out Trainers, which was selected to deliver the training, commented: “Unlike chalk-and-talk training, delegates in experiential training do not sit in front of any presentations. And unlike traditional role-play, confrontation between colleagues is avoided. Delegates have the opportunity to develop awareness at their own pace, working in familiar scenarios and situations.
“The key to achieving this is through the use of specially trained actors. We are not talking here about the John Cleese-type of training videos of the 1980s that, although often entertaining, are in the main just another derivation of chalk-and-talk. Experiential training is about immersing the delegates in scenarios where they start and discover for themselves what works and what doesn’t work.”
Actors are briefed with detailed scenarios based on the company and its culture and then “play out” roles in theatre workshops. Delegates “direct” the actors as to how to play those roles and so can experiment what the outcome will be using different approaches and personalities.
“There is no right and wrong, as in real life it is often unexpected compromises that deliver the desired result,” said Debra Stevens.
How the training was delivered
The training for Stena consisted of a one-day course for each group of 12-16 employees, held over a week. An introduction by Stephen Bryden, the head of onboard services, focused on the six main points of contact and the importance of customer care. It dealt in particular with why developing the customer experience is so important to the company’s future, “moment mapping”, bringing about change, the mystery-shopper programme, rewards and recognition, getting in touch with customer emotions, and key objectives. This was followed by Sold Out’s forum theatre on how to deal with customers’ emotions, and how to create the “wow!” factor by exceeding customer expectations.
“Delegates had the chance to ‘direct’ scenes, ‘pausing’ and ‘rewinding’ the live action and dictating to the actors how they should respond,” Jim Gaffney explained. “Afterwards, delegates could ask the actors how they felt during a
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Contributor's Note
Founded in 1996, Sold Out Trainers specialises in creating tailored training programmes that fit the prevailing cultures and specific requirements of corporate and international companies. The programmes that Sold Out Trainers create are experiential in nature and usually delivered in a workshop format. Its team of professional facilitators and specially trained actors create powerfully unique and relevant training situations that open people’s minds to new and valuable ways of thinking. This training not only changes the way in which delegates think, but the way they behave. The company operates globally from its offices in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom and has a customer base of world-leading companies.
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