NEXT time a client comes into your agency with a complaint, think of the ‘Glad, Sure, Sorry’ slogan that is one of many customer service tips winging its way to UK shores this month through an exclusive deal between US training guru Mary Gober and Chameleon.
The training subsidiary of British Airways has become the first company in the world to be selected to deliver the Gober method of customer service training.
Gober is coming to the UK after spending the last two years in Australia where she has been passing on her customer service training skills to air-traffic controllers ahead of the Olympics in June.
As well as hosting a one-day seminar in London on Wednesday, to explain her ‘toolkit’ approach to customer-service excellence, she will spend three months training six Chameleon consultants, who will be accredited in the Gober method of service training.
Chameleon marketing manager Charlotte Fraser said the deal is the icing on the cake for the company.
“Mary Gober is a charismatic person who captures the imagination of all levels of staff but her real strength is with those in the frontline,” she said.
Gober trains staff to take control of a problem and then gives them a 12-point ‘toolkit’ on how to talk to a customer to get the best out of the relationship.
The ‘Glad, Sure, Sorry’ scenario comes in here: you are glad the customer brought the complaint to you, sure you can help and sorry it happened. She then helps companies to filter the training throughout the organisation.
The deal with Mary Gober is part of an overhaul of Chameleon’s training portfolio. It also includes the relaunch of off the shelf courses under the new ‘Pathway’ name and a CD-ROM one-stop training package.
“Technology is supposed to make our lives easier but it can create its own problems, such as dealing with e-mails and remote teams which may be spread all over the country,” said Fraser.
“Pathway has been redesigned to address modern management issues, such as coping with stress, dealing with numerous e-mails and remote workforces.”
There are six modules, or Pathways, in the series, covering commercial success, service excellence, success with suppliers, life and work today, management effectiveness and communication.
Each Pathway has a series of courses. Management effectiveness, for instance, has nine courses ranging from steps in management to managing people and performance, and managing virtual and remote teams. Virtual teams can include homeworkers or teams using e-mail.
Courses last one or two days and will be held every month in central London but Fraser said Chameleon can organise regional training and in-house sessions. Prices start at £375.
The CD-ROM training packages are a joint venture with parent company BA.
The first CD-ROM, called an Introduction to the World of Air Travel, will be out in April and explains basics of the sector such as three-letter codes, ticketing, fare structures and world geography.
There is a three-dimensional aircraft, which agents can go inside, to look at the sleeper seats or business-class cabin.
It will be followed by five more CD-ROMs, which Fraser hopes to roll out by the end of the year, focusing on job types.
Fares specialist, corporate travel booker and ticketing specialist CD-ROMs are among those planned.
“Some companies offer some of the elements of the training on this CD-ROM but there is no one-stop shop that encompasses all travel training,” said Fraser.
“The first CD-ROM has generic appeal, despite the link with BA, and covers everything newcomers need to know about the air travel industry,” she added.
“It is designed to be flexible, because agencies cannot afford to send staff for a week’s training. Agents can go through the package in their lunch break or after work. It is practical training on demand.”
Fraser said the cost of the CD-ROMs will vary as there will be discounts for volume.