The issue
The Virgin Atlantic brand is synonymous with consistently high quality customer service delivery. When Virgin made their plans for the new Terminal 3 (T3) facility at Heathrow, London, they listened to what customers were saying and responded accordingly. While customers wanted to get through check-in as quickly and efficiently as possible, they didn’t want to sacrifice any of the warmth or the quality of service they’d come to expect from Virgin Atlantic, irrespective of whether they were travelling Economy or Upper Class. So, whilst making a significant investment in a brand new ‘terminal-within-a-terminal’ with state-of-the-art operating systems, Virgin Atlantic needed their completely re-organised ground personnel to commit to, and deliver, an even more memorable Customer Experience.
What we did
Power Train developed 'T3 Futures', a co-ordinated programme that not only matched Virgin Atlantic customers' expectations, but also embodied its brand and met its new service ambitions. The challenge was, in four months, to design and deliver a brand new Customer Experience and Leadership programme for over 600 front-line staff and managers.
The practical issues were enormous. Power Train and Virgin Atlantic had never worked together before; T3 was still being built while the training was being designed and implemented, and the new service processes were continually evolving. With the eyes of the world focused on developments at T3, there was no margin for error.
‘T3 Futures’ was off the ground inside two months, and successfully rolled out to all targeted managers and staff within another two.
How we did it
We worked closely with Virgin Atlantic to design and deliver 'T3 Futures' and with it, a whole new way of working. The main focus was on equipping staff with the skills, confidence and mindset to work in the new self-service environment – dedicated to hosting customers rather than receiving them from behind a desk.
All staff needed to work more efficiently and to deliver an individual and personalised Customer Experience. Launch events and specialist ‘Strictly Drive Thru’ events recreated the new environment using Total Reality sets to showcase 'real life' customer interactions. These events were delivered by a combination of Power Train Training Consultants and Virgin Atlantic licensed ‘PowerTrainers’, both working in conjunction with our fully rehearsed Actor Consultants. ‘Leading T3 Futures’ events for managers focused on leading, coaching and supporting the new Customer Experience to ensure sustainability in the face of all possible challenges.
Return on investment
T3 Futures has resulted in record high customer satisfaction scores including Upper Class check-in with a 93% rating of Excellent/Good (up from 80%); Premium Economy check-in with an 85% rating of Excellent/Good (up from 71%); staff friendliness in Economy Class check-in showed a record high of 92% of customers rating Excellent/Good.
'T3 Futures' continues to form part of Virgin Atlantic's induction – and the follow-on ‘Brilliant Basics, Magic Touches’ has been rolled out to Virgin Atlantic management teams worldwide.
