Contract caterer Elior UK has been named as one of the best big companies to work for in the UK by workplace specialists Best Companies. It is the only contract caterer to reach the list, positioning it as a leader in the hospitality industry and the UK employment market as a whole.
Tim Hammond, Chief Executive, Elior UK says:
“This award is the UK’s definitive survey on satisfaction in the workplace and our ranking is testament to our commitment to investing in our people and making sure we have a strong, positive culture.
“We’re very committed to training and we invest in our people’s skills to deliver great customer experiences. To do this, we have developed eXperience, the award-winning customer service training programme.”
The eXperience programme
Employees at each of the 650 UK sites select a peer who they feel delivers a great customer experience to become a Service Champion. These Service Champions deliver the eXperience training to colleagues in 19 short, interactive sessions using a series of games, cartoons and practical tasks that bring the modules to life.
Arran McDowell, HR Director, Elior UK, comments: “There’s a definite benefit to having eXperience delivered by a member of the team. It makes people feel that they are in charge of their own personal development and creates a less formal atmosphere that allows everyone to relax and speak their minds.”
Tim continues: “The eXperience programme and our emphasis on two-way communication gives our employees a sense of inclusion and is a huge part of our culture. We may be a big organisation but every employee has an identity, is referred to by name and impacts the customer experience through their daily roles. Any organisation can copy another’s ways of working, but you can’t copy their culture and what makes people feel proud. And, it might sound simple but happy employees equals happy customers.”
Results delivered by The eXperience programme
The roll-out of the programme has been accompanied by the implementation of customer satisfaction measurement tools to evaluate the success of the training and level of customer experience delivered on site, and to prove that Elior now has an engaged workforce, who put the customer at the heart of the operation to effectively meet their needs.
And the results are now being seen, including:
- Elior has the lowest staff turnover in the industry – 19% compared to an industry average of 40%. This figure has dropped from 22% – a reduction of 3% year on year which can, in part, be attributed to the customer service strategy.
- Employees are taking pride in their roles and this is being noted by both clients and customers.
- Elior is now offering all its Service Champions an NVQ in Customer Service – over 80 have so far taken up the offer.
- Site managers were surveyed within the first 6 months of the launch of the programme and were already noticing results driven by a more engaged team:
- Significant attitude change – 79%
- Better client relationships – 78%
- More effective interaction with customers – 80%
- Better teamwork on site – 99%
In January 2012, a comprehensive customer satisfaction measurement tool – the first of its type in the market – was introduced to evaluate the success of the training and level of customer experience delivered on site. It combines three elements delivered by customer satisfaction specialists Market Force: mystery shopper visits, online surveys and paper surveys.
The latest round of Mystery Shoppers scored Elior sites 86.1%
And Elior scored an average of 76.3% (+1.3% above target) across all feedback methods.
And – customer satisfaction delivers financial results also
- The customer focused offer is winning business – a contract extension at Linklaters, Inmarsat, and Port Vale; new contracts at Henley College Coventry, Wiltshire County Council and Michelin Tyres.
- Consistently top performing locations, in terms of customer feedback, have enjoyed month on month growth since the inception of the programme.
About Elior
Elior operates high profile catering contracts across the B&I, health & care homes, defence, education, stadia and heritage sectors. It provides customers with a bespoke offer that focuses on great food, drink and customer service and couples it with the benefits that a large company brings.