South Lakes Housing

South Lakes Housing is committed to providing customer service excellence and in 2022 commenced an ongoing partnership with MGI to deliver the bespoke Let’s Make it Happen customer service training programme.

South Lakes Housing

Customers saying South Lakes Housing treats them fairly and with respect up by 9.8% to 82.4%

South Lakes Housing (SLH), an independent, not-for-profit housing association, is the largest provider of affordable housing in Cumbria’s scenic South Lakeland. The company’s purpose, Quality Homes, a platform for life, emphasises customer experience using a SLH values and behaviours framework.

The team at SLH is committed to providing customer service excellence and in 2022 commenced an ongoing partnership with MGI to deliver the bespoke Let’s Make it Happen customer service training programme based on our proven Mindset, Language & Actions Toolkit.

MGI’s programme is closely aligned to SLH’s values and behaviours so it feels bespoke and is owned by us rather than feeling like an ‘off the shelf’ course.

Niki Stockton, Director of Customer Experience

Collaborative diagnostics process

MGI and SLH worked together in a discovery process, engaging with colleagues and customers to understand the organisation and create a case for everyone to engage with the training.

The discovery uncovered that the team could benefit from new tools to help build higher levels of trust and confidence in each other, grow empowerment to take ownership and responsibility and improve the service to customers. SLH wanted everyone to feel they could proactively put forward ideas for improvement to continually develop excellent outcomes for customers and each other. Ultimately the goal was to increase employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

Niki Stockton, Director of Customer Experience said “MGI’s programme is closely aligned to SLH’s values and behaviours so it feels bespoke and is owned by us rather than feeling like an ‘off the shelf’ course.”

The MGI Toolkit presented in the Let’s Make it Happen programme provided a framework for people to consistently demonstrate these important behaviours.

The Let’s Make it Happen programme

All SLH colleagues completed the original Let’s Make it Happen in-person programme, followed by an interactive online Learning Journey that covered every aspect of the Mindset, Language & Actions Toolkit to embed the learning. An important part of embedding the programme was the action planning that each manager committed to implement following their attendance at a Managers’ Embedding Workshop.

Refresher training takes place every six months to continue to grow the sophistication of the use of the tools.

SLH also chose MGI to train 20 Let’s Make it Happen Champions, each of whom plays a significant role in embedding the programme into the company’s culture. The Champions meet regularly to share ideas, consider how they can support Managers to embed the tools and techniques and work with teams to apply the tools, such as improving communication with and the information we provide to customers. New members of the team are introduced to the Let’s Make it Happen approach by the Champions early, so they understand how SLH delivers the very best service.

MGI’s training Consultants provide an important consultancy role working with SLH so the learning really sticks. “Our trainer, Julie, is fantastic!” says Niki. “Her enthusiasm is infectious and the way she engages colleagues in exploring real life scenarios and how we can use the Toolkit to find solutions and a positive way forward, is inspiring and aspirational. Julie’s additional training for our Champions boosts their confidence when working with colleagues.”

The Let’s Make it Happen programme

Refresher training takes place every six months to continue to grow the sophistication of the use of the tools.

MGI is the best customer service training I have encountered in my career and has helped equip me with the right mindset and practical tools to improve the service I and my teams deliver.

Niki Stockton, Director of Customer Experience

Long-lasting results and benefits

SLH has achieved an improvement in key customer metrics and continues to review customer feedback, train new colleagues and embed the tools to improve customer experience and outcomes.

Niki first did MGI training 25 years ago – “MGI is the best customer service training I have encountered in my career and has helped equip me with the right mindset and practical tools to improve the service I and my teams deliver.”

Overall Customer Satisfaction score which increased by 9.7% to 78.6%.

Niki Stockton, Director of Customer Experience explains how the training contributed to this result. “The emphasis on ‘can do’ attitude, positive language, taking ownership and responsibility and, of course, the powerful Glad > Sure > Sorry tool which is so helpful when things go wrong and we are dealing with complaints, are all apparent throughout the organisation. I believe that if, as a team, we have a positive mindset, we own things and focus first on solutions, we can always achieve good outcomes for our customers and each other. It’s ultimately about delivering for our customers, and we’re so pleased with the increase in customer satisfaction.”

Customers agree that SLH treats tenants fairly and with respect which increased by 9.8% to 82.4%. The focus on people, listening and empathy and what we can do is improving our customers’ experience.

A continuing collaboration

The senior team values SLH and MGI’s strong partnership as the collaboration continues, says Niki. “The partnership with MGI is effective because it keeps us on track and motivates us to truly make things happen!”

By focusing on embedding the learning from the training and making sure it becomes a way of life at South Lakes Housing, and equipping people to live their values, provides a solid service foundation for everyone in the team so that they can positively manage anything that comes their way at work and continue to improve the customer experience.

Find out more about South Lakes Housing here.