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John Lewis and Radisson Blu learn from staff exchange

10 Jun 2012

Spending time shadowing others while at work can bring many rewards. Many young school leavers, college students and people new to their careers have already benefited from the highly regarded Glasgow Service with Style "Buddy Day" initiative. In partnership with Skills Development Scotland and Springboard, the Buddy Days have give people an insight into work in various tourism and hospitality sectors.

Now employees already working within city businesses are following in the footsteps of the Buddy Day initiative and organising business-to-business staff exchange days.

One such exchange took place between John Lewis Glasgow and the city’s Radisson Blu hotel. The eight John Lewis staff included a range of section managers, all of whom work in various selling roles at the department store. They were keen to find out if they could learn new best practice methods from the Radisson Hotel, which is renowned for its high levels of customer care.

Learning and Development Coach at John Lewis, Caroline Hamilton, was one of the eight who spent time with employees at the hotel. She says: “We all went with an objective to learn how they practised and maintained a high standard of customer service, as well as how they managed their daily business. 

“As a group of section managers we could all relate to the ever-changing daily tasks and environment that is created through working in such a fast-paced industry but one where customers always come first no matter what.

“We all learned and took something away from our experience, whether it was realising what we already do well in John Lewis Glasgow, or learning that there is always room for improvement.

“We have been able to take some ideas to work on and implement within our individual departments.” 

In particular, Caroline says she was impressed with how every member of staff at the Radisson takes ownership of each customer service situation, whatever their job role. She says: “At the Radisson, whether you are a staff member changing the beds or working in the bar or a manager, whatever a customer asks or has an issue with, it is their remit to make sure the customer is given a completely satisfactory outcome.

“So if that staff member can help the customer then they will. But if they can’t, they will personally find a way to assist the customer by finding a member of staff or a solution that will ensure customer satisfaction. This means that customer service is always at a very high level and every customer issue is dealt with.

“This was something I brought back to my work at John Lewis where we were more likely to have a division within departments who dealt with certain customer service issues. I have been keen since then to bring more of this ‘taking ownership’ vision to my work at John Lewis.”

Caroline said she was impressed with the “can do” vision of staff at the Radisson. She says: “No problem is ever too big or too small, it is simply to be resolved.”

But Caroline was also pleased to find that many of the values placed on customer service at the Radisson mirror the values at John Lewis. She says: “What the exchange day did show to me was that John Lewis is also very good at customer service. Our communication is good and the way that we put the customer first is very similar to the vision at Radisson.

“We could perhaps be sharper with our partner communication internally but it was rewarding to realise that John Lewis does already offer an excellent customer service.”

Radisson Blu staff are now planning to spend time with John Lewis staff in a reciprocal Buddy Day exchange. Caroline says: “We are looking forward to welcoming staff to our store to learn about how we have achieved such a high standard of customer service and best practice.”