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Nightclub benefits from Glasgow Welcomes course

11 Oct 2011

At the Garage nightclub in Glasgow, General Manager Tracy McShane says that staff morale has never been so good – and that staff turnover has decreased. The newly promoted manager believes that new training initiatives are in part responsible for heightened staff motivation.

In recent months, Tracy has been rolling out a number of training sessions based on her participation in the Glasgow Service With Style Leading Service Excellence course. While initially unsure about the relevance of the course to her own “night time” business, she soon realised that customer experience is important whatever your industry or sector.

Tracy, who has been with The Garage for five years, says: “I was extremely interested in the part of the Leading Service Excellence course that talked about ‘mapping out the customer experience’. I realised that this was indeed applicable to our nightclub and that our staff were not necessarily seeing the customer experience from the outside-in.

“I could see how staff can all too often view customers as a collection of people that just need to be dealt with, rather than seeing each customer as an individual and making sure they were having their own excellent experience.

“Customer experience is very important to growing the business and so I took on board a great deal of the advice and tips from the course, and then passed them on to my staff.”

Back at the Garage, which is part of CPL Entertainment and the Glasgow Nightclub Group, Tracy was able to pass on the new “mapping out the customer experience” advice to her stewards. She spent time with the stewards helping them to see the club experience from a customer viewpoint, and to understand that perception and service excellence are a vital part of business success.

Tracy says: “Many customers at the nightclub can feel intimidated by the stewards, and after all it is their job to keep the club secure, but simply by understanding how the customers might perceive the stewards – as big guys on the door – has helped my staff to have a better understanding of how they can improve the customer experience.

“I got the stewards to pretend they were customers approaching the club and to see  what the customer journey might be like. I now see the stewards more ready to chat with the customers, and making more effort to help them to feel comfortable coming to the club. They might be big guys but this doesn’t mean they are not customer friendly.”

Tracy now plans to offer similar tips and advice to her bar staff.

Another point that Tracy took back from the Leading Service Excellence course was that it is important to continually re-evaluate the “wow” factor. She says: “It can be difficult to continually find a way of wowing the customer, but I realised just how important it is for everyone to be wowed by their time at the club.

“I always take time to talk with my line manager and the marketing manager to come up with new ways to offer something extra, for example cheaper alternatives to drinks and new ways to get in for free, but the course showed that we need to strive to be even more imaginative and find new "wows", that is, ways to keep on impressing our customers.

“Again this is knowledge that I am able to pass on to my staff.”

Tracy believes that the Leading Service Excellence Course has had resounding benefits for The Garage. She says: “Happy staff lead to happier customers, which leads to better profits. It works both ways between customers and staff.

“Now that our people have a greater awareness of the customer experience,  they seem much happier at their work and have improved all-round morale. With less turnover of staff there will be less costs to the business in terms of training and job advertising and this is great for our business in the long-term.

“I am delighted by the knowledge I gained from the Glasgow Welcomes course and would definitely recommend it to others.”

Stella Callaghan, of the Glasgow Tourism Service Initiative, which is behind the Glasgow Welcomes programme, said that it is fantastic to see the growing benefits of the various courses on offer, especially the Leading Service Excellence programme.

She says: “In particular I'm delighted to see key businesses from the night time economy benefiting from our Glasgow Welcomes courses because they are a vital part of the visitor experience in our city.”

Click here to find out more about the next Leading Service Excellence Course on 2 & 9 November, offered at a promotional rate for a limited period.