Area of business being addressed
Customer service, team building, change management, employee engagement, leadership engagement and competencies, alignment to vision and values, coaching, mystery shopping, employee and customer research, conference design and event management, training.

The Process

Challenges:
The Club had been operating for ten years from  a small, 7-8000 seat athletics stadium with limited hospitality facilities and were moving to a 22,500 state of the art major sporting venue (with a view to increasing to 30,000 the following year)  and a much-expanded corporate hospitality/events operation over the summer months of 2011.

Externally – this would mean a significant upgrade in the customer experience to meet significantly inflated customer expectations and increases in volumes. With a significant new, large live events and conference facility, the team would need to develop attitudes and competencies to create the customer experiences that would ultimately win spend and engagement across diverse groups.

Effectively, this small Club were fast developing into two much larger corporate businesses – with many new/varying customer journeys and key touchpoints that needed to come up to the mark – both as a club and a venue-driven corporate hospitality/events operation:

Internally – the challenge was for managers and staff to complete a successful move to new facility/operations with enhanced operational excellence – with a legacy of often fragmented ,small, ‘local club-think’. There was a need to both preserve the heart of the club while developing a ‘one team’ sporting & hospitality culture where people would truly value world class customer service.

Solution
An initial research phase was developed that would provide insights into employee and customer perceptions and inform the design of the development and communication strategy to deliver:
1. Sustained ‘top of the league’ customer experiences for fans, community, corporates, conference clients and delegates
2. A climate that inspires fans, players and employees to want to do their best to help the Club succeed

As measured by:
B&HA Mystery Shop /Customer Feedback
Football League Surveys /Awards
Commercial Revenue/Spend per Head
Attendance Increases
Away Supporter Feedback
League Position

Our programme was developed to develop key groups in the organisation and followed the following process:
1. Research/tackle internal barriers to change and engage people in our STORY, STRATEGY and ROAD MAP FOR SUCCESS – at both Club and Team levels:

• ‘WHY’: We need to change and improve
• ‘WHAT, WHERE, WHEN’: The ‘mountain’ we are climbing, when we will reach the summit
• ‘HOW’ : How we are going to manage the change – macro and micro level
• ‘THE WAY’: The way we do things day-to-day (“TEAM BRIGHTON” Values/Simple Rules)

2. Articulate expectations of key customer segments and interpersonal style preferences of different people
3. Develop standards of service for each customer touchpoint
4. Cultivate ‘on-brand’ behaviours, team leadership & key service skills
5. Give team leaders methods to assess and develop performance
6. Create a climate that reinforces and encourages people to live the values of the ‘new’ business

Results
Transition managed with minimal resistance. Vision and values embraced whole-heartedly by the majority. Leaders and team meeting intense levels of new challenge with confidence and energy – plus some great camaraderie. 

Football League Survey – Nov 2011:
Report “being blown away” by the friendly good natured hospitality on offer throughout the match-day experience.  Described many facets of the experience as ’outstanding’ and commented on how rare it was to experience a new stadium that had “so much soul”.  Researchers report that they couldn’t believe it was the same Club from previous evaluations of the two previous venues.

Internal Mystery Shop Results:
Steady rise in scores from August to January.  Most touchpoints regularly scoring 75%+.

Hospitality/Catering scores rose from 54% to 80% after 12-14 week intensive Team Brighton development programme commenced in Oct/Nov (the last team to participate in the programme).

Jan 2012 Survey monkey scores for hospitality/catering showing 75%+ people now reporting excellent or good experiences – with only 1 person reporting dissatisfaction in February survey.

VerbatimPlayback™ Brighton & Hove Albion Case Study

Watch a VerbatimPlayback™ - Team Brighton – Vision and Values

Watch a VerbatimPlayback™ - Fans Have Their Say