OmniServ, the UK’s leading airline and airport assistance services provider, will be rolling out a company-wide training programme to make its ‘Legendary Service’ proposition even better for travellers at Heathrow.
The aim of the initiative is to make the whole airport experience as stress-free and as positive as possible by ensuring that all OmniServ’s front-line staff are welcoming, inclusive and proactive and deliver a more responsive and personal customer service.
OmniServ provides a range of staff for Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL), including: airport ‘ambassadors’ who answer customer questions, provide directions and manage passenger flow around the terminals; VIP hosts; drivers for inter-terminal buses; and specialists who provide assistance where needed for passengers with mobility issues or other challenges (PRM) or unaccompanied minors.
The new ‘Spreading Smiles’ training programme will leverage the already high levels of technical knowledge and operational efficiency delivered every day by OmniServ representatives at Heathrow. Staff will be coached in interpersonal skills development and body language so that they come across to travellers as approachable, focused, trustworthy, experts in all aspects of the London Heathrow experience and in control at all times.
Fiona Blakey, Head of Customer Services at OmniServ, says: “Our staff already deliver a brilliant service at Heathrow. However, working with HAL, we identified ways that we could make it even better by encouraging representatives to be warm and open in their communications with airport users so that travellers – particularly those who find the airport a stressful environment – feel comfortable asking for assistance. We want our staff to be ‘Smile Makers’, helping people enjoy their time at Heathrow.”
The Spreading Smiles programme will involve a series of training sessions aimed at individual staff and also team leaders. All training will focus on four key values – Friendly, Professional, Effortless and Knowledgeable – and how to live those values at all times. Leaders will also get training in how to coach and support the people in their teams as well as ways to improve their own management skills.
OmniServ will also be launching a new recognition and staff incentive and reward programme to support and reinforce the training programme. This will sit alongside the company’s existing 110% Club, which recognises and rewards OmniServ staff who go above and beyond to deliver ‘Legendary Service’.
Finally, staff will be encouraged to take personal responsibility and ownership of the whole Spreading Smiles programme through the recruitment of ‘Smilers’, individuals who will be encouraged to contribute to a forum which will advise management, highlighting potential problem areas and identifying solutions, flagging up improvements and suggesting innovations (including new technologies), and generally being the voice for frontline staff with directors and the board.
Blakey adds: “Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world, and our staff are interacting with millions of people every year. Often, they are the face of Heathrow; we want to make sure that that face is friendly, knowledgeable, professional and competent. Our new ‘Spreading Smiles’ initiative will give our staff the tools they need to deliver a level of customer experience which is world-class.”
Originally posted Training Industry 8 November 2016