Working with Blue Sky

Performance Improvement

Blue Sky Works

1 Who We Are 1

2 What We Do 2

3 Blue Sky Works – Delivering Exceptional Results 3

4 Awards 7

5 How Do We Do It 8

7 Case Studies 12

8 Professional Qualifications 25

9 Client List 26

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1. Who We Are

Blue Sky is a dynamic, inspirational performance improvement consultancy, specialising in solutions for sales and service environments through training and operational consultancy. We work with our clients to help them develop new or existing operations. Our work focuses on the people aspects of sales and service environments from the culture they work within, to the processes that support them, through the words they use and the results they achieve. Established in 1997, and based in Guildford, Surrey, we work with clients throughout the UK and Europe, including: Barclays, BOC, Carphone Warehouse, NS&I, Liverpool Victoria, Virgin Holidays, BMW Finance, Virgin Atlantic, Royal Mail and The Environment Agency. Our cultural vision is ‘Enjoy what you do.’ To us this means having honest, direct relationships with clients, while working together to achieve a common goal. It also means constant learning and development, working with energetic, driven people, and being great at what we do. What makes us truly different is:

♦ Our ability to consistently deliver tangible, sustainable results.

♦ Our people, who are experts in performance improvement and performance maintenance.

♦ The unique and holistic way we structure our performance partnerships.

"Our decision to appoint Blue Sky for a second time was as a result of the excellent work they did for us on the first project we did together. On both projects their teams have been very focussed, results driven and a pleasure to work with. It is largely thanks to their involvement that we have achieved so much in creating the most successful contact centre team in the airline industry."

Director of Customer Services, Virgin Atlantic Airways

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2. What We Do

All of Blue Sky’s work focuses on performance improvement in sales and service operations. We work across a number of sectors including financial services, retail, leisure, telecoms, utilities, public sector and travel as well as across many channels including; retail, contact centres, field sales and face to face environments. Identifying The A&A Group Ltd’s needs: Our ultimate aim is to improve results and the nature of our work covers the 5 key influencing factors that impact on the success of any of your operations, be it consumer or business, sales or customer service. Those five factors are customer, people, operations, business and culture and our aim within each area is to work with management teams to help them uncover different challenges and issues they may face, and support them in making the necessary changes to drive effective sales and service performance.

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3. Blue Sky Works – Delivering Exceptional Results

Working across many industries and channels we are passionate about delivering exceptional results for our clients and these have led to many success stories and awards. We can take our learnings from each of these sectors and apply them to benefit The A&A Group Ltd.

Sales

♦ NS&I – A sales through service programme entitled ‘Just Ask’ delivered £200million in additional revenue. The programme won a National Training award and a Financial Innovation award for Most Effective Training.

♦ AXA – Sales improvement programme delivered at both advisor and Manager Level that produced some brilliant results including an increase in GWP (gross written premium) of 320%.

♦ Carphone Warehouse – Annual risk and reward partnership for all Sales Agents, Managers and Senior Managers. Achieved a 60% increase in conversion rate with a 50% uplift and a motivated, energetic sales culture.

♦ Royal & Sun Alliance – Sales performance improvement programme delivered a 60% increase in cross-sell and up-sell sales revenue.

♦ HFS Loans – Performance improvement programme delivered five-fold increase in market share. Application conversion increase by 18%, and average loan size up by 24%. HFS Loans voted as 7th in the ‘Best SME Companies to Work for’ by The Times (2005).

♦ Prudential – Delivery of co-sourced sales training function, across all channels. Training spent halved, while quantity and quality of training interventions increased. For example, a sales training and development programme for Worksite Sales improved their year on year results by 36%.

♦ Virgin Atlantic Airways – Award winning performance improvement programme delivered 50% increase in sales conversion and reduced cost per sale by almost half.

♦ Thomas Cook Signature – Performance improvement programme increased sales conversion rate by 5.7 percentage points and average passenger value by 4.6% year on year.

♦ Powergen – To provide a complete training function for new outbound calling centre, manage the project and develop and deliver all the training within budget. 165 staff fully trained for ‘Go

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Live’, sales conversion 30% higher than existing sales teams from month one.

♦ Royal Mail – sales through service of front line staff along with coaching capability and performance management of 1st and 2nd Line Managers. Uplifts range from 180% to 517%.

♦ American Express – Retail sales training programme for launch of Travellers Cheque Card delivered a threefold increase in sales. The programme included stores owned by First Choice, Thomas Cook and Midlands Coop.

♦ First Choice – Sales performance improvement programme increased sales across 6 products of between 9 and 25% year on year.

♦ RIAS – staff turnover within sales operation reduced from 200% to 18%.

♦ Virgin Holidays – Results from multiple sales performance improvement programmes equated to 50% increase in both trade and direct business, smashing targets and delivering ROI between 350% and 450%.

♦ Virgin Trains – A sales through service programme aimed at driving revenue and profitability whilst improving customer satisfaction. The results achieved an 11% overall uplift with a 5% increase in average transaction value.

♦ Eurostar – A sales performance improvement programme that helped Eurostar smash their sales targets. Sales conversion saw an 87.5% increase, ancillary product sales from 1.5% to 39%.

♦ Portman – Achieved a 100% increase in up sell, 45% reduction in complaints and a significant shift in culture.

♦ ING Direct – A significant increase in net promoter score from 64% to 90.4%.

Customer Experience

♦ Invesco – A customer experience transformation programme helped Invesco achieve first place in the Investrack Customer Service Benchmarking Study and win the 5 star service award at the Financial Advisor Awards.

♦ Leading Financial Motor Services Company – An ultimate customer experience programme with 80% of staff achieving their Practitioner license by consistently scoring over 80% on quality.

♦ Virgin Atlantic Airways – Award winning performance improvement programme took them from 12th to 3rd place in the BPA Travel Sector customer service index.

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♦ Jupiter – Delivery of service improvement project, resulting in improved quality ratings and IFA feedback – ‘best service provide’.

♦ Linklaters – Won an award for Best Customer Experience. Service levels are met over 80% of the time as opposed to 20% before the change programme.

♦ Eurostar – Increased service targets to 97% compared to 32%. Staff attrition down from 14% to 6%.

♦ BBC – Change programme helped win ‘Customer Help Desk of the Year’ award. Also chosen ‘subject matter experts’ / advisors to BBC Worldwide learning in matters relating to sales, service and leadership.

♦ Aquila – Customer Experience transformation programme that improved customer service performance ranking (IIP) from 13th (out of 14) to 1st place.

♦ EDF Energy – Multichannel service performance improvement programme enabled 3 EDF Energy companies to rise from consistently bottom of the OFGEM service league table to upper quartile. Service recommendation letters rose by 169%.

♦ ING Direct – A significant increase in net promoter score from 64% to 90.4%.

♦ Portman – Achieved a 100% increase in up sell, 45% reduction in complaints and a significant shift in culture.

Leadership Development & Cultural Change

♦ HBOS – Leadership development programme which had a tangible impact on the behaviour of senior management. Key management behaviours improved by 11% and the programme picked up 2 Training Journal awards including the Special Achievement Award at this year’s 2008 conference.

♦ Orange – A modular management development programme delivered to 400 customer service Managers that is seeing some great results. The collections team increased results by 300% in a month post workshop and whereas in the beginning, most Managers were at the apprentice development level for the key competencies. Now, around 80% are actually demonstrating the key competencies at that level and these Managers are embarking on their practitioner level journey. The programme has been accredited by Tyneside University and awarded a foundation degree in Call Centre Management.

♦ BSkyB – Management development programme to deliver a skilled, effective management team to drive sales performance put £5 million on the bottom line.

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♦ Thomas Cook Global & Financial Services – Performance improvement programme increased cultural rating scores from an average of 50% to 80% in all categories.

♦ Greater Manchester Ambulance Service – Senior management development programme delivered. “Blue sky really understood what makes a 999 operation tick and tailored the training to meet our needs.”

♦ Sage – A leadership development programme entitled ‘Enable’ that is creating incredible and powerful employee engagement and empowerment resulting in uplift in performance across many diverse departments with a 270% increase in staff promotions alone

♦ DVLA – A modular management programme branded ‘Momentum’ which was aimed at tackling a shift in mindset to improve customer experience. Customer satisfaction improved by 11%, with efficiency in response increasing by over 30%. The programme won the ‘best improvement strategy’ award at the CCF European Call Centre Awards.

Measuring Return on Investment

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4. Awards “The whole Momentum Programme has been stunning. You have exceeded my expectations in every way” Ian Broom Head of Contact Centre DVLA Winner - Best Improvement strategy – European Call Centre Awards 2007 “You have played a big part in helping us to achieve this award. Many thanks for all your help” Colin Ross and Jill Waters Head of Direct Sales NS&I Winner - IFS award for 'Most effective delivery channels initiative

“The programme has exceeded my every expectation. Managers go in a little fearful and perhaps a little cynical and come out of it utterly transformed.”

Paul Stobart CEO, Sage Winner - CIPD Excellence through Innovation Award 2008

The true measure of our success does not lie in our own standing and reputation, but in that of our clients. The recognition and awards our clients receive are a great indicator of this success and highlights that we are not the only people who believe in the value that Blue Sky delivers:

♦ 2009 NTA Regional Training Award – 02

♦ 2009 ECCA Highly Commended for ‘Best Improvement Category’ – 02

♦ 2008 NTA Regional Award in Partnership and Collaboration – DVLA

♦ 2008 Training Journal Award for ‘Special Achievement’ – HBOS

♦ 2008 Training Journal Award, ‘Best Externally Developed & Delivered’ – HBOS

♦ 2008 CIPD Excellence through Innovation or Technology Award with Sage ‘Enable’ Leadership programme

♦ 2008 Welsh Contact Centre Award for Best People Development with DVLA and the ‘Momentum’ programme

♦ 2007 Financial Innovation Award for Most Effective Training Programme with National Savings & Investments ‘Just Ask’ programme

♦ 2007 National Training Award with EDF Energy ‘Turning Up The Volts’ programme

♦ 2007 National Training Award with National Savings & Investments ‘Just Ask’ programme

♦ 2007 Regional Training Award for our work with UCAS

♦ 2007 ECCA award for Best Improvement Strategy with DVLA

♦ 2007 ECCA highly commended for ‘Best Improvement Strategy’ with National Savings and Investments

♦ 2007 Motivation Awards – ‘Best Use of Training’ with EDF Energy

♦ 2006 Invesco Perpetual – only fund management group to receive the 5 star service award at the Financial Adviser Awards

♦ 2006 IFS award for 'Most effective delivery channels initiative' with National Savings and Investments

♦ 2006 Training Journal Award ‘Best Externally Developed and Delivered Programme’ for our work with First Choice Holidays

♦ 2006 ‘EDF Energy - Most Improved Customer Experience’, Customer Experience Awards

♦ 2006 ‘Best Customer Service Award’ OFGEM – EDF Energy

♦ 2006 ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ Training Journal – First Choice Holidays

♦ 2006 ‘Innovation in Sales Award’ National Training Awards – First Choice Holidays

♦ 2006 ‘Best Training Programme’ European Call Centre Awards – EDF Energy

♦ 2005 National Training Award with Virgin Atlantic, in sustaining performance over a 3 year period

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5. How Do We Do It

To deliver improved performance we use consultancy, training and performance based techniques and the mix will depend on the project; within some we will use all of the tools at our disposal, others will be either consulting or training focused. Each project tends to follow a 4 stage excellence model and our services relate directly to these 4 stages. All 4 stages are driven by an understanding of your needs at the start of the project.

Services we can offer The A&A Group Ltd; Performance Evaluation – Stage 1 There are different options for performance evaluation depending on your needs:

1 Full Performance Evaluation and Planning – assessing the overall

performance of an operation against company objectives. Covering: customer, people, operations, business and culture. Developing fully integrated performance improvement plans based on the output of the evaluation process.

2 Training Needs Analysis – focused on providing detailed analysis

of training needs and recommended approach for learning and development.

3 Customer Experience Vision and Evaluation – Blue Sky has a

dedicated team that specialise in transforming customer experiences across sector and across channel. We have a tried and tested methodology for evaluating the customer experience. Our first job, through effective guided facilitation, is for you to understand and define that feeling and getting real clarity about the vision. Depending on your vision, our evaluation phase will be tailored to assess the relevant areas. Our gap analysis takes the form of an external assessment and an internal assessment.

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4 Behaviour Kinetics – a scientific approach to creating behaviour change by linking performance to observable and measurable behaviour to identify those behaviours that accelerate, sustain and block performance.

Performance Improvement – Stage 2

Performance improvement programmes will involve either consulting or training services, often both. Consulting Services We offer consulting services in the following areas: 1 Operational and management processes

♦ Performance management frameworks: Determining KPI’s,

reporting frameworks etc. ♦ Resource analysis, planning and forecasting. ♦ Quality measurement and management programmes. ♦ Provision of interim management. ♦ Management operating systems.

2 HR Systems ♦ Bespoke competency frameworks. ♦ Reward and recognition schemes. ♦ Staff retention strategies. ♦ Assessment centres. ♦ Internal recruitment process design. ♦ Recruitment Services. 3 Customer Experience Transformation ♦ Client Vision – How do you want your customers to feel about your

organisation? ♦ Customer Experience Evaluation – How well is your business

geared up to delivering the desired experience? ♦ Customer Experience Transformation – Implementing the strategy

and tactical plan. ♦ Continuous Improvement. 4 Cultural Change ♦ Cultural change programmes. ♦ Psychometric profiling.

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Training Services The training we offer covers every level within service and sales environments, from front line staff through to director level. We deliver it across all channels to market including; retail, contact centres, field sales and face to face environments. We offer training services, design and delivery, in the following areas: 1 Leadership and Management Development ♦ Full leadership and management development programmes. ♦ Mentoring programmes. ♦ Executive coaching. ♦ Team coaching and mentoring. 2 Sales Training ♦ Sales Skills (4 levels, apprentice through to master.) ♦ Sales team leadership. ♦ Sales management. ♦ Directing a sales operation. 3 Customer Service Training ♦ Customer service skills (4 levels, apprentice through to master.) ♦ Service team leadership. ♦ Customer service management. ♦ Directing a service operation.

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Performance Maintenance – Stage 3

Ensuring that improvement in results is sustained and built upon.

1 Performance Healthchecks – an objective measure/check on performance, enabling operations to stay on track. Completed on an annual or 6 monthly basis.

2 Training Partnership / Insourcing – a shared responsibility for

ensuring skills, knowledge and behaviours able to meet business needs.

3 Advanced Training Programmes – ensuring that performance

maintenance involves continuous performance improvement. 4 Performance coaching – Analysing performance statistics and

making recommendations for improvement, getting buy-in where necessary for required changes and driving implementation of those changes. Coaching the management team to maximise sales and service performance. Ongoing monitoring of the impact and effectiveness of coaching implementation.

Performance Partnership

Some of the clients we work with are interested in entering into our unique performance partnership contractual relationship, which means a commitment from both parties to deliver against agreed targets, while sharing both the risk and the reward.

Essentially we will embed a proven performance management system into your business that with the necessary support, will deliver sustained performance improvements. We also agree ‘the number’ to be moved and by how much e.g. a 10% improvement in sales conversion which we will then formulate and implement the necessary interventions to deliver the number.

We commit to ‘delivering the number’ whilst you commit to implementing recommendations. If we fail to deliver, an agreed portion of our fees are returned and if we exceed target we receive a performance bonus.

We would be happy to discuss this with you further.

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6. Case Studies

National Savings & Investments – ‘Just Ask’

National Savings & Investments (NS&I) offers much more than Premium Bonds but their twenty six million customers did not know that. With limited advertising activity, no CRM strategy and a reluctance to promote

themselves pro-actively, how could NS&I spread the word about their thirteen other investment products?

Lost opportunities

NS&I has predominantly mature customers who enjoy the reassurance of investing in a Government-backed, non-profit making institution, and who typically have a large expendable income to invest. But despite their loyal customer base, NS&I were losing millions in lost opportunities.

This was because there was no mechanism for following up customers who wanted to cash in their investments. Requests were dealt with promptly and without question, which left customers feeling positive, but meant NS&I were watching huge potential revenues walk out the door. They had to encourage reinvestment without turning customers off with aggressive sales techniques. NS&I had to be wary of turning off their loyal staff too. Many had been in the same role, chiefly order taking, for years. The job was repetitive and not particularly interesting, but people tended to stay. Would the very mention of selling frighten them away?

What We Did – The Blue Sky Solution

Blue Sky helped NS&I create an inbound campaign called ‘Just Ask’. Its aim was to show customer service advisors how a few appropriately targeted questions could open up a dialogue about the customer’s expectations and needs and lead to significant increases in revenue.

Sales through service

The training team, led by Blue Sky’s Managing Consultants, Miles Jowett and Clare Mitchell devised a ‘soft’ approach to introduce sales through service. Says Miles, “We believe customer service should help customers make the right decision. It’s not so much about selling as guidance. Customers needed to be asked at the key communication opportunity the reason behind their decision. This gives staff sufficient information to guide customers through a decision-making process that could result in customers reinvesting in an alternative product, or investing more money.”

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In a traditional environment where sales carried negative connotations, there was scepticism. Says Clare Mitchell, “Staff would argue, ‘If a customer wants to cash in their investment there’s nothing we can do. They’ve made their decision.’ We showed them that by simply saying ‘we’re sorry to lose you as a customer, have we done something wrong’ or asking why they wanted to cash in their investment, far from getting annoyed, customers were glad to have been asked.”

The tailored training programme was practical, involving role-play and practice sessions. Staff helped to write call scripts using their considerable knowledge of their products and customers, which generated a sense of ownership.

Who we did it for

Over 200 advisors and team leaders have experienced the ‘Just Ask’ programme.

What was the outcome?

The results were outstanding. Says Jill Waters, Head of Direct Sales at NS&I; “From my point of view ‘Just Ask’ has been a success from day one and I would highly recommend the Blue Sky approach. If £50m sales can be delivered during a training phase then just think of the potential going forward.”

However, whilst the success of the inbound teams was extraordinary, millions were still being lost. Some customers write rather than phone, or get a form from the Post Office.

So a new, dedicated outbound team was created to assess the opportunities provided by these customers. Their job was to telephone and welcome new, high value customers and make tactical calls following marketing activities. An internal recruitment exercise identified advisors with the right ability and aptitude, and an intensive sales workshop sharpened their skills. There was, however, an issue about how to target and reward the team. Union objections meant individuals could not be targeted, but the team could be, so individual successes were highlighted and celebrated with fun prizes and awards.

“Having a more mature workforce was a definite bonus,” says Blue Sky Managing Consultant Lindsay Terris, who managed the outbound project. “They have a lovely manner with the customers, and an ease and confidence that only come with experience.” In their first month of operation, the new outbound team exceeded their £1million target by £500,000.In month two they achieved 250% of target. The programme overall generated £200 million in incremental revenue last year, with customer satisfaction dramatically increasing.

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NS&I and Blue Sky can also add a string of prestigious awards to their belts due to winning 3 awards for the ‘Just Ask’ programme in 2007 alone, including the highly sought after National Training Award.

‘Just Ask’ created opportunities that could have been lost were it not for a few well-phrased questions and a motivated, experienced team who learnt to soft sell. And this year we are building on the success of 2007 with a ‘Just Ask Momentum’ programme to ensure continued achievement. NS&I outbound advisor, Wendy Smith, sums it up: “We have turned into such sweet-talkers!” All Blue Sky workshop delivery features skills practice, quizzes, tests and exercises throughout, to test and validate learning. Post course evaluation of the programme was achieved through delegate feedback and the identification and agreement of a clear set of measurement criteria at the start of the programme that could then be measured through:

♦ Sales and Service performance results.

♦ Operational performance results.

♦ Regular and consistent quality monitoring and assessment.

♦ Staff feedback.

♦ Customer feedback.

♦ Coaching observation and reporting.

Key results included:

♦ Increased customer retention.

♦ Increased average customer investment.

♦ Against an annual company target the highest performing team delivers revenue of over double this.

♦ Average performers achieve revenue of £34,000,000 above target (116%).

♦ Increased customer confidence and trust.

♦ Increased staff motivation and job satisfaction.

♦ No decline in grade of service.

♦ 4 training awards including a National Training Award in 2007.

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Carphone Warehouse

Europe’s leading independent retailer of mobile phones and services with over 2,000 retail outlets and 3 UK contact

centres, Carphone Warehouse were handling over 5 million calls per year. Consumer demand had never been higher and the overwhelming response to their fixed line product ‘Talk Talk’ with the ‘Dell Laptop’ incentive had put further strain on the contact centres to respond to customer demand.

The direct sales team had been under fire, the pressures of increased call volume and the internal movement of their high performing staff had resulted in an increase in attrition and a drop in performance levels which could not continue. With sales performance sitting at 62% of target the senior management team decided that immediate action had to be taken to reverse this trend.

The Blue Sky Solution

♦ A 12 month risk and reward performance partnership.

♦ Full training diagnostic.

♦ Implementation of a contact centre specific Management Operating System

♦ Performance Sales Coaching for all Senior Managers.

♦ Bespoke sales training for all Sales Agents & Managers.

♦ Coaching Blitz to give an immediate uplift in results.

♦ Re-design of sales induction for new recruits.

The Results

♦ Delivered a 1500% ROI.

♦ Sales conversion doubled.

♦ New recruits joining the sales floor delivered results immediately.

♦ A motivated, energetic sales culture that is driving performance.

♦ Delivered incremental £9.5m of Gross Margin.

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HBOS

HBOS General Insurance (GI) the UK’s fourth largest household insurer faced hundreds of

competitors from traditional insurers through to new internet based suppliers and they were a brand that did not want to compete on price alone but on delivering exceptional customer service. They had a clear internal vision called ‘Winning customers together’ which meant that every level of the leadership team had to be in perfect alignment. An internal assessment uncovered the fact that this was not the case and this was reflected in the business results. Blue Sky were assigned to come up with a leadership development programme to deliver the much needed performance improvement.

The Blue Sky Approach

♦ Completed an in-depth evaluation to establish the root cause issues and challenges to help them succeed to ‘win customers together’.

♦ Identified that a shift at an emotional engagement level was required before any knowledge or skill gaps could effectively be plugged.

♦ Developed an innovative internal communications strategy and brand called Enabling Visible Leadership (EVL), including a teaser campaign, group and individual briefing sessions and communication to all from the most senior director, showing true commitment from the top.

♦ Created a truly inspirational, tailored development journey, made up of six workshops with the first two parts focused on emotional engagement; who the leaders were as people and their own personal values and motivations. Other workshops focused on personal 1:1 coaching, group mentoring, and action learning.

♦ Crucial to the programmes success each workshop finished with an action planning session and a month long gap to allow leaders to reflect on learning, test out new tools and receive 1:1 personalised coaching, observing them in the live environment and giving supportive feedback to ensure immediate transfer and practice of new skills.

♦ Throughout the journey leaders kept journey diaries which they presented at the end reflecting on what they had learnt, how far they had come and the results achieved with their people.

Results

“2007 saw the worst floods in UK history and as a result, the HBOS Insurance call centres saw a huge increase in the number of calls received. Despite this being the busiest period ever, there was unprecedented solidarity and a strength of leadership never seen before, which motivated the troops and delivered the results needed.”

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Results

♦ Managers are coming up with solutions, are more proactive and supportive of business decisions, demonstrating that they want to ‘own’ the solutions. There is an increased appetite for self-development and a willingness to stand out from the crowd and showcase their individuality whilst staying true to the team culture. This was proven in the latest colleague opinion survey which gauges views on issues within the organisation and how they could be solved.

♦ Created a real paradigm shift with managers demonstrating and truly taking responsibility for their own actions and recognising they had a key role in deciding whether to create problems or solve problems.

♦ Created a common language and reference points across the business allowing a smoother transition into inter-site working delivering a truly one team, multi sites culture.

♦ There has been a significant improvement in ‘not ready’ across all sites, with one site reducing ‘not ready’ by a third – proving staff is truly focusing on the customer experience. At another site the quality score has been improved by 3% whilst achieving the schedule adherence SLA for the first time.

♦ Increase in staff retention.

♦ Greater sense of trust between staff enabling them to behave as the individual they are when working with their peers and their teams.

“This leadership journey has not just changed how I do things, it has changed me. I am more open and honest with my team. I am empowering others and far less directive. In this way I am achieving much better results. It has improved my work and home life. I have now been given the tools I needed and so am getting the job satisfaction I craved.”

Manager, HBOS GI

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Orange Management Academy

Orange had a detailed competency framework, with a dictionary explaining what each competency meant. Whilst this looked good on paper, the business was aware that these competencies were not being lived and there was little to support staff in how to develop these competencies.

Orange wanted to make an investment in its 300 1st and 2nd Line Managers from across the business in order to support them to develop these competencies – not just because it would be a nice to have but because it recognised that competency development links in to the hard measures and the bottom line, positively effecting customer experience, retention and all other KPIs. What We Did: Blue Sky conducted a diagnostic within the business visiting managers from the Consumer and the Business to Business teams in Customer Service, Retentions and Upgrades. During this diagnostic phase it became clear that in general Managers did not perceive themselves to have any gaps or require any training or development. It would be important to address this prior to delivering skills training. A common reason training can fail is if the delegate does not experience a need to develop in the first place. In order to overcome this challenge Blue Sky designed an individual Manager’s Assessment Centre and a competency based 360 questionnaire. First Blue Sky took the key competencies and developed a ‘Blue print’ – detailing exactly how each competency would be demonstrated at three levels – Apprentice, Practitioner and Master. The assessment centre was then designed to allow managers to show case their talents within each competence and highlight any development areas. The following activities were designed to test for each of the key competencies:

Activity Competency Group activity (in groups of six)

Working with others, influence and persuasion, initiative and pro-activity

Coaching role play Developing and coaching others Stats analysis Managing team performance Competency based interview Managing team performance,

developing and coaching others, customer focus

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The individual assessment centre took 2.5 hours to complete and proved invaluable in creating self awareness in Managers. The 360 questionnaire was undertaken by the individual manager, their Line Managers, two peers and four of their direct reports. Each manager received face to face feedback and a feedback pack which detailed each competency, the level at which they had demonstrated it, and what they would needed to have done to demonstrate it at a higher level, along with their 360 feedback. The programme spanned 5 sites from Newcastle to Plymouth and the Blue Sky and Orange teams needed to work very closely together to ensure that all 300 Managers completed the assessment centres and received their feedback within the required timescales. An extract of this feedback pack, relating to developing and coaching others demonstrated during the coaching role play is shown below:

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Positive Indicators Development Indicators

Apprentice 1. Developing and Coaching Others (All and no dev. indicators)

1.1 Explains the purpose of the meeting 1.2 Gives feedback positively 1.3 Gives a balance of positive and development

feedback 1.4 Invites comment on each piece of feedback 1.5 Agrees a key area(s) with the Team Member to

focus on 1.6 Undertakes a discussion around how the area(s)

could be addressed and clearly establishes how the Team Member is going to perform

1.7 Agrees a SMART goal(s) 1.8 Agrees how consolidation will be undertaken

1. Developing and Coaching Others 1.9 Does not provide any evidence for

feedback 1.10 Does not provide any opportunity for

their Team Member to comment on feedback

1.11 Talks over the Team Member 1.12 Ignores the Team Member

Practitioner 2. Developing and Coaching Others (6 from 8- no dev)

2.1 Gives an overview Agenda for the meeting 2.2 Uses a facilitative style to ‘pull’ first rather than to

‘push’ feedback 2.3 Gives all positive feedback first then developmental

second 2.4 Maintains motivation and buy-in to coaching

process throughout 2.5 Handles any objections objectively and with

reference to observation notes 2.6 Focuses on the area to develop with the biggest

business impact 2.7 Agrees and documents a SMART goal 2.8 Uses a logical structure throughout the session

Master 3. Developing and Coaching Others (7 from 9- no dev)

3.1 Explains Agenda for meeting and explains how this fits into the bigger picture of development

3.2 Asks the Team Member where they see their general performance prior to commencing the session

3.3 Gets buy-in to work together as a ‘partnership’ for coaching

3.4 Gets the Team Member to see the impact that current behaviours have on the business / customer

3.5 Facilitates a discussion around how the Team Member wants to develop the area(s) of development

3.6 Delivers a coaching development session based on the most appropriate style established with the Team Member

3.7 Links development to key business drivers throughout the meeting

3.8 Establishes, agrees and documents clear business goals in a SMART way

3.9 Agrees timescales for next coaching session

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Once individuals experienced a gap, and a need for personal development, they were then ready for the development journey. The development journey was created round the key competencies, and included a mixture of workshops, action learning assignments, consolidation sessions, personal 1:1 mentoring sessions and e-learning. Workshops were provided at Apprentice, Practitioner and Master level. This avoided the sheep dip approach as managers attended workshops that were relevant to their own personal level of ability. Managers attend one workshop per month, allowing time to receive consolidation and personal mentoring, embed the learning and demonstrate it before moving on to the next stage of their development. Workshops included:

♦ Apprentice: Managing Team Performance

♦ Apprentice: Coaching

♦ Apprentice: Communication and Change

♦ Practitioner : Managing Performance

♦ Practitioner: Performance Coaching

♦ Practitioner: One Team Customer Excellence

♦ Practitioner: Personal Effectiveness Plan

♦ Practitioner: Managing Business Change

♦ Master: Management Surgery Session

♦ Master: Influencing and Negotiation Having piloted these workshops, Blue Sky is now in the process of accrediting the in house management development trainers at Orange to deliver the programme to foster further partnership and self sufficiency within the business. Who we did it for Over 300 1st and 2nd Line Managers have embarked on their journey to achieving ‘Master’ status in the Management Academy programme. What was the outcome? All Apprentice workshops have now been run and we are just embarking on the Practitioner journey for 1st and 2nd Managers. A high percentage of Managers at Orange were at Apprentice development status for most of the key competencies. Approximately 80% of these Managers are now demonstrating the key competencies at an apprentice level and are signed off to embark on their practitioner’s journey. The Blue print has been used by themselves and

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their Managers to ensure they are demonstrating the right behaviours. The Blue print has proved to be an effective tool in showing Managers not just what to do, but how to do it. The success of the Management Academy can be measured at a number of levels:

♦ Developing competencies links in to the bottom line by positively effecting sales, customer service metrics and quantity and quality stats.

♦ As one Team Manager put it after attending all the apprentice workshops:

“I used to be happy when my team were all performing at an average level – I thought that was enough and if I could do that I had nothing to learn. Now I stretch my team. I am not happy with average, I want to be the best and that means continuously developing myself.”

♦ After attending the Managing Team Performance and Coaching workshop a Collections Team Manager increased her team’s results by 300% in one month.

♦ The Call Centre Manager was amazed at his Managers’ progress, “Prior to the Management Academy training I had written off some of my Team Mangers. I did not think they would ever be able to do the job. The turn around in their attitude and motivation levels has been fantastic, and means we are now hitting target – in some teams for the first time in a long time.”

♦ There have been significant improvements in operational performance. After attending the managing team performance and coaching workshop:

◊ 100% managers reported an increase in team ASAT scores. Average increase was 8%.

◊ A 3.6% increase in Sales (through service) conversion rate ◊ 100% managers realised benefits in other KPI’s; average

reduction in average handling time of 4%, increase in cross selling rates by 3.55% and a 1% reduction in call hold and absence. One collections team manager increased her team’s results by 300% in one month!

♦ Improved Management Competency Levels

♦ Reduced absence figs by 1%

♦ Achieved foundation level accreditation status from Teesside University. first foundation degree in contact centre management

♦ Achieved level 3 accreditation by CMI (Chartered Management Institute)

♦ Due to the success of the Management Academy Blue Sky are now in the process of designing and delivering an Agent Academy, taking agent level competencies, breaking them down into a blue print to show how to demonstrate each competency at an Apprentice, Practitioner and Master level. The journey will then

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include developmental workshops in the key competencies such as Sales through Service, Complaint Handling and Customer Focus, and will roll out to 4000 staff across all sites.

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What results do our clients tangibly experience?

♦ Increases in performance (e.g. sales conversions within a Leaders Department.)

♦ Increases in customer satisfaction.

♦ Projects delivered on time.

♦ Tangible changes in behaviour.

♦ Decreases in regretted staff attrition.

♦ Employee opinion surveys – increased levels of engagement.

♦ Employee opinion surveys – increased perception of leadership capability.

What do our clients say? “The whole Momentum Programme has been stunning. You have exceeded my expectations in every way”.

Ian Broom, Head of Contact Centre, DVLA. Winner - Best Improvement Strategy - ECCA 2007

“The programme isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about taking the positive attributes you have, and learning how to maximise them, making you an effective leader.”

Delegate “A challenging and thought provoking experience, which really makes you question and then get to the heart of your own leadership style and the impact you have on others.”

Delegate “I have been on numerous leadership programmes and this is the best one I have ever attended. I now look at myself and like what I see. I actually believe in me. And that carries me. I am now far more courageous, I’ll take risks and I’ll stand up for what I believe in. I feel totally empowered.”

Delegate “This exceeded every expectation. Everywhere I go I see, hear and feel a tangible difference in skills, style, initiative and focus. I will make it my mission to ensure this is adopted as THE leadership programme for the whole of HBOS.”

Operations Director

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7. Professional Qualifications

Blue Sky and/or members of its personnel are members of the following professional organisations or hold the following qualifications:

♦ Prince II Practitioner(s)

♦ Project Management Professional under PMI (Project Management Institute)

♦ SDI Qualified (Strength Deployment Inventory)

♦ Qualified in Behavioural Technology

♦ Psychometrician and MBTI Practitioner(s)

♦ Institute of Direct Marketing

♦ Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD)

♦ Association for Management Education & Development

♦ Call Centre Association

♦ Chartered institute of Marketing

♦ NLP Licensed Practitioners

♦ Post Graduate diploma in Executive Coaching In addition, we have been involved in the following:

♦ Member of Retail Week Judging Panel for Rising Stars 2005

♦ Chair of the European Call Centre of the Year Judges Panel 2002

♦ Member of the European Call Centre of the Year Judges Panel 2001 - 2008

We are regularly used as consultants to the Industry Advisory Boards on best practice issues and have been asked by the BBC to be the subject matter experts in areas relating to customer service and sales management for their launch of BBC Worldwide Learning.

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8. Client List

Financial Services Abbey Alliance & Leicester American Express Axa Insurance Axa Sun Life Affinion International Bank of Ireland Barclaycard Barclays Barclays Wealth Churchill Insurance Co-op Financial Services First Plus HBOS ING Direct Insurance Advisory Service Invesco Liverpool Victoria Lloyds TSB NS&I NatWest Insurance Norwich & Peterborough Building Society Norwich Union Portman Building Society Prudential Royal & SunAlliance Royal Bank of Scotland Group Scottish Widows Standard Life Automotive Alamo BMW Financial Services Mercedes Benz Volkswagen Financial Media & Communications BBC Helpdesk BBC Worldwide BSkyB Affinion International Retail / Consumer First Choice Retail ICI Paints JD Williams Marks & Spencer Merloni MFI Parcel Force Royal Mail Virgin Games Virgin Health Bank Outsourcing Contact 24 Pell & Bales Sitel UK Ltd

Travel & Leisure Bourne Leisure Center Parcs Eurostar First Choice Haven Holidays Ladbrokes Park Resorts Stena Line Thomas Cook Signature Thomas Cook Global Financial Services Thomson Holidays ThomsonFly TV Travel Shop Virgin Atlantic Airways Virgin Holidays Virgin Trains Telecoms 3 Bulldog Communications BT Carphone Warehouse Colt Telecom Mobinil O2 Orange T-Mobile Virgin Mobile Vodafone Public Sector Bolton City Council Department for Work & Pensions DVLA Greater Manchester Ambulance Service Environment Agency Legal Services Commission NHS Professionals Research Council UCAS West Mercia Constabulary Technology BBC IT Helpdesk Gateway Computers Linklaters IT Helpdesk Sage Symantec Utilities BG Group BOC Group Central Networks Centrica EDF Energy Powergen Scottish Water United Utilities