At the time of the engagement, the organisation was operating under sustained public, regulatory, and customer scrutiny, with a strategic imperative to improve customer experience, employee engagement, and leadership effectiveness across executive, senior management, and front-line roles.
Business need
- To design and deliver a customer service and leadership programme that strengthened positive leadership behaviours and frontline service delivery.
- To improve employee engagement, internal communication, and customer experience across stations and on-train services.
- To help leaders and front-line teams understand the impact of attitude and behaviour on customers and colleagues.
- To embed a customer-centric culture, driven from the front line and role-modelled by senior and executive leadership.
- To align leadership behaviour and engagement initiatives with recognised people and performance standards, including Investors in People.
What was delivered
A multi-level leadership, communication, and customer service programme, integrating executive development, senior management capability building, and front-line customer service training.Key elements included:
- 22 experiential workshops delivered across multiple operational locations.
- A combined programme for:
- Executive leadership
- Senior management population
- Front-line customer-facing teams
- Executive 1-to-1 coaching and development sessions to ensure visible role-modelling of desired behaviours.
- Leadership modules covering:
- Transformational leadership
- Self-awareness and leadership communication
- Building high-performance teams
- Mental toughness and resilience
- Decision quality and effective feedback
- Use of behavioural tools to support self-awareness, communication, and conflict management.
- Highly experiential leadership activation, including multi-day off-site challenges designed to embed learning under pressure.
- A series of front-line customer service workshops focused on attitude, communication, personal impact, and written action planning.
- Mobile learning support to reinforce application and sustain behavioural change beyond the classroom.
- Structured follow-up sessions for executives and senior managers to review commitments, progress, and behavioural impact.
Outcomes
- Employee engagement increased by 18% within a 12-month period.
- Survey participation rates increased significantly, indicating improved trust and engagement.
- Measurable improvements across key engagement indicators, including:
- Increased belief that customers are placed at the heart of decision-making
- Improved perception of the organisation as a great place to work
- Greater confidence in senior leaders leading by example
- Increased pride in working for the organisation
- 99% of delegates would recommend the programme; 99% rated it as valuable.
- Facilitation rated 97%, with content rated 94% across participants.
- The organisation achieved external recognition and awards for customer service, employee engagement, and people development, including Investors in People Gold and national best-practice awards.
