Two into one does go at Optimum Contact Solutions

How do you resolve cultural differences between companies when they merge to create one new venture? Training was the answer for Optimum Contact Solutions,the contact-center division of Littlewoods Shop Direct Group, formed from two legacy businesses and responsible for customer contact for 12 shopping-catalog brands.

It improved the skills of its learning and development managers, who then developed and delivered a two-day training program for 480 managers, to address performance-management issues and help to drive through behavioral change. The success of the workshop earned Optimum Contact Solutions a UK National Training Award.

Clare Martin, the Optimum Contact Solutions head of learning and development,said: “We were faced with a number of challenges. Primarily, our approach to performance management needed to be updated to reflect modern business practices. Also, we wanted to ensure that our focus increased investment in our people, which in turn will result in benefits to our customers.”

The workshop helped to improve managers’ ability to conduct quality performance reviews of staff and create a high-performing organization. So far,98 percent of managers have completed the course.

Improving the skills of the learning and development managers increased the number of workshops they could run and added to the pace of cultural change.

Said Clare Martin: “The role-plays at the end of day two consolidated the learning and enabled people to provide feedback in a comfortable environment. This gave them the opportunity further to improve their management techniques when back in the workplace.”

Among the benefits of the workshop are: a 10 percent reduction in customer complaints; a demonstrable increase in sales; improved customer-experience scores; an increase in staff attendance; and an improvement in the quality of performance reviews conducted.

“The workshop has been so successful that other areas within Littlewoods Shop Direct Group are looking to adopt this approach,” said Clare Martin. “It is now a fundamental element in the induction of new managers to the business.

“Developing our management population and their competencies is extremely important to us as a business because it demonstrates that not only do we support our people but we put the ultimate customer experience at the heart of everything we do.”