BJA - Our Work - Service Excellence and Lean Operations
BRINGING ABOUT CULTURAL CHANGE AND DELIVERING SERVICE EXCELLENCE - Front of House Review
A major museums group was concerned with the way that the service was being delivered, the management structure, the role of the management and staff, the cost and the staffing levels. There is also a major refurbishment programme taking place which will generate more visitors and a broader audience when the Museum is re-launched. As a part of this the client wanted to deliver a quality of service which would be in keeping with the style of the new museum. BJA provided advice as to the potential layout and locations of all the key front of house services and trading activities. BJA developed the objectives and structure for a new front of house service including departments, organisational and operational implications, roles and staffing levels. The Board of Governors approved all the recommendations and the client has fully implemented the re-structuring, following BJA's implementation plan. As a result the client has developed a much more dynamic, quality and customer focused structure and operation across both museums which operates more cost effectively, delivers cost savings, will engage more fully with the public and enables the client to be in a much stronger position to achieve the commercial potential.
FINDING THE RIGHT MANAGEMENT OPTION - Options Appraisal
The client with responsibility for 9 museums, galleries, castles, archives and other attractions with nationally significant collections and buildings, had been making year on year savings, but was still required to deliver some very significant further savings over the next three years. As part of their Fundamental Heritage Review BJA looked and identified the most suitable management and governance options that would achieve the organisation's objectives and the savings needed in the timescales to be met i.e. 'how to deliver more with less.' BJA costed these options and developed a range of business case scenarios for the group of attractions and for each individual site so the client could see the impact on each site of each scenario. From this BJA provided the client with a clear and costed strategy, structure and recommendations. From this the client was able to identify quickly how to achieve the savings needed in the first year, achieve the long term sustainability of the venues and bring about further service improvement.
For a major seaside authority the client wanted to review the management options for tourism and leisure in the borough. BJA provided a strategy and recommended the management option that was the best fit for the borough to ensure that:
- the service could continue to improve
- the financial savings could be delivered
- could achieve the commercial potential
- was the best option in terms of long term sustainability
BJA identified how to make the most of the opportunities, how to avoid the pitfalls, how to minimise the risks including the future development of tourism and leisure in the borough and provided an implementation plan to follow.
RE-FOCUSING AND ENERGISING THE BUSINESS - Business Review
An important historical venue needed to find a strategy to overcome its declining market and growing deficit. Following a comprehensive review of the operation, the competition and the market, BJA streamlined the business objectives to focus on:
- differentiating itself from its competitors by being a high quality destination attraction
- driving conference and events sales
- providing an entertainments programme with a broader appeal to a younger audience
- more emphasis on quality rather than quantity
- setting clear service standards
- putting the management and communication systems in place to improve performance and motivate the whole team
BJA recommended a new much more sales and visitor focused structure and developed an action plan to help with the implementation.
BJA's report provided the foundation not only for managerial change which is currently being implemented, but also enabled the client to take forward a clear proposal which has attracted £4m of capital investment to improve the venue and help achieve the above goals.
BUSINESS PLANNING AND ORGANISATIONAL REVIEW
A very significant historical building needed to be turned around from a loss making venue into a profitable and self sustainable attraction that can generate sufficient revenue to cover its running costs and deliver enough resources to enable re-investment, further restoration and conservation work to take place.
BJA conducted a comprehensive review looking at all aspects of the marketing, visitor experience, finance and structure of the organisation. BJA provided a business and management plan which within their existing resources:
- Significantly raised the profile the attraction
- Developed joint promotions and marketing initiatives which would increase visitor numbers
- Focused the organisation on practical ways in which they can significantly improve the visitor experience and service in the short and longer term
- Increased the focus on the family offer and delivering an exceptional service
- Identified how to enhance and expand the role of the community and volunteers
- Identified new revenue streams and in particular how to make the most of the commercial potential
- Developed a realistic and achievable business plan which gave the client the confidence they could meet their goals and objectives
- Identified the structure and developed an action plan that was needed to deliver the business and management plan
DEVELOPING SERVICE STANDARDS
A leading national organisation with responsibility for the management, conservation and operation of a large number of historic monuments wanted to make significant improvements to the service. The process started with a two day away day with a range of staff and managers to identify best practice by looking at a competitor's site and comparing all aspects of visitor experience with the service delivered at one of their own monuments. Working with the various staff and management teams an action plan was developed. One of the key areas for improvement identified was the need to develop service standards to help differentiate the organisation from the competition and to help deliver a higher and more consistent level of service across all monuments throughout the visitor season. BJA worked with the management and the staff to develop a set of over arching customer service commitents and SMART service standards to underpin each of these commitments. The process identified the monitoring systems to be used and working with the staff at all levels to refine the action plan to help deliver the standards. The client has been very happy with the outcome and is now working on the implementation of the service standards and the action plan.
This world class museum group wanted to develop a set of customer service commitments and standards for the organisation, covering every aspect of the service and the customer experience. The aim was for everyone to be working to the same objectives ensuring that exceptional standards of service were offered at all times. BJA led this exercise working with staff and managers at all levels across the organisation developing the commitments and standards so that there was ownership, commitment and so that they were achievable. The process also included putting the monitoring systems in place, identifying and addressing the tools needed to deliver the standards, identifying where responsilbity lies and then the roll out of the standards. The standards are now used in staff induction, training, job descriptions, personal objectives and the client's appraisal system. The standards apply to everyone whether they are in-house or contracted staff and have been incorporated into service level agreements and contracts with outside suppliers.
The impact on the standards and quality of service has been dramatic and there are many areas of the operation where there have been clear and distinctive improvements in service delivery as a result. Everyone is clear about their role, how they can help the organisation and the process has been an integral part of bringing about cultural change and establishing a customer service and commercial culture.
IMPROVING STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE - Mystery Shopping, Service / Commercial Audits
For the last five years BJA has worked with this major national museums group who wanted their mystery shopping exercise to go further than providing scores and some top line observations i.e. more akin to a service audit, to measure the standards being achieved for all aspects of the visitor experience and to provide clear, practical observations and recommendations which can help to bring about significant improvement in the service. BJA have provided the client with clear recommendations and solutions to improve the service, standards, sales and make savings. All of the recommendations are practical and many could be implemented easily at little or no additional cost. Each year BJA present to the management teams and as a group discuss and decide where further service improvements can be made across the group and site specifically and develop action plans to achieve these goals.
One of the UK's highest profile and largest city councils had concerns about the standards of service being delivered across their sports and leisure venues and the way the service was structured. BJA were appointed to conduct comprehensive service audits of their six leading flagship wet and dry sports venues across the City. These audits looked at all aspects of the customer experience from telephone enquiries and finding the venues to all aspects of the service within the venues including the the range of programme, how well they promoted the offer both visually and by the staff at each site including city wide services and membership, the utilisation of facilities and the presentation of all areas from changing rooms and pools to visitor orientation and catering. The client was so pleased with BJA's reports that in addition to group wide presentations to service directors and venue managers the report was taken to the Council Executive Management Committee and used as the catalyst for bringing about change; not just operationally but structurally so that the service can be organised and be in the best possible position to deliver service excellence consistently across all sites and to be able to achieve the commercial potential.
For the last five years working with one of the world's leading museums BJA have focused on measuring the service provide by the staff and the visitor management. BJA's measurements and insight identified the need to develop a more proactive, sales oriented and welcoming staff, who would engage more with customers and more actively promote what the Museum has to offer. Following the report presentation, the management teams developed their own action plans to bring about the change needed. BJA provided practical and simple recommendations which would help the Museum to achieve their goals in the short and long term. The client finds the mystery visits, honest, clear, practical, usable and helps to provide direction. As a result BJA have been retained for the last five years to continue to help the museum to make further improvement. The brief has also been extended to identify ways to improve the catering service and operation; to identify the visitor management issues and solutions; and to help achieve the public catering potential throughout the museum.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT- Interim Management Support
BJA provided senior management cover for a major museums group for a newly created post as Head of Visitor Services. The client approached BJA to provide this cover as their managers have years of experience gained from working as senior managers at some of the UK's most prestigious venues where they have delivered major programmes of change and improvements in service, standards and the bottom line. The Museum did not expect the person covering the post just to keep the service going, but to make service and commercial improvements in the department and across the Group.
BJA managers became a part of the organisation and not only ran the departments effectively until the post was filled, but made significant progress in bringing about positive change. As a part of the interim management cover the client involved BJA with many projects that affected the way the service was delivered including capital projects, making improvements to the physical services offered and the introduction of new systems to ensure that good service is delivered all the time. The interim management support was so successful and the client was so happy that one of BJA associates was then taken on in the permanent role.
Working with another leading major museums group BJA are working alongside an existing operational management team:
- Developing a much more 'hand's on' management approach, including finding ways to release managers to spend more time on the shop floor
- Developing much more effective two way lines of communication between the management and staff and across all departments, particularly those that impact on the front of house service
- Helping to improve standards by developing a management team that know what to look for, have eyes that see, identifying and putting systems and procedures in place to ensure that the standards are being monitored and that there is continuous improvement
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT - Mentoring
BJA provided mentoring for a manager who had been given responsibility for overseeing the operational set up and launch of a major new re-developed museum which was of major significance for the Trust and the region. The mentoring service included:
- Identifying the key objectives, priorities and timescales including the launch of the new museum while not loosing site of the existing venues
- Identifying the standards to be achieved by seeing best practice at other venues
- Project planning
- Regular site visits with the manager
- Reviewing progress, identifying key issues and solutions leading up to the opening
The opening of the Museum was a great success, the star of the show was the operations manager, ensuring that everything was in place, tested and that on the opening day despite high visitor numbers the service was seamless, and that the pr and 'word of mouth' publicity that followed was excellent.
BJA worked with the Visitor Business Manager and team to ensure that this very prestigious stately home has the most efficient and cost effective staff rota and staffing levels in place ready for the new visitor season. BJA also worked with the team to look at how else the service and commercial performance can be improved in the short and long term.
DELIVERING WORLD CLASS SERVICE FROM CONCEPT STAGE TO LAUNCH - Operational planning of new developments
For a major museums group BJA provided advice on the layout of the front entrance and how the service should be delivered including the welcome, visitor orientation, key services that need to be promoted and better locations for catering and retail to improve the service, penetration and sales. BJA then provided advice on the entrance, layout and service delivery for a major new museums education and learning centre
For another high profile museum group BJA identified changes needed to make the front entrance and layout more welcoming, able to communicate key messages and to generate more revenue. One of these changes included identifying the need for a re-layout of the shop to be more visible, inviting and encouraging more visitors to pass through it. The result has been that the entrance area is much more welcoming, communicates key messages more clearly, provides better visitor orientation and information and has resulted in a 40% increase in the shop sales.
BJA provided the visitor services strategy at the concept stage of a multi million pound visitor centre. This was the first phase of a $1b ski resort which will host the Asian Winter Olympic Games. The strategy covered every aspect of the operation including the overall visitor services objectives and standards; visitors making their way to the centre; the welcome and arrival; the visitor reception services and visitor flow; the retail, catering and events strategy / locations; the operational front of house and back of house implications and all other key back of house visitor service considerations such as cleaning and maintenance.
A client was concerned that a £45m major regional and national arts venue was not going to be ready to open on time. With eight weeks to opening BJA worked with the client and the management team and ensured that all aspects of visitor services / the operation were ready, staffed and opened on time with greater control of the costs and in a better position to deliver a quality service and make more from the commercial and visitor services activity.
ACHIEVING THE RETAIL POTENTIAL - Retail Reviews
When BJA started the client was recruiting a retail general manager. Before this post was filled the client required a number of highly practical tasks:
- Assessing the existing stock and finding ways of realising value from old, largely 'redundant' items
- Re-merchandising the shop for a Christmas opening
- Sourcing new stock, both for Christmas trading and for the new visitor season
- Providing benchmarking advice to help assess what was a realistic target for shop sales and gross profit margins
- Looking at the existing stock control system and making recommendations
- Discussing with senior management the potential for long term strategic changes with the operation
The aim was to provide a solid base for the new manager to work from and then to provide the new post holder with training and support across a variety of issues. The result was a very successful Christmas trading period and a much firmer foundation on which to enter the main visitor season. BJA were able to provide strategic advise allied to highly practical 'hands on' work to implement real change.
EXCEEDING VISITOR NUMBER TARGETS - Marketing Strategy
BJA worked with a small independent charitable museum to develop a marketing strategy and marketing plan. The strategy focused on: improving the visibility of the location; reflecting in all the publicity material and signage the Museum's programming work which was broadening and diversifying the audience; and developed strategies to help improve secondary spend areas further. The strategy included providing a more contemporary feel to all the marketing and signage, while at the same time remembering its role and unique position in the market i.e. local history. The strategy and plan contributed to visitor numbers being 46% ahead of the previous year and forecasts having to be revised upwards.