Background
Harvey Nichols is a well-known retailer of luxury brand goods with a flagship store in Knightsbridge, London and store outlets in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. It also owns two up-market restaurants.
A major project began early in 2003 to embed a set of brand values that had been identified as defining business success. These three brand values:
- We provide a feel good experience
- We are exclusive but accessible
- We provide fashion leadership
reflected the company's approach to customer service. The challenge was to decide how they could be expressed in terms of visible behaviour: the critical question was 'What does it look like when it happens on the shop floor?'. Once this had been determined the development of individual skills could be progressed.
A project team was established to translate these three values into something that would be tangible and of practical value. The project team was made up of the following: staff representatives from each of the individual sites who were considered active customer service champions within the business, a director who acted as the project sponsor and members of the HR team whose role was to steer the project and manage the project plan. The project team members in turn created their own teams within each of their respective sites. In this way, using a mixture of the top-down and bottom-up processes, a set of people values and behaviours were developed. Those associated with the first brand value - we provide a feel-good experience - are set out in the table below.
| People Values |
Behaviours |
| Eager to engage with customers in order to deliver a great experience |
Being welcoming - using eye contact and positive body language |
| Willing to go the extra mile |
Actively helping customers & colleagues |
| Enthusiastic and positive |
Listening to customers and colleagues |
| People who like people! |
Looking for how to say 'yes' |
| Strong, clear communicator |
Encouraging colleagues to works as a team |
In addition to the people values and behaviours a number of illustrative 'customer journeys' were prepared to provide specific examples of expectations, barriers and opportunities.
Rolling out the system
In the summer of 2003 launch events were held at every site, to present the values and the associated behaviours. Directors led these events, and actors presented role-plays of desirable (and undesirable) behaviours. Subsequently the department managers (who could be responsible for anything between six and 24 staff) were charged with ensuring that the values were embedded in the company. All department managers attended a one-day 'train the trainer' course and were provided with the necessary tools for team discussions and exercises. Currently the competencies that underpin the performance review system, and the system itself, are being updated to reflect the desirable behaviours identified from the brand values exercise.
The on-going task facing the HR department at Harvey Nichols is to ensure that such behaviours are recognised and reinforced in the context and culture of an up-market retail organisation.
Karen McKibbin, the Training and Development Manager, has explicitly rejected the idea of a generic training course for all sales assistants. A traditional training solution is not considered appropriate. In her view sales assistants will learn best through immediate feedback and personal reinforcement with support from their managers and peers. Input from the small group of Harvey Nichols specialist advisers (the elite sales people who receive additional recognition for their exceptional capabilities) emphasised that it would be wrong to be over-prescriptive on what makes for good customer service; it involves an elusive ability to 'read the customer'. This can be learned, but may not be trainable.
Against this background, in late autumn 2003 Harvey Nichols introduced the Brand Champion Scheme. This was based on immediate recognition and potential reward for people who demonstrate the values. Importantly it was the sales assistants' peer group who were given the responsibility for identifying such examples. All staff were issued with voucher cards, which they could complete when they observed exceptional action in accordance with the values. They would hand these vouchers to the person who had demonstrated this behaviour who would then forward them to HR as evidence of eligibility for designation as a Brand Champion. Such a designation earned one-off rewards.
Linking learning with performance
The challenge now is to create learning opportunities for the less proficient. According to Karen McKibbin these too must be based on immediate peer feedback and manager support. Developing such options is a major current concern for her. Buddying-up staff with a suitable peer is one evident possibility; this is already used in inducting new staff. Harvey Nichols is currently seeking to extend the number of staff who can act as buddies. Another major thrust is to develop the department manager's ability to question in a non-threatening fashion. It is Karen McKibbin's firm view that staff learn on the job and that such learning is inextricably linked with performance.