Creating a culture of service

Kent County Council’s innovative Gateway programme is an ambitious approach to reshaping the way people in Kent access services. As part of planning for the roll-out of 10 additional Gateway locations, management was keen to build the foundations for a collaborative customer focused culture across all Gateway locations. 

Gateway approached Engine, in partnership with SILK, to bring a creative approach to fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst staff, to ensure consistent service improvement. The ambition to change needs to be made tangible. Front line staff ask for simple and practical tools they can use quickly to do their job. We developed a research programme for completion by staff that encouraged them to actively investigate their own questions about services and customers through direct engagement.

Informal one on one conversations with customers

During a series of workshops Engine used the insights and customer stories collected during research as the starting point for co-designing a practical tool kit for identifying and responding collaboratively to customer needs. Drawing on Gateway’s unique ability as a multi service provider made the most of the range of expertise available under one roof.

Detailing the various actions involved in an individual users journey

Staff helped to co-design a customer journey mapping toolkit that provided a structured way for groups to unpack customer issues, generate and prioritise creative solutions, and make plans for action. By bringing to life the various actions of an individual’s visit and continuously focusing on meeting their needs, staff were able to quickly identify opportunities for improving the customer experience.

The project served as a practical demonstration of the potential of working across organisations and proved to be an effective way of sharing expertise and building a shared awareness of the total Gateway offer. Beyond instigating a new approach to working together, this work provided a mechanism for frontline staff to stimulate grassroots innovation within each Gateway centre location.