Jane Streat, Head of Client Services at Lexington Reception Services (LRS), caught up with Osman Yilmaz, Human Resources Consultant and BAME Network Chair at Tate, to find out what they’ve done to improve their visitor experience, the importance of front of house and what can be learnt from their journey so far.

As we rocket further into the 21st century, our customer’s expectations scream ever more skywards. Organisations are constantly looking for innovative ways to maintain and revive their customer’s experience. But are they missing a trick? Osman believes many organisations are.

There is plenty of hard evidence which shows that happy employees lead directly to improved performance and higher profitability. But how do you ensure someone’s happiness has longevity?

Osman, at Tate, is currently working on two basic principles:

– An inclusive culture that encourages active participation.

– A heterarchy philosophy that enables colleagues at all levels to co-create and curate their visitor experience landscape.

Osman stresses the need to go back to basics in order to engage your team. The first point is inclusive leadership. He says, “Don’t let hierarchy stifle creative input from non-management colleagues. Those who do the role will have practical ideas about how to improve customer experiences.

“Their interaction with customers means they have a good idea of what people like and dislike, so why not invite them to be part of creating a customer service strategy rather than confining such thinking to a small cluster of managers.”

Osman explains that the Visitor Experience team, at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, is currently exploring the type of service they offer to visitors. To do
this, the approach has been to move away from a situation where creative thinking is confined to the ranks of management. The tradition and comfortable go-to is for managers to huddle around a table and create their vision of what excellent customer service is. The challenge with this is then selling that vision to the people who do the job and deliver the service.

The approach Osman has been advocating is to create a space where colleagues at all levels within the visitor service team come together with managers to co-create and co-curate their service together.

Inviting colleagues to participate in this way sends out a strong message that says, “we value your experiences, insight and contribution. This is not the vision of the management team but of the team”.

Creating an environment of choice, where colleagues get a say in the changes that happen is a significant move away from a parent–child relationship of ‘do and tell’.

Osman says, “Colleagues come to work with a wealth of life experiences which they build upon in the work place. Unfortunately, their experiences are often overlooked simply because of their job title. By breaking down limitations caused by hierarchies, it reduces a culture of ‘us and them’ which often leads to mistrust.”

Tate has worked hard to give their front of house team the opportunity to co-create as well as co- curate, and in doing so engagement has improved.

It’s everyone’s vision. Osman says, “The whole team has been involved with researching, developing ideas, and putting forward suggestions on how we, as a customer service team, create our vision together. It’s everyone’s vision.”

By allowing our team to be themselves at work, giving them choices on how they engage and what they do to help our customers, will help them connect in a way that’s authentic and genuine.