A Sample Case Study

Glasgow Housing Association ( GHA) has around 1650 staff in more than 60 locations. Around 70 per
cent of its staff work on the frontline either in housing or in environmental roles with the remainder
in Support Services.

The brief from the Executive Team was to take customer service to a new level through a
programme of empowering staff to deliver tailored services to customers at the first point of
contact.

The Marketing Service Team took the brief from inception to conception, creating the idea of "Think
Yes", the brand and the visuals in consultation with a staff focus group. The Communication Team
then translated the idea into a suite of communications and led the charge towards better customer
service. They made it accessible, understandable and they kept it alive when staff interest in it could
have flagged.

The Think Yes campaign was first introduced to GHA staff as a pilot project in July 2011. The
objective of Think Yes was to raise customer satisfaction levels by asking staff to think positively
when faced with a customer request. The pilots were a runaway success and Think Yes was rolled
out across the entire organisation in May 2012.

Strategy

Martin Armstrong, the Chief Executive, visited staff in the pilot areas to explain the aims of Think Yes
face to face with staff. He told staff they were empowered to 'think yes' in the face of customer
requests, to take pride in their work and take action to delight customers. The pilots were a huge
success.

At this point, the Communication Team stepped in to tell the story of Think Yes. They spoke to the
leaders who designed the programme and the staff who had made it a success. They had to find a
way to explain both what Think Yes was and how it could be emulated by everyone.

These conversations culminated in the first Think Yes dedicated edition of the staff newsletter, a
Think Yes microsite on the old intranet and a suite of all-staff emails. Think Yes was introduced to
the organisation in the February 2012 edition of YourNews, the staff newsletter. It was the first time,
other than in leadership meetings, that the distinctive Thin Yes 'tick' appeared.

The Marketing Services team, along with the design team, had already created a brand and a suite of
marketing materials which were distributed to the network. This included posters, screen savers and
branding elements that could be used in communications.

Initial communications in staff newsletters set the scene, explaining what had happened in the pilots
and how it had improved customer satisfaction and, more importantly for colleagues, how it
empowered staff to make the right decision.

Implementation

Better Futures week in April was the official launch of Think Yes for all staff. The Marketing Services
Team immersed the organisation in Think Yes - rebranding the training academy as the hub of Think
Yes. The question posed to all employees was : "Why do we say no to people who(in paying their
rents) pay our wages?"

Through careful scheduling and targeted communications, all GHA staff members attended one of
the sessions. At the end they received their own Think Yes pack and a personal email from the Chief
Executive thanking them - all put together by the team to keep Think Yes in their minds at all times
and to underline their personal role.

Staff were introduced to the 'blockage buster' : an internal website and phone line where staff could
report a blockage which was stopping them from thinking yes. Over time this led to 60 specific
'blockages' being removed and services improved as a result.

Evaluation

Overall tenant satisfaction for GHA rose to 87 per cent, up from 85 per cent the previous year and a
rise of 20 percentage points over eight years! The tenant satisfaction survey also showed that the
number of tenants very satisfied with GHA as their landlord had increased from 16 per cent in 2009
to an all time high of 42 percent. In 2012 the tenant survey showed that levels of customer
dissatisfaction with GHA had remained stubborn, fixed at 8 per cent since 2009. But the 2013 survey
results showed GHA had made progress on this, with only 6 per cent of tenants dissatisfied.