Virgin Atlantic Case Study | Brilliant Basics, Magic Touches

The Brief

To maintain its reputation for excellent customer service, Virgin Atlantic tasked NKD with creating and implementing a customer service refresher programme for its 4000 cabin crew members. The brief was to design a memorable experience that would inspire the crew in their work and help build a real collective pride in the Virgin brand and service experience.
 

The Solution

NKD developed the 'Brilliant Basics, Magic Touches' programme, which aimed to motivate Virgin's cabin crew via a series of emotive films, a spoof radio show and a creatively-produced, high-impact training event in a custom-built environment.

To ensure strong engagement with the programme from the outset, NKD knew that the way it was launched to the cabin crew was critical. A bespoke one-off radio show was therefore created, hosted by Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay, featuring guests from Virgin's management, music from emerging bands, a quiz and plenty of banter. The show set the scene for 'The Event' - a training day which ran for more than 250 days, training 16 crew on each day - and explained how 'listeners' could get involved. CDs sent out to all cabin crew and management employees, together with 'gig tickets' and official workbook 'programmes' kept the ultra-cool theme running throughout the year-long event.

NKD set the tone for the training day with the production of a highly motivational 2-minute film titled, "What Memories Did You Create Today?" The film was designed to help delegates think of themselves as creators of memories rather than just someone doing a job. This was followed by a day-long programme of discussion, self-evaluation exercises and challenges for the future.

Crucially, the training event did not tell employees what to do. Rather, by using interactive exercises and emotive communications techniques in an environment more akin to a TV chat show studio than a formal classroom, it was designed to enable delegates to discover the answers for themselves through grown-up discussion.
 

The Results

Virgin was delighted by an overwhelmingly positive response to the training by its employees. Thanks to the radio show, more than 80% of people arrived at The Event already engaged with the aims of the programme, significantly enhancing the effectiveness of the training day. More importantly, customers have reported a real difference in cabin crew performance, with complaints about cabin crew behaviour dropping by more than 25% since the programme began.