Based at the Observatory in Ryde, Performance in People has picked up a host of industry awards and now employs more than 75 people, describing themselves as “the UK’s leading customer service business.” Tom Stroud pays them a visit.
Every business owner would like to think that their customers are getting the best possible service from well-trained staff. In the real world this doesn’t always follow. Mike Dalloz knows this. He set up Performance in People in Ryde fifteen years ago and now works with a slew of high-street brands and household names to improve the way that their staff are interacting with customers. With a client list that includes Currys, PC World, Carphone Warehouse, Ladbrokes, Mazda, Vauxhall, VW Group, Nationwide, Legal & General, they’re clearly doing something right.
“It’s generally big, corporate organisations that come to us,” explains Mike, Performance in People’s founder and managing director. “They may be looking to improve their customer service or their customer experience performance, or looking at ways to improve their sales conversion or average transaction values in a retail environment. The companies that we appeal to most are generally large, automotive, financial services and retail organisations.”
Mike’s team are youthful, casually dressed and energetic, working to deliver mystery shopping, customer research surveys, audits, training and coaching, as well as developing service standards.
“Some of our clients have over 2,000 outlets,” Mike explains. “You can go into high street retail locations and receive an exceptionally good service experience on one day. On another day and in a different part of the country that isn’t always the case. We can assist these organisations to achieve consistency, which is always a challenge for large companies.”
Mike came to the Island in the late 1980s as a 21 year old, armed with “lots of drive and ambition and determination.” He set up Deacons Estate Agents but found that the next ten years were “quite a hard slog”. Although he didn’t realise it at the time, he was also looking for something new. On a trip to London in 2000 Mike was struck by the differences in the way London agents presented themselves. Branches of the same company, just a few miles apart, were operating completely differently.
“I came away with a business idea. In areas like estate agency, everyone is always judged on revenue but there are many factors that contribute to revenue generation. What were the management of these organisations doing to independently monitor and assess their performance?”
With the germ of an idea forming, Mike opened an office opposite Ryde Police Station. His team consisted of three people including one mystery shopper. Today the company employs more than 75 people with a nationwide network of more than 35,000 mystery shoppers, researchers, and auditors. It’s a busy and vibrant place to work, with themed offices. Some of the team work within a green carpeted “woodland” environment, and others are doing their job against a backdrop of photos of the Isle of Wight festivals. There’s even a beach café themed staff room. These unique tweaks to the office environment don’t detract from the fact that Performance in People is a big player within the UK market and that the team are pitching hard against a range of competitors.
“We know customer service, customer experience, sales performance and techniques better than anybody else in the world when it comes to the UK market. We do still have to demonstrate that, and also the return on investment. If a client is going to spend £100,000 on our services, we have to show that they will get a multiple level return on that investment,” Mike says.
For Performance in People 2012 was a “tough year”, as the recession of 2008 began to hit the procurement departments of large organisations. Mike responded to the changing economic environment by investing internally in technology, while also becoming a more efficient and distinctive organisation. Before 2010, video mystery shopping was the major element of the business. In the last five years Performance in People has created a suite of products that new incorporates customer satisfaction surveys including training and service development programmes. In the last three years the company has expanded significantly, moving from employing 50 to 75 people.
“A lot of the hard work that we do now is around training, coaching and development. It isn’t just about measuring customer satisfaction but finding the right people and making sure that they are effectively trained. Finally it’s about monitoring and measuring that they’re doing it effectively. There’s a big difference between measuring and then improving. If you want a step change you have to measure but also give them the tools to use the output to drive real sustainable improvements in performance.”
Like many Island based companies whose clients are mostly large mainland companies, Performance in People sees value in promoting from within. Recruitment isn’t always easy and Mike is keen to invest in his workforce.
“We’ve worked really hard to make Performance in People a great place to work. We want people to develop with us and to want the business to do well, attracting and retaining the right sort of people. Our strategy is to bring people into the business at lower levels, and see how they can develop, giving them the opportunity to expand within that. Clearly something is working and we’re creating an environment that brings innovation and excitement out of people, and that translates into something very successful for the business.”
Other organisations agree. Performance in People picked up a two star award for Best Companies To Work For earlier this year; the organisation has also received an Investors In People re-accreditation for the fourth time. Mike’s team were also finalists at the UK Customer Experience Awards in 2014. Mike is proud of his achievements although he doesn’t necessarily see any cachet in being based on the Island.
“We’re industry leading in our field and the approach that we take, but I don’t think there’s an automatic association between innovation and the Isle of Wight. Don’t get me wrong, the Island has great areas of specialism like marine and composites in particular, but along our lines there isn’t an assumption that you’d find some of the UK’s leading mystery shopping providers here. We have to work very hard in terms of marketing and make these corporations aware of what we can do for them. Our clients do a lot of the selling for us and we do get strong referrals from other organisations.”
“If we’re talking to a large car manufacturer, we can’t ‘out-corporate’ them. We can show them the beauty of the Isle of Wight instead. We have very senior managers and directors who will come and visit us here and we’ll take them down to the beach for lunch. Business has changed in the last ten years and companies buy into the lifestyle now. We don’t just judge productivity, the old ‘car park politics’. There’s much more of a work-life balance now and the Isle of Wight is living proof of that. We’re a casually dressed, creative and fun environment here and that’s attractive to somebody who might have come to us from an office in London or Milton Keynes.”
Mike’s recently been on the other side of the camera too, taking part in a six part documentary series for BBC2, following the Shop Idol competition in its tenth year, looking to find the best salesperson in the mobile phone industry. Mike can be seen as one of the judges. It’s a position he’s confident with because he’s focused on his own standards. Every day he works with companies to improve their service, but Mike realises that he too is being judged on the quality of his own delivery.
“We have created great products but we have to give exceptional service too. We’re in the service business and if we don’t deliver absolutely exceptional customer service to our clients it’s somewhat hypocritical so we have to work very hard at that as well.”
First published in the October 2015 issue of Island Business magazine.
