We were delighted to see the summer edition of our quarterly company conference take place last week. The conference was held in sunny Bournemouth, a stone’s throw away from both the beach and (perhaps more importantly) our Customer Contact Centre.
The Schools Plus company conference aims to bring together numerous members of the Schools Plus team together in one location (which is a rarity in our nationwide company) to discuss relevant news, take part in training exercises and set new targets for the future.
This conference was significant as it was the first to be hosted by our new Managing Director Tony Lock after our previous MD, James Woods moved to an executive chairman position earlier this year. We know Tony had been excited for this conference since taking the reigns and he was keen to use the day as a platform to launch his vision for the company moving forward.
The day started with an energetic and motivating speech from Tony where he congratulated our staff on the good work done in the past and set out his passionate ideas for the future. Tony also went on to share a preview of the updated Schools Plus visual brand, which has been given a face lift.
Tony then handed things over to our Operations Director Wayne Cryer who provided an update speaking specifically to our Venue Managers on issues relating to on-site operation reports and further training.
We had one more speech in the morning which was delivered by our Sales and Marketing Director Simon Kidby, who was there to explain the concept of utilisation and how we can all help get the best out of each of our partner schools.
The conference is a great place for the Schools Plus team to focus on sections of the business that they don’t always have time to in their day to day. With the conference being held in Bournemouth, everyone agreed this was a great time to introduce everyone formally to our Customer Contact Centre, which was a short walk from the conference centre.
The Customer Contact Centre is home to a few departments including our phone operatives who expertly handle all our booking enquires, both on the phone and through email. We welcome our Venue Managers over to the office to take a few calls and respond to a couple of emails throughout the day.
The experience of listening to our phone operatives handle enquiries and then afterwards taking their own calls, really strengthened the bond between the two teams and even lead to a few Venue Managers successfully booking in clients themselves!
After an afternoon of focused roundtable discussions on important current issues, such as Operation Excellence Reports and Utilisation the team came together for an upbeat concluding speech from Tony. This speech again thanked the team for a job well done and set the targets out for the next conference in the autumn.
We hoped you enjoyed our recap of last weeks company conference. Getting the wider team together in a new environment always brings an element of refocusing and positive drive for the coming months.
We’re already looking forward to the next one!
