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Bradford Council's strategic director for children's and young people's services, Kath Tunstall, turned story-teller during a rhyme-time session for young readers at the city's Holmewood Library during a recent National Customer Service Week.
The strategic director for regeneration, Barra MacRuairi, worked with land-drainage engineers at the city's Chellow Dene reservoir; Becky Hellard, strategic director for corporate services, manned the reception desk at the city's call center; while chief executive Tony Reeves joined one of the council's social-services teams.
The council's aim, in sending managers back to the shop floor, was to remind them what it is like to meet the needs of the city's residents on a daily basis.
The initiative had already been made popular by a number of high-profile retailers. Marks & Spencer sent 2,000 head-office managers back to the shop floor one Christmas to boost sales and improve service levels. The managers included Luc Vandevelde, then group chairman, who took his turn packing customers' bags and showing them the way to the cafeteria.
During a subsequent Christmas, Tesco sent around 2,500 office staff back to the shop floor to help store staff to serve customers in the busiest week of the year. Dubbed "operation helping hands", the initiative involved everyone from buyers to board members offering support by packing bags, filling shelves and serving customers at the company's 100 busiest stores.
Connecting managers with customers
In similar vein, managers at luxury-tour operator Kuoni went back to the shop floor on one of the travel industry's busiest Saturdays of the year earlier this year as part of an initiative...