Every customer interaction shapes how people feel about a brand. In healthcare, those moments matter even more – customers need to feel listened to, understood and supported.
After all, exceptional customer experiences don’t happen by accident; they are created by people who have the confidence, skills and mindset to WOW customers from the very first interaction.
Discover how FIT partnered with Bupa to transform customer experience across BSP (Business & Specialist Products) operations through behavioural diagnostics, bespoke development, workplace coaching and long-term capability building.
Key successes
- Approximately 85 colleagues within project scope across five operational teams
- 59 colleagues completed the initial Journey to Service Excellence journey
- 63% delegates rated the experience Excellent
- A further 34% rated it Very Good
- 74% of delegates reported gaining many practical techniques they could apply immediately within their role
Client feedback
“As always you and the team have done a great job. I know the team already value what the coaches are bringing to the department. I observed some one-to-ones this week and it was great to hear the advisors saying how much they have enjoyed their initial coaching session!”
Head of Commercial Operations, Bupa
“Thank you so much to Marie, Lyn & Dee for leading the teams through their Journey to Service Excellence. I’ve only received positive feedback from the whole experience! I am excited for what this will enable us to achieve as individuals and as an Ops area as a whole.”
Customer Service Manager, Business Support Hub, Bupa
The challenge
Following significant growth and organisational change, Bupa’s BSP operations function had brought together approximately 85 colleagues across five specialist operational teams.
While every team shared a commitment to delivering outstanding customer service, differing processes, communication styles and varying levels of experience meant the customer journey lacked consistency.
For customers, this meant their experience could vary depending on which team or colleague they interacted with. For colleagues, it created a need for greater clarity, confidence and shared ownership around what exceptional service looked like.
Bupa wanted to move beyond delivering good customer service on occasion and instead establish a consistent, customer-centric culture across the entire operation: one where every interaction reflected the same high standards, regardless of team, communication channel or individual.
The ambition was clear: create a best practice approach to service excellence, build a stronger customer-centric culture, increase ownership and accountability, and equip leaders with the capability to sustain those behaviours long after the initial intervention.
Our approach: FIT's SHAPE™ methodology
At FIT, we believe lasting CX transformation begins with understanding the organisation.
Rather than starting with a workshop, we partnered with their team to understand the behaviours, culture and operational realities influencing the customer experience.
Using our proven SHAPE™ methodology, we designed a tailored behavioural development journey that built capability, embedded new ways of working and equipped their leaders to sustain the change long after our engagement had ended.
1. Healthcheck
FIT immersed itself within the business through live call listening, at-desk observations, colleague focus groups, behavioural diagnostics, training needs analysis and stakeholder workshops.
This phase told us more about the customer journey, operational culture and behavioural patterns across the five teams.
The Healthcheck identified opportunities to:
- Create a consistent customer experience across every team
- Move colleagues from transactional interactions to relationship-led conversations
- Improve ownership and accountability
- Strengthen collaboration between operational areas
- Increase confidence when managing difficult customer conversations
- Establish one common customer service framework across BSP operations
2. Design
Using the findings from the Healthcheck, FIT designed a bespoke CX development programme, tailored specifically to the client’s BSP operations.
Rather than adapting an existing course, every module, activity and conversation reflected their customer journeys, operational challenges and desired behaviours.
The development journey focused on helping colleagues:
- Build stronger rapport and trust
- Communicate consistently across all channels
- Develop greater ownership and accountability
- Confidently handle challenging conversations
- Improve listening and questioning skills
- Create more memorable customer experiences
- Adopt a shared voice of the brand
Before rollout, FIT also delivered a dedicated Scene Setter event for managers and key stakeholders, ensuring leaders experienced the journey first-hand and were equipped to champion the behavioural changes across their teams.
3. Delivery
The Journey to Service Excellence development journey was delivered across multiple cohorts, bringing together colleagues from across BSP operations to establish a shared customer service philosophy and consistent approach to customer interactions.
Combining behavioural insight, practical techniques, real workplace scenarios and highly interactive learning, colleagues developed immediately applicable skills that transferred directly into everyday customer conversations.
5. Evaluation and embedding
We like to measure success by what people continue to do differently once they’re back at their desks.
It’s not about a feedback form – it’s making sure new behaviours stick and become habits for good!
Working alongside BSP operations, FIT embedded behavioural changes through:
- Participant evaluation and reflection
- Individual action planning
- Live workplace coaching observations
- Structured coaching conversations
- Coaching Winners accreditation
- Ongoing coaching clinics and implementation support
4. Coaching
This is where behavioural change becomes embedded.
FIT believes capability is developed through consistent reinforcement within the workplace, not just classroom learning.
Following the development journey, colleagues received structured workplace coaching, helping them practice, refine and embed their new skills within real customer interactions.
To ensure the improvements became self-sustaining, FIT delivered its Coaching Winners Accreditation Programme, developing this company’s own coaching capability and equipping leaders with the confidence, practical tools and coaching techniques required to continue developing their people independently.
By the end of the engagement, coaching had become an integral part of business as usual rather than an external intervention.
As part of the accreditation programme:
13 leaders completed FIT’s three-part Coaching Winners Accreditation
Participants consistently highlighted the practical coaching sessions, DNA profiling, questioning techniques and feedback models among the most valuable aspects of the experience
Impact snapshot
- Health-checked five operational teams to identify behavioural opportunities
- Designed a bespoke customer experience development journey based on operational insight
- Developed 59 colleagues through the Journey to Service Excellence experience
- Embedded new behaviours through structured workplace coaching
- Accredited 13 internal Coaching Winners champions to sustain behavioural change
- Created internal coaching capability to support continuous improvement long after the engagement concluded
Conclusion
CX transformation doesn’t happen because people attend a workshop.
It happens when organisations understand the behaviours that shape the customer journey, develop the capability to improve them and create the internal coaching culture needed to sustain them.
By combining operational diagnostics, bespoke design, practical behavioural development, workplace coaching and internal capability building through the SHAPE™ methodology, FIT partnered with Bupa’s BSP operations to create far more than a learning intervention.
Together, we established the foundations for a consistent, customer-centric culture that continues to equip colleagues and leaders with the confidence, skills and coaching capability to deliver exceptional customer experiences every day.
If this sounds like something that could benefit you and your team, contact us today or book a free, no-obligation clarity call.
