Our Story
The Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria is Canada’s leading business schools focusing on Service Excellence.
The Service Leadership Program is led by Dr. Mark Colgate, an award winning Professor in Service Excellence and coaching. He took many years to develop and test this service leadership program in the business world. For 3 years he helped the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from being the worst bank to being the best bank in customer service. Mark has worked with many organizations of various sectors (manufacturing, tourism, telecommunication, non-profits and government) to increase service scores and business results.
Since 2007 we’ve helped leaders create sustainable revenues. With our content, process and tools they
- Build and sustain a customer-centric organization that shows results.
- Coach to grow individuals and establish accountability to drive performance.
- Scale the delivery of service.
The Gustavson team of faculty and experts is available for additional leadership training and guidance.
Read our Clients’ Stories below
From last to first
This program started because Mark Colgate left the University of Victoria to become the GM, Customer Satisfaction at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in 2007.
When he joined the bank (the world’s 10th largest bank), it was the worst of the five major banks in customer satisfaction in Australia. Since 2012 they have been the best bank in Australia every year.
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In 2014, the Gustavson School of Business and the Whistler Chamber of Commerce partnered to create a service leadership program that provides local organizations with the resources necessary to deliver world-class service.
The result? The Whistler Experience® – a suite of programs that elevate the resort’s service across organizations and across sectors.
Customer experience is critical to the success of North America’s no. 1 ski resort. A methodology was developed that can be consistently taught at every Whistler business – large and small, for profit or not-for-profit. By leveraging the large scale of the resort, the Chamber has been able to make executive education affordable for a whole community.
In partnership, the Gustavson School of Business and the Whistler Chamber developed additional tools that made it easy for businesses to implement the learnings right away.
This award-winning program unified the community behind the vision to become the No. 1 resort in the world known for excellent customer service. Over 20,000 people attended Whistler Experience sessions and hundreds of Whistler businesses use the program fundamentals within four years. Most importantly, guest ratings confirm that overall satisfaction scores went up throughout these years in spite of a labour shortage. Recent statistics show that over 85% of visitors were satisfied in all 3R – categories.
To build long lasting relationships with guests, the Pan Pacific Whistler has created a culture of family for employees and customers. The foundation of this culture are values that guide employee behaviour as well as a strong customer mindset. Even though the Pan Pacific has a strong service culture of their own, they adopted Whistler Experience training and language.
It sent a strong signal that the hotel is part of an eco-system in which many service providers contribute to someone’s vacation. It therefore created consistency and momentum in the larger community.
The focus has been on creating a strong purpose and service vision among all employees and across divisions. This included guest facing employees as well as those who provided internal service. Leaders became “servant leaders” who paid attention to the needs of others, gave them
the support they needed to complete their work, involved them in decisions where appropriate, built a strong sense of community and recognized accordingly.
Learn how the Service Leadership program helped the library to change their culture – and even their business model.
The Mexican Corner is an award winning restaurant in Whistler. The owner and his leadership team attended Whistler Experience (Service Leadership) training. Instantly, they embedded the 3Rs in their training, HR tools and practices. The team soon learned how to deliver on the 3Rs in their individual roles and started to live the values.
As a result, they were able to serve 10% more guests and received better guest reviews with the same number of employees.
“The Whistler Chamber of Commerce has been instrumental in engaging businesses to further improve the resort’s excellent customer service. This commitment is a cornerstone to Whistler’s overall guest experience and therefore to the continuing economic success of the resort community as a whole.”
“I don’t know who is in charge of things like this, but I have been very, very impressed with the quality of service I have encountered in all parts of Whistler…I have done all of the major attractions and visited a variety of stores. Everyone I have dealt with has been courteous, helpful and exceptionally congenial. Whatever you are doing, you are doing it right.”