Theater techniques put Translink on route to better customer service : Role‐plays change the mindsets of bus employees

Purpose – Describes how Translink Metro, which runs the buses in Belfast, improved customer service through an award‐winning training scheme where actors posed as passengers. Design/methodology/approach – Outlines the reasons for the program, the form it took and the results it achieved. Findings – Explains that, following the program, passenger complaints dropped by 30 percent, the number of compliments for good customer service doubled and passenger numbers increased by 2 percent a year, despite recession. Practical implications – Focuses not on skill provision per se but on sharing understanding, agreeing the ways of handling different situations and the behaviors to consider when reacting. Social implications – Highlights the role of customer‐service training for bus drivers and inspectors in helping to make Belfast a more attractive place for tourists and inhabitants alike. Originality/value – Reveals how the power and passion of art can help to make more fulfilled, rounded employees, and so improve business performance.