Culture & Customer Experience Transformation

Equipping Employees to Become Journey Makers

Client: First Bus

The Brief

First Bus, a leading UK bus operator, has 13,000 drivers and engineers, delivering 1.6 million daily journeys. They were committed to delivering world-class customer service but faced challenges. Engaging a large, unionised workforce and aligning remote teams with strategic goals proved difficult. To solve this, they needed a behaviour and culture change programme. It would connect frontline employees to the company’s values and improve both internal and external customer experience.

Our Solution

Understood partnered with First Bus to deliver the Journey Makers Programme, a comprehensive culture and customer experience programme. This initiative engaged employees across all levels, from drivers and engineers to managers. It was tailored to meet the company’s specific needs and included several key components:

A modular training programme customised for drivers, engineers, and managers.
The creation of the Journey Makers Champions Network to drive ongoing employee engagement.
Internal communication campaigns focused on embedding core values and improving customer service behaviours.
Development of a Journey Makers sub-brand to unify messaging and build employee buy-in.

This culture and customer experience programme empowered employees, aligned them with company values, and improved communication across teams.

The Result

The Journey Makers Programme made a significant impact:

Employees felt more empowered to deliver world-class customer service, improving the overall customer experience.
Internal communication strengthened, creating better alignment and engagement across remote teams.
The workforce connected more deeply to First Bus’s core values, driving better performance.
External customer experience saw clear improvements as the values alignment translated into better service.

Overall, the programme enhanced customer service and boosted employee engagement, resulting in lasting cultural change.

"The challenge was in creating a programme that would engage our frontline in our core values and deliver an awareness of key strategic changes. The way in which Carolyn and her team ‘get under the skin’ of the business to truly understand the people, the culture, our challenges, and opportunities is what makes Understood such a pleasure to work with."

Melanie Rees, Customer Experience Director, First Bus