National Records of Scotland (NRS), the official archive for Scotland’s government and people, has always prided itself on the delivery of reliable services. But for Customer Experience Manager Alan Jordan, true excellence in customer service meant pushing further, more than simply delivering a service to understanding and responding to the needs of every individual customer. That’s what led NRS to The Institute’s training, a decision that Alan says has been “incredibly effective.”
The organisation first engaged with FirstImpressions (now known as Customer Service Essentials) as part of a wider conversation about raising customer service standards and aligning practices with those of other leading organisations across the UK. The initial results were so promising that a second round of training was commissioned. This time, the cohort was intentionally diverse, bringing together staff from account-facing departments, extract services, and other key stakeholder areas. The group included both new joiners and long-serving employees, which presented a unique challenge to the trainer but created a valuable opportunity for shared learning.
“It wasn’t so much a refresher,” Alan explained, “it was just skills that they never realised were required in the first place.” Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. “There were no negative comments – even from people who had been in a while… they actually saw the benefit.” Employees not only absorbed the content of the training but began sharing it with colleagues, creating what Alan described as “an organic best practice” culture emerging within the organisation.
The training helped NRS develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of what it means to serve customers, moving away from a transactional mindset to a more empathetic, person-centred approach.
Alan also emphasised the value of the external perspective brought by The Institute. “The Institute had recommendations we wouldn’t have thought of internally, and it was great to have that outside input.”
In contrast to the often narrowly focused in-house training, The Institute’s programme offered broader, cross-sector insights. “The external training gave us a much broader and beneficial perspective.”
Looking to the future, NRS is planning to integrate the training into its regular staff development cycle, using it to onboard new recruits and continually refresh existing team knowledge. Alan is already planning the next phase of training.
Ultimately, the training has sparked a positive shift within NRS, one that recognises the value of each customer interaction and the power of continuous learning. “This has proved to be very useful,” Alan said simply. And with plans for ongoing engagement with The Institute, the organisation is well on its way to embedding customer excellence at every level.
“Previously, we might have seen short-term vulnerability. But this is different” – said Kelly Manners, Senior Customer Operations Manager. Over the course of two weeks, 75 colleagues from across a number of customer facing departments took part in The Institute’s 
