Can Do???

All of Best is about ensuring a great ‘customer experience’ – in non-jargon terms it means making sure that children and parents enjoy everything we do. A lot of this is the content of classes but we pay huge attention to our customer service.

So this week I was amused/horrified/delighted in equal measures by two organisations. ADT and Virgin Media. Huge shout out to Virgin! Boo to ADT!

Firstly, Virgin. This is how to do it well…

I called because my broadband was running slowly – actually a bit hacked off because I had the feeling that it had been much slower than I was paying for for some time. The technician was fantastic – remotely looked through the programmes running, identified what may have been the issue and fixed it. But it was clear I needed more capacity so he put me through to Sales (and introduced me to the next point of contact and stayed with me to ensure connection was made. The lady in sales listened to what I was after and then said- “you’ve been with us for ages haven’t you? Hmm.. would you mind holding for 5 minutes, I may be able to do something here…”

3 minutes later she was back: “Good news. I’ll up your broadband speed by a factor of 600%, give you a new wireless router/modem hub free, replace an old TV box with a new TiVo and knock £20 off your monthly bill! We can be round tomorrow!” And when the engineer arrived he was charm personified. Not only did he do some extra drilling for us but he also tidied up all our cabling beautifully and even wore overshoes. All right, of course I’m delighted to save money and get better technology but they didn’t really need to do this. I’d probably have been none the wiser. But now they have no more loyal customer than me. Well done Virgin Media!!!

ADT turn up to fit two sensors and two boxes outside following a not-to-be-missed special offer of free equipment!. Not a huge job. Knock on the door. “Before I start I can’t take off your old alarm box – it’s too high.” He then sticks his lip out in a ‘what a shame’ kind of way. “Well, I can’t do what I can’t do, can I?” No solution, no alternative course of action – he clearly didn’t want to sort this out. And this after the installation people had been round to survey the job beforehand! I suggested curtly he went away and come back with a bigger ladder and I then start to ping out numerous acidic tweets about ADT and their inability to conquer the North Face of a regular two storey St Albans house.

Now I know it’s probably not ADT’s fault but the engineer was their representative and has done them no favours whatsoever with me and although I haven’t got a huge Twitter following you never know who’s reading these things. So not a great PR move. And now there’s this fantastic blog too (which I bet no-one reads)).

His boss came round today to do a full Health & Safety risk assessment… and again although I know that this is a requirement of most companies due to the overly litigious nature of the UK nowadays but they did have a chance to do this with the original site survey and set my expectations accordingly. They have now, I understand, found a bigger ladder and will be round soon to do the job.

ADT offered something free and ended up letting me down, Virgin started off in the doghouse and massively redeemed themselves, over-delivering and delighting me.

So a lesson for Best – don’t take your eye off the ball…

Holiday courses? It's all in the prep...

Having just put on our public shows it’s now time for our spring holiday courses. “You’ve spilled the beans about putting on shows, what about holiday courses?” I hear you scream. You’re not screaming? Well I’ll tell you anyway...

It’s about organisation (see the common thread running through this). There are lists after lists to prepare – contact details, medical details, t-shirt sizes, name labels, song lyrics, certificates and so on – it’s amazing how much paper you can generate.

Planning for the week’s theme is usually quite relaxed, however. We GENUINELY leave the story up to the children as much as possible. We do have a good idea of the songs and dances we want to do but the story... to give you an example, this week on our theme ‘Yellow Brick Road’, the children have come up with a sweeping tale of misunderstood witches, communities lacking love, courage and knowledge and of their redemption. We facilitate the discussion, they come up with the story. Lisa was thrilled at lunch on the first day with what had been suggested.

But this week we only have 4 days to put it on – well 3 really as the show is on the 4th day!

As I write I await news of what costumes they want before diving into the chaos that is our garage wherein 90-odd ‘tuffcrates’ of costume lie waiting for me not to find them. And by Thursday it will all come together in the SandPit Theatre and every time parents are simply amazed at what the children come up with.

It’s a unique approach that takes some courage but we believe it provides a much richer experience and a real feeling of ownership for the children. And it’s not ‘Annie’ thank goodness...

Meanwhile the little ones in First Class have a similar number of lists but more preparation of costume and story prior to their arrival. Quite often we need specific costume items which have to be ordered in. And we need to prepare their craft projects – windmills, pictures and invitations this week!

Once we’re off and running the week flies by and by the end of it we are always tired but exhilarated – and so, most importantly, are the children.

And in the summer we do this three weeks running! Six sets of children, three entirely new shows (Best) and three classics (First Class). Another sign that we must indeed be mad!

PHEW! Lights out, curtains fall, shows over

You feel it in your feet really. They really, really ache! Over the weekend we did eight shows – four full dress/technical and four shows of ‘Imagine’ to audience – with four different sets of children. We must be mad!

Well, we’re tired certainly, but the energy of the children keeps you going and seeing four sets of excited and fulfilled faces as they greet their parents in the foyer afterwards makes it all worthwhile. Check out the photos on our Facebook page.

But what really goes on literally ‘behind the scenes’...?

The real key is organisation. Unusually this show did not have huge costume and prop requirements which definitely made things easier. But before we arrive at the theatre we try and think of all contingencies and make sure we are ready for them.  

Parents who have seen our rehearsals and those who work with us backstage (our heroes!) often remark on just how calm and controlled we seem. To be honest, we are. We don’t see the point in getting stressed over performances. We want the children to enjoy themselves and shouting or pushing too hard just turns it into an ordeal. We believe ‘you get what you get’ and 99 times out of 100 the end result is much better than you ever thought/feared. The children are given every chance to learn lines and get things right in rehearsal so getting worked up on the day of a show doesn’t work for anyone. And let’s be honest, it’s not their fault if something isn’t working, it’s ours as Directors/teachers. So keeping a smile on our face and a relaxed attitude is absolutely vital to our whole approach.

Hopefully the audience sees a smooth transition from scene to scene with children moving on and off stage with professional efficiency. But backstage there are groups of children being shepherded from dressing room (classroom at the end of a long corridor that is), to wings, to stage and back again with ‘unhurried alacrity’. A pre-prepared and accurate call sheet really helps for this – we didn’t have one this time so we were flying by the seat of our pants.

“What’s next?” is the most common question from little ones. The wrong answer is ‘Surely you should know!” The actual answer was, this weekend, “We don’t know – we don’t have a script!” This made for some interesting last minute GET GREEN GROUP cries.

Despite the lack of call sheet or script, though, we got through everything with only a couple of bewildered little ones appearing mid way through a scene having been in the loo - or just daydreaming.

The shows themselves were very different for us with some quite thought-provoking and dark scenes – not our usual laugh-a-minute (or occasional guffaw if I’m lucky) kind of musical. But we think it was well worth the experiment. Telling a story is the essence of all drama and that’s precisely what the casts had to do – as a team.

And they did it very well indeed.

We’re proud of them. But then again, aren’t we always?

Now the challenge of what to do next year...

Building Up to a Show...

Yes, it’s that time of year again – our annual public show. Actually, we don’t get many ‘public’ but we do invite our student’s’ teachers to come along which we think is a really nice thing for the children to do. We do get 10 or 12 coming and the children are thrilled to have them there.

So this year it’s ‘Imagine’. I’m delighted/scared to say that I know very little at all about what’s going to be put on stage. This year I haven’t written the show, sung the theme tune, written the theme tune etc so, although I know the story it’s based on, I’ve no idea how Louisa/Vicky and the teams are going to stage it.

What’s involved at our end? Well, this year’s show is very costume light thank goodness. I don’t think our garage can store much more – there are already 90-odd tough crates full of cossies! But we think it will look beautiful – lots of coloured scarves, lycra etc. There’s also virtually no set to prepare as the kids will be creating tableaux. All of which means it’s a little less stressful for everyone – students included. Less focus on the technical, more focus on the performance – which is really how it should be.

We also value enormously the contribution of The SandPit in getting our shows on the stage. In all our years of dealing with them and as managers have come and gone they’ve never been anything less than totally supportive, creative and positive. It is important for any budding producer/stage manager to understand how important it is to be courteous and understanding when going into a receiving venue – we absolutely believe in being on our best behaviour and hopefully seeing how we work with The SandPit will stand the children in good stead if ever they are in that position in future.

And running the shows themselves? Yes, it is immensely tiring getting 4 groups dress rehearsed and on in such a short space of time. The help we receive from parents is crucial but we believe they have great fun – which is probably why we get the same volunteers year after year (and not just because we have a secret stash of wine and chocolate back there). But for the children we want the whole experience to be memorable. If we are well organised and calm, this radiates confidence to cast and crew and results in a fabulous experience for everyone. It has been commented on many times how calm and in control Annette and I seem during show times – believe me, it’s only because we organise everything to death BEFORE we get there – and even then sometimes a serene exterior hides a turbulent, throbbing mass of bubbling stress!

 It’s all worth it to see how the children react and when the curtain falls the electric positive energy is wonderful to be part of. That’s what it’s all about!

In Memory of Philip Madoc

Philip Madoc, our first Patron,  sadly died on 5th March 2012 following a short illness.

Philip was born on 5th July 1934 in Merthyr Tydfil. He was educated in Wales, followed by a spell in the University of Vienna where he trained as an interpreter before entering RADA (after realising he'd never achieve his real ambition of playing test cricket). His television appearances are countless - indeed it was said of Philip that he has made at least one guest appearance in every British programme ever made!

His most acclaimed TV performance was as in the title role in The Life And Times Of David Lloyd George (BBC, 1981), with a theme tune by Ennio Morricone that you'll still hear from many buskers on the Tube! 

Alongside many appearances in Doctor Who (mostly as baddies), perhaps his most famous guest role was in 1973 as a German Commander in Dad's Army's famous "Don't Tell Him Pike!"

His classically resonant, instantly identifiable bass voice has been heard widely as a narrator of high-class audio books, mostly for the Naxos label. One of these is a recording of Gibbon's Decline and Fall (abridged to a 18 hours) - a monumental performance alongside Arabian Nights and even 'The Old Testament.'

Philip was a fiercely patriotic Welshman, and is an accomplished linguist speaking seven or eight languages. We were amazed when, a couple of years ago, he addressed our teacher Tove fluently in her native Swedish and then chatted for ages in a language he hadn't used for years!

We were thrilled that Philip bercame our Patron , a role he was very committed to. He visited out classes and spoke warmly and encouragingly to the children (although, let's face it, not many of them knew who he was - parents did though!)came to our shows over a number of years and was always warm, encouraging and fascinating. He once said the "a Patron is a bit like a bidet - no one knows what it does but it adds a bit of class!"

He became our Patron when we found out he lived next door to Julia, our then Drama teeacher, at a time when we were searching for someone suitable. He'd always been an idol of ours - for the voice and for Lloyd George and we thought he epitomised all that was good in acting - hard work and peer respect.

As both Annette and I loved his work,  we were so pleased that the man himself was everything you'd want him to be - warm, caring, fiercely intelligent, modest and very, very funny.

Our condolences go to his family - we have very fond memories of a wonderful Welshman and a proud Patron.

Gorwedd mewn hedd, Philip!

Trying to buck the economic trends

There’s no hiding the fact that the theatre school market is under pressure in the current economic climate.

Parents naturally try to shield their children from the effects of lower income and so they will often continue to fund their child’s discretionary activities for perhaps longer than their own. But inevitably there comes a time when the child has to choose their favourite activity and our plan at Best was to be the last activity the child would want to stop. And to our credit I think we’ve achieved that in many cases.

We’ve done this by trying even harder to focus on proven and added value – this means things like extra shows (Robin Hood and Alice in Wonderland were much more ‘organised’ than our usual end of term showings), little treats (like using the theatre at Christmas - actually that's quite a big treat!) and a concentration on delivering an even more professional service (hence our recent survey).

But yesterday, the mighty  Stagecoach Theatre Arts announced a loss and cited falling numbers and the merger of schools in areas more affected by the economy. And there’s no getting away from it - we at Best are feeling it too.

Up until last term our numbers were relatively stable, despite many of our competitors seeing a reduction in numbers and indeed many similar businesses (dance schools for example) disappearing altogether. But the volume of enquiries has definitely dropped and we, like everyone in our market, are left wondering how next to respond.

We’ve already announced a special promotion in our Saturday afternoon school offering 50% fee reductions for a term to let new students try us out, giving us an excellent chance to prove our value.

But overall in our core businesses we have decided (as we’ve already told parents) to refocus on what made Best best to begin with –caring, inclusive and high quality training where every child has the opportunity to progress. In practice this means reverting to our traditional end-of-term showings rather than full-on shows, so that new techniques, ideas and approaches can be worked on with the children and given a short showcase rather than enveloping them in show. There will be more time to explore, coach and, perhaps most importantly, play!

But there are other things too we might be able to do. In any recession there is opportunity to move into new areas and to take market share – in fact economic theory suggests you take market share simply by surviving! Now we at Best aren’t interested in being biggest or else we’d have franchised long ago – but we definitely do want to be Best. And perhaps we now have a chance to augment our current service offerings in order to protect and enhance our core business.

To this end we are currently engaged in some intense internal and external discussions which hopefully should produce some tangible proposals in the next few weeks. So watch this space!

But in the meantime, please don’t forget to tell your friends about Best – there’s no better way for a child to spend their time than in theatre arts, and no better place to do this than Best!

And any ideas, as ever, gratefully received...

Going backwards, standing still

There are huge numbers of books written by quasi-business gurus that adorn the shelves of airport bookstores on the subject of successful growth strategies. Cash cows, rising stars and limping dogs become the metaphors through which we are able to categorise our markets.

But one thing holds true throughout, if you stand still, you actually go backwards. You must always be asking ‘what’s next?’ and seeking ways to continue to develop and further differentiate in your market.

And so it is even at Best.  You’d think the world of theatre for children would be immune from all of this commercial savagery, but far from it, our market is fiercely competitive and increasingly more difficult to understand and (strangely enough) communicate effectively with.

In St Albans, at its peak, we had 13 other drama schools competing for students. We think we have 11 competitors at present in AL1,2,3,and 4). It’s considerably more if you include Harpenden and Radlett. In such a small city that is a real challenge. I’ll answer the inevitable question (well, skirt around it a bit probably) in a future blog. But each has its own identity and style which is why we always advise new students to have a look around, confident that the majority will choose us. But despite our reputation and our longevity ( approaching our 15^th birthday) we are increasingly conscious of our need to move with the times and to augment our offerings to meet changing needs and attitudes.

The core of our offerings, First Class and Best, are tried and trusted and although we do change things from time to time (like having a panto in the theatre last term) it’s a formula that children seem to love and is well established and comfortable with us and with a number of others. We will always (we hope) have First Class and Best in their current forms.

But returning to the theme of this blog, we know we can’t stand still and that we need to introduce some new exciting and value-added services to keep Best at the forefront of theatre schools in St Albans.

Ha! That’s got you wondering, hasn’t it? Well you’ll need to wonder a little bit more as we are working out some of the fine details at the moment. But you can have a think around the following trends in society and education:-

• Parents increasingly demand ‘proof of progress.’ We do public shows, end of term showings, annual reports, annual certificates and all kinds of other things but there may be more we could do
• Parents and children want choice
• Generalisation is being sidelined by specialists...
• ...and yet, people like to have a single source for all related items/services
• Young people are growing up much faster (again a theme for a future blog). They are more ‘self-aware’ and claim maturity earlier (whether or not based on actual maturity)
• Our student age profile has altered radically since our launch 15 years ago

So what does all of this mean for Best? You'll have to watch this space!