Where's your wife?

Talking of customer care as I was in my last blog, our recent Christmas stay in Wales introduced me to new levels of customer care that I never knew previously existed.  Little did I know when we booked into our 5-star accommodation that the owner would take such a keen interest in our care, especially that of my wife.

You may have seen in a previous blog about a stay in Cornwall; our family car chews up driving miles and spits them out like they barely exist.  It is a great credit to the makers, to allow a 6-hour journey to pass with so little effort or fatigue.  It helps when the media centre provides wifi.  Although technically, this will enable us to see train and plane timetables live, as well as congestion updates for the sat nav, we tend to get far more from the wifi provided.  My two boys listen to YouTube stuff on their headphones, while my wife and I stream through the audio the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures, Holby City, podcasts, and fab stuff like Tricity Vogue "The Blue Lady Sings" - the kind of emetic content our boys would rather not be troubled with.

We find ourselves renting out a small cottage within a working farm in Brongest, Newcastle Emlyn in Wales.  The owners could not have been more welcoming.  The chap who I'm sure was about ten years older than me but acted like he was 25 years younger, had this habit of turning up unannounced to the front door, taking his boots off, and stepping inside for a friendly chat.  He did it no less than three times on Christmas Day.  He was keen to let us know from the start of our stay that he was working with the cows until 11 pm and was up with them again at 4 am.  "How wonderful," I thought, not truly appreciating the significance to our stay.

We had some wonderful trips.  My wife and I love our walks.  When I turned 50 earlier this year, never did I imagine how carefully I would keep my eye on my wife inside and outside the cottage.  I rather hoped those days were behind me.  I noticed our friendly Welsh friend was coming into the cottage and asking "Where's your wife?" if she wasn't instantly in his sights.  I don't know if you can imagine the laughs me and the boys had mimicking his Welsh accent asking "Where's your wife?". 

One of the journeys was from Brongest to Carmarthen where I saw a police officer off his motorbike doing a speed check with a hand-held device; blimey, it's been a while since I saw that happening - how refreshing to witness.  On the way back from Carmarthen I was driving and spontaneously blurted out a "Aha... thought so" when an oncoming motorcyclist came around a rural road bend.  My kids asked me what I was referring to, which I embarrassingly mumbled something when I realised my mouth had verbalised my thoughts.  Little did they want me to start explaining about "defensive driving".  There is a lovely description offered by the DVSA on pages 2 & 3 of their "better driving" book.

I found us travelling behind a mini-bus at one point where I started having flashbacks of the driving licence Cat D enquiries I'd recently been making with the DVLA and DVSA on behalf of a school who was wondering if they had to train up teachers when they drive the school mini-bus specifically.  "Calm down Tom, calm down, you're on holiday".   I noticed our car does quite an intelligent thing.  Not being at all interested in these things, I have no idea how it does this, but when the car senses that you are driving down a steepish hill (about 16% gradient is pretty standard in Wales), it keeps it in the lower of the 8 gears available and automatically prevents the car from increasing speed with absolutely no input from me.  Blimey, that is clever.

By about the 4th night, I found myself waking up at 2.30am with what I thought was "Dim problem" repeatedly going off in my head.  An aphorism which our owner likes to mention on his many visits (as was evidenced by the write-ups by previous tenants in the holiday book at the cottage).  "Dim problem", "Dim problem"; turned out it was a cow making this most strange noise.  Forget any idea of a "moo", I looked out the window and saw loads of these cows milling around very slowly.  "When do they sleep?" I thought as I sat up until 4.40am.  "You're on holiday Tom" I mumbled as I was rocking in the corner, dribbling out the corner of my mouth.

The writing was kind of on the wall from Day 1, to be honest.  We had a rather large dining table which was only being lit by 2 of a possible eight led overhead lights.  Now, this usually wouldn't be a problem to us, light schmight.  But although the accommodation was advertised with "Wifi" it turns out that wasn't strictly, what's the word, true.  There was no wifi.  Not slow wifi, no wifi.  Which was curious as our walks regularly showed us BT green cabinets on the verges indicating 'super-fast' broadband fibre was in existence.  So all the pre-Christmas plans my wife and I had made to secure the smooth running of our 14-year-olds new XBox came to nothing.  As a result, one of the board games "Civilization" became something of a 'backstop' I think the Government would call it.

Have you played "Civilization"?  Wow.  If you consider yourself somewhat of a technophobe, this is your board game.  I can happily provide anyone with a pristine, sealed version as I inadvertently ordered two pre-Christmas from Amazon.  If you are not familiar with it, take it from me that 'bad light stops play'.  But these issues are "dim problem" it seems.  

"Dim bloody problem".

Measuring customer care

What do customers expect when they enter into a contract with a driving school?  I would guess that many customers would talk about feeling safe, being treated with care, and dignity in a respectful and constructive working environment.  They expect driving instructors to turn up on time, not cancel sessions, complete work for the entire time of the session, help them to pass the driving test.

The DVSA have a Code of Practice. One of the driving associations, the DIA, have a code of conduct which, interestingly does not mention the words 'safe' or 'safety' or 'respect' once.  And this highlights the reason for this blog.  How should any regulator measure customer care?  If our regulating bodies vacillate about how driving instructors should behave then confusion follows.

Followers of this blog will have noted my tendency to mention OFSTED and their role in the monitoring of education.  But the 'market forces' within the field of providing state education do not match up to those providers of training in a private arrangement such as ours.  A comparable provision is that offered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) when they assess the service of private care homes.

Their Chief Inspector Andrea Sutcliffe is due to move on at the end of 2018 having done the job for five years.  Look at how they describe what they do as an organisation: "We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve."  The website continues, "We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find, including performance ratings to help people choose care."

All of this is sounding very good, sensible, and one might even find reassurance in these words.  But the reality of the situation is very different as there are severe doubts about the findings of their assessments.  A friend of mine has been attending his wife's care home every day, three times a day because he fears for the level of care she would receive if he did not attend.  He is talking here about treating people with dignity, respect, providing a level of service that any reasonable person would consider the necessary standards of human decency such as hygiene, comfort, nutrition and hydration, social engagement.

At over a £1000 per week, it quickly becomes a sobering reality that the exorbitant fees do not guarantee very much, and worst still, the CQC grades change like the wind and do not reflect reality.  There are serious concerns about the integrity of the assessment.  A CQC inspection typically involves a day or two review every two years.  Contrast that with a DVSA standards check which usually requires a 45-minute in-car review every 4-6 years.

Much like my sad friend, relatives of residents will tend to understate their deeply held concerns because quite literally, there is no better alternative available.  If it wasn't so dangerous, it could almost be comical that care home staff, residents and their relatives are all busily deceiving the CQC of just how dire the situation is.  Hold the response to my histrionic claims, until you have at least witnessed the case for yourself.

How schools organise the learning within it is primarily dictated by how the government of the day views what education means to students.  To only focus on academic ability inhibits how our younger generation flourishes.  What our youngsters offer society is a resource of diverse capacities, just waiting to be discovered and developed.  Instead, students enter this arena where teachers are piling on pressures and expectations of academic achievement just so that OFSTED can give a favourable assessment.  Parents, teachers, heads, governing bodies, teaching assistants all know that what is happening is neglectful, cruel and deeply unsatisfactory to many students.  

As it stands, the public does not place as much emphasis on standards check grades of driving instructors as they do OFSTED ratings of schools.  The DVSA keep threatening to change this; they do not understand how to measure customer care accurately.  If they did, they would realise that a good start would be to seriously listen to the thoughts and feelings of pupils after a standards check.  But they choose not to do that.  For some reason, they believe that a DVSA examiner can assess a pupil's feelings about progress, safety, satisfaction far better than asking a pupil. I do not mean fatuous questions directed to the pupil at the end of the standards check — instead, a proper 'interview' aimed at understanding the pupil's honest opinion of the professionalism of the driving instructor.  Objectively review the safety record of the driving instructor.  Doing these things is possible. 

Thoughts make behaviours

What makes you angry shapes how you feel about things.  How you express your feelings is often ineffective.  What makes anything effective?

Good question.  

To be effective, it needs to make a positive change. 

What would the circumstances have to be for you to change your mind about speeding or reckless driving?

Good question.

Sometimes people avoid these kinds of questions, for personal reasons, and one of them might well be that naturally, it is a hard way to learn anything.  These are examples of problems that are not necessarily easy to answer.

Tell me, verbalise your thoughts.

No speech = no thought.  Don't accept it.  Or at the very least explain that this is an obstacle to learning.

It is not normal, in order to understand beliefs (to road safety) and attitudes (to learning), driving instructors do need to have a window into the thoughts of pupils.

So, then we move on to the pupils who are not 'normal'.

Tag them as you like, parents and teachers love to label them. I have a genuine attraction working with these pupils; I know not why.  But it seems to be consistently the case.  I find that assisting a pupil in the mechanisms of effective learning is time well spent.  It is not a given, in fact, quite the opposite. Our younger generation have become conditioned to a learning environment where they are tested to death, warned (one could say threatened) with the short and long-term consequences of poor grades and pushed through a funnel where their thoughts and feelings really stand for very little.  It is a form of education that is restrictive and ineffectual for all except academics.  Engagement with our pupils is key.  

Picture the scene. You are speaking 1:1 with someone and they get their phone out and start interacting with the phone.  You have a decision to make.

Instantly.

Or not.

You are either in control of the situation or you are not.

The choice is yours.  If you are on a driving lesson, do you have a "no phones" policy when in the car?  If you are in a social environment, do you simply move on to someone who is not addicted to their phone?

I had this situation occur to me only this evening, and I happily withdrew with courtesy.  There is a good argument to say as long as a pupil is pulled over safely on the road with the engine off, they can engage with their phone as much as they like.  It is after all their time, but it does not sit well in my mind.  My pupils do regularly use either photos or videos to help them with manoeuvres I've noticed; technology does have its uses in certain circumstances.

You see we are in times where the 'facts' are all relevant.

Corbyn says that May is "a stupid woman" Did he?

"I have been raped five times".  Have you?

"I braked hard as my pupil was not going to stop". Really?

"My driving instructor put her hand on my hand as I changed gear". Did she?

Many moons ago, I was accused on social media by a mother of being racist.  My "crime" was in not letting her daughter drive the car because she could not show me her provisional drivers licence.  The time I spent with her daughter was positive, constructive, supportive and not one penny crossed hands.  Despite being parked up outside the pupil's house, she literally could not show me a drivers licence.  But that did not stop her mother from making false claims.  

Our emotions shape our thoughts which form our behaviours.

I am increasingly coming to the opinion that in-car training should be compulsorily video recorded.  Driving instructors should be enforced to document their training for a set period, i.e. two years, and anyone, but anyone can legally request to see that footage.  It is in our interests to do this.  I'm surprised that this isn't standard practice in all classrooms up and down the country.

Allegations of malpractice are serious.  It is in the interests of all to be seen to be clean.  As much as many may not like it, I see no reason why a 1:1 learning environment within a vehicle should somehow bypass accusations of unprofessionalism.

A couple of weeks ago, a Mum observed a couple of driving lessons.  I really do recommend that you positively encourage this.  The more engagement we have with parents the better.  It's good because a parent is way more transparent in their thoughts than a pupil.  On one of the sessions Mum actually said "I'll tell you what she is thinking Tom because she is clearly not going to....".  How interesting.  If I don't see either parent, I often will bring them up in the in-car training.  They have an incredible influence on behaviours.   When you are learning something your radar for information spreads far and wide.  You will listen to pretty much anyone who has an opinion on the subject you are learning. A pupil of mine recently talked about a roundabout video on YouTube which they had seen, when I looked it up later at home, it was made by a guy who was not even a driving instructor.  I've fallen into this trap myself, and some of the content is pretty compelling it must be said.

A major benefit of setting goals at the start of a driving lesson and reviewing them at the end is that it does focus the mind of our pupils about their competence.  This feedback is essential.  When they leave your car and their radar picks up whatever it is going to pick up (from whichever source), it really helps for them to be very clear about their particular needs.  Take care with private driving lessons - to be beneficial they should be aligned to what the pupil is working on.  It is not a question of can your pupil drive, it is more about how well can they drive, and private driving lessons can make that point quite fuzzy in the mind of our pupil. 

The Language of Learning

It is undoubtedly a hard watch, but if you have not started watching the tv series of "School" yet, then get on it.  Because contained in each episode are behaviours that will restrict learning; behaviours from parents, heads, students, teachers, and a CEO of the trust.  The Governing body appears to me to be severely under-represented given the critical role they have, which makes me wonder what part they do have.

In our line of work as driving instructors, the pupils who are going to create grief for you, are the ones who have absolutely no idea of the effort required to produce success.  They will have their eyes on the prize, oh yes, they know what they want alright, but there is no understanding about what is required to create positive change.  It is not lost on me how important a part the driving instructor plays either.

Look what is happening with Brexit. The Tory government elected a leader who never wanted to leave the EU, to then lead the country in leaving the EU; backed up by a House of MP's the majority of which do not want to leave the EU.  Apart from the ethical point of representing their constituents' wishes, most people can see that this is not going to work.  A couple of days ago, the EU's Junker publicly expressed his frustration with the British approach.   He wishes the British demands were clear and the PM less 'nebulous'.  He has in effect, exposed her weaknesses.  I guess when you are not convinced yourself of what you are attempting to achieve then it is not surprising that you do not appear clear and 'on point'.  Why she would negotiate a leave of the EU without planning for all eventualities does show a lack of leadership qualities.

A lack of leadership qualities is evident on "School", but you cannot help feel sorry for the teachers.  Often the way; it is the troopers on the ground that get hit the hardest for lack of leadership. We see this problem time and again in the NHS and police service.

But at the heart of it all is the lack of effort being shown by students.  The reason for it I'm sure is involved, but how teachers stay sane when you have students who are incapable of listening to advice and learning how to learn is beyond me — the poor teachers.  They are being held to account for a minority of pupils in a class who for one reason or another, have no idea of the effort that is required to learn and their attitude stinks.  One has to wonder what effect these pupils have on the others who are genuinely attempting to achieve goals.  

I tweeted in the week about a couple who have a chain of fish and chip shops.  They are trying to open up another one, but finding that the only issue that is preventing them is recruiting anyone who shows a bit of effort.  People don't turn up for interviews, or when they win a job, they don't turn up for work.  In the 40 years that this couple has been in the industry, they have never witnessed such a 'work-shy' ethic amongst the younger generation.  To get on in life requires hardship, pain, determination and perseverance.  When I have a pupil, who is learning to drive and shows no such qualities in their character it is a ticking bomb just waiting to explode.  Add to this that the pupil has all the expectations in the world, and is backed up by a parent (often a mother I have noticed) who is a 'helicopter parent' busily contributing to the snowflake culture.

The problem for the schools is that they have OFSTED hovering over their shoulders which still to this day, are expecting a teacher to be able to progress all 30-35 students in a class to the same extent regardless of natural ability, attitude to learning, upbringing, learning difficulties — too much weight on data, i.e. exam grades. It is beyond cruel.  Teachers and heads have vital resources taken away from them that assist in that very cause and are still being expected to deliver the same outcomes.  Quite what value the CEO thinks he is contributing to all this is anyone's guess.  I thought one of the advantages of these multi-academies was the fact that resources and good practice can be easily shared.  But the CEO should be overseeing this situation, observing and explaining very clearly what is happening.  It's a bit like the problem Theresa May finds herself in.  They crave and love the status and authority their role brings to their life, but they lack the moral fibre to create positive outcomes for the community they serve.  Move aside would be my advice.

On the subject of grades,  we have just got the latest DfT stats for ADI Part 2 & 3 test pass rates.  It shows Part 2 as 58.7% and Part 3 as 38.7% (female candidates out-performing  males 43% vs 38%).  Both of those stats are   10-year highs would you believe?  I wonder what OFSTED would make of those kinds of pass rates?

Can you please help me?

When was the last time you paid someone to teach you something?  Perhaps it was a while ago?  For me, it was last night. I am paying for private chess lessons.  If it has been a while for you, I really will encourage you to organise it.  It is crucial that you appreciate as a driving instructor, what a learner pupil expects and experiences in a learning environment.  

One example of what they experience is the feeling one gets with an obstacle to learning.  No matter how one tries, the desired outcome is just not happening.  The cause might be an unrealistic goal, or perhaps an ill-thought-out measure of progress.  It may be relating to physical or mental dexterity.  Generally speaking, when a pupil is aware of the expectation, is given time and a comfortable learning environment, then good things do naturally evolve.  But it is not a given.  There can be internally generated problems that are restricting performance as well as external influencers.  

What pupils do require from us at times as driving instructors is some clarity and guidance as to why things are occurring in the way they are.  

If you are paying someone to learn something at the moment, you will very likely know what I'm talking about; you will be able to 'connect' with the message.  If you are not though, you may read the above and not appreciate the point.  Time to be bold and brave.  Get rid of your self-complacency and start realising that to serve your pupils with good quality, valued driving instruction, you do need to be aware of how it feels to learn something.
Put your hand in your pocket, PAY someone to impart knowledge, skills, training, advice.  

Do it, actually book it up today, and I guarantee you will be thanking me in a short while.

Me me me

When you go and buy a morning cup of tea at the Drive-Thru, it is the paying window that comes first. Buy a sofa or a carpet - sure, pay for it first though. Want your accounts doing, no worries, here is the bill first.  You'd like Sky Movies, or a smartphone or to get through your Christmas shopping list on Amazon - you got it, get your wallet out first sunshine.  Bear these words in mind when you run your own driving school.  As the owner of a business you do have the right to set "the rules of engagement";  a military phrase which defines parameters which are importantly unacceptable.  

These businesses that have been thriving all through our UK economic downturn, and still continue to thrive do so as they set very clear expectations upon the behaviours of their customers.  Look at budget airlines for example, very clear on what customers can and cannot do.  And yet retailers like John Lewis who are suffering from 99% profit losses are having to seriously re-think their business model. 

Scotty Wiseman said two generations ago "Have I told you lately, that I love you".  When you come out the other side of a thoroughly miserable, bloody war, it will be the respect and love between people that motivates and inspires. But in our times, one could quite justifiably re-jig that to "Have I told you lately, that I love me", because what social media is fast being referred to is "show off media".  The writing was on the wall many years ago when posters pinged up an image of them taking a 'selfie' using a full-length mirror.  So let me get this right then.... you've taken a photo of yourself, taking a photo of yourself.  Me me me! It's all about me!  Unsurprisingly, this culture of "meness" has created a generation of self-obsessed young adults who want the very best for them, immediately.  And this all applies regarding the taking of driving lessons with a driving instructor and obtaining a full driving licence.

When you have educational institutions repeatedly planting seeds of "meness" thoughts into young minds, then this is what happens.  Students are no longer expected to absorb knowledge but instead, know how to retrieve knowledge instantly.  You don't need to calculate in your head a subtraction formula to know how many days until Christmas.  No, you say "Alexa, how many sleeps until Christmas?", she will think, leaving you time to then hear a few words from Santa (give it a go if you don't believe me).

From a business point of view, this is only important if you value your time.  Pupils will switch you on and off at the drop of a hat.  Your diary will get filled and cancelled at will.  Cancellations have consequences to your private life, your family commitments, your revenue, and your general sense of well-being.  For driving instructors, it is in your interests to know how to manage this situation.
  
Call BIG TOM and let us help you to help yourself.