LRA Worldwide to Assist Washington Nationals with Customer Service Training

WASHINGTON, District of Columbia/HORSHAM, Pennsylvania; July 10, 2006 – LRA Worldwide, Inc., and The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball are partnering to enhance the Nationals’ fan experience with an intense customer service training program. The focus for the training will be all game day staff that interact with the fans at RFK Stadium. The training will take place the week prior to the Nationals’ “Grand Re-Opening Weekend” vs. the Chicago Cubs, July 21 – 23.

The “Grand Re-Opening Weekend” is a fan “thank you” celebration introduced by the Nationals’ new ownership group. The group, headed by real estate developer Ted Lerner and former Atlanta Braves and Hawks President Stan Kasten, has pledged a greater focus on the fan experience at Nationals’ games. With a new stadium scheduled to open for the 2008 season, the Nationals are committed to maximizing the fan experience at RFK Stadium in the interim.

“This is an opportunity to begin laying the foundation for a great ballpark atmosphere and create some awareness around what drives a fan-friendly service experience,” explained Steve Ethier, the Nationals’ Director of Ballpark Operations. “This program will be doubly beneficial, as it will enhance the game day experience today and will impact the transition to the new ballpark. LRA Worldwide was a natural partner for this project given their experience in creating meaningful ‘customer experience’ and service training programs in sports, hospitality and entertainment.”

Headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, LRA is a leading consulting firm that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA employs an integrated suite of services to help companies align internally around a shared vision of the optimal customer experience and then design and implement the programs required to deliver that experience operationally. LRA’s Organizational Development and Training practice – which has recently designed similar programs for the National Basketball Association, Live Nation, Albertsons Supermarkets and Six Flags - will work with the Nationals on this initiative.

“We work with a number of clients where the front-line employees have the greatest impact on the customer experience,” said Constance Billé, M.Ed., the Director of LRA’s Organizational Development and Training practice. “Quite often, these employees are not only paid the least, but have the least stake in the ultimate outcome of the customer relationship. We’ve had a great deal of success is designing programs that don’t just ‘train’ but begin to build a service culture where the employee understands and embraces his or her role in delivering the desired customer experience and learns the skills to do so.”

The training will be delivered in a general session to all Nationals game day employees at one time. Managers and supervisors will receive a subsequent “train the trainer” leadership and coaching module which will equip them to work with their direct reports on further skill development independent of LRA.

“In the training world, we try to temper client expectations for immediate results by explaining that ‘change doesn’t happen overnight,’” Billé continued. “In this instance, however, I think we’ve developed a concise, meaningful program that will make a difference in the RFK fan experience beginning July 21st. And as the fundamentals of the program take root and grow, it will continue to have a positive impact on the Nationals’ fan experience when the new ballpark opens in 2008 and beyond.”

About LRA Worldwide, Inc:
LRA Worldwide, Inc., is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in “operationalizing the brand” – turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA’s tactical CEM practice areas include Customer Experience Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Customer and Employee Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific client tactical need.

LRA’s clients include some of the world’s leading companies and brands in the hospitality industry and beyond, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock, the PGA TOUR, Albertsons Supermarkets, the NBA and MGM MIRAGE. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.LRAworldwide.com.


# # #