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Applicant
Iraklis Lampadariou

Organisation
Speak Greek

Date Awarded
04/04/2023

Website
Click here

The LCS Impact Awards

Speak Greek®

Background

As there were many Greek tutors offering private or group lessons to students who would like to learn Greek, I tried to identify my unique selling point which I summarised to the motto: ‘Passion for teaching our native language’. Being passionate about my business and equipped with data from analysing what competitors were offering at that time and what customers would like to see on offer, I decided to expand services for customers (students, teachers-competitors, parents, businesses).

Services included free conversation classes for adults, support groups for Greek language & Culture, ebooks, webinars, educational projects, free resources. Despite the range of services available, the number of new students was limited and since 2018 that I included translation services, I found it really hard to attract new customers.

Activity 

Experiencing lean thinking started in 2018 but a structured approach towards its tools and techniques evolved later. Within the last 12 months lean was fully embraced to all the operations and lessons. To identify why there wasn’t a steady increase of students to take up my services, I used cause and effect diagram.

Through this process, I managed to visually present myself with areas that required improvement with an immediate action plan. To identify how I could be more competitive in the translation industry as there were more established translators than me with more experience and qualifications specifically for translating services, I used A3 problem solving.

I had to attract some of their customers and new customers by adapting an ambitious approach offering competitive charges that included as standard completion of translation within 24 hours, paid 1st class postage and scanned documents to customers. Once I had more students enrolling to either private lessons or classes, I used flow for adult students to identify clearly how I can support customers through a transition period of limited time for myself to be able to deliver lessons.

Impact 

By fully immersing myself to lean thinking, Speak Greek® now has a steadily increased income and visitors on the website. Processes that could be automated (enrolling new students, replying to messages with simple queries about availability and prices, scheduling lessons, issuing invoices etc.) are now automated saving a considerable amount of time that is invested in improving quality of services and developing new services.

Also, standardisation of forms (e.g. GDPR consent, Registration form) and fact sheets has led to a reduction of errors and satisfied customers who are becoming our Ambassadors, introducing new customers to our services. Customers are receiving a tailored service and they appreciate the hard work we are putting in to deliver our services.

They also enjoy our commitment to reply to any messages within 24 hours regardless of bank holidays or festive periods/holidays. Customers’ feedback on TrustPilot is amazing, highlighting both the quality and cost-effectiveness of our services: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/speak-greek.com

Recently, Speak Greek won the SME News Northern Enterprise Award ‘Best Greek Language & Culture Lessons Provider – North West’. Next steps include collaboration with qualified teachers to deliver webinars on specific topics, publishing ebooks of other teachers and introducing customer immersion sessions to become even better!

Awards Showcase

The LCS Impact Awards recognise excellence in the application of continuous improvement at an organisational, team and individual level.

GuideWell Impact Awards: Cultural transformation & Process Improvement

Background GuideWell has undergone a massive Lean cultural transformation over the course of the last 3.5 years, that has saved millions to its

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IPO Team Award – Creation of a Bespoke Workplace Booking App

Background The Intellectual Property Office is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property rights including patent, d

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Ingeus Team Award – Continuous Improvement Academy Team Impact

Summary: Launching a CI Academy drives increased capability, better decisions, effects change and boosts customer service. Ingeus is a leading

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Ingeus Organisation Award – Continuous Improvement Strategy Execution

Ingeus is a leading people services provider, delivering long-term, impactful projects to enable better lives. Working for commissioners at nat

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Ingeus

Background Ingeus is a leading people services provider, delivering impactful projects to enable better lives at both national and regional lev

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Speak Greek®

Background As there were many Greek tutors offering private or group lessons to students who would like to learn Greek, I tried to identify my

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Hilti Global Logistics Organization

LCS Impact Award: Engaging people and creating value through lean upskilling Background Hilti stands for quality, innovation, and direct custom

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World Courier – New Hyde Park

Background Building on its world-class business model, World Courier kicked off the Center of Excellence (COE) initiative at the beginning of 2

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Continuous Improvement Culture & Capability Build

Background Sellafield Ltd Group Business Services (GBS) is a Multi-Functional Shared Service organisation. Delivering operational services in P

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Establishing Global CI Impact & Sustainability

Background LGC is a leading, global life science tools company, providing mission-critical components and solutions into high-growth applicatio

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Lean Programme Sustainability

Background GuideWell is a mutual insurance holding company based in Florida, primarily focused on health insurance. GuideWell companies include

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Programme Director Effectiveness

Background Eduardo is a highly experienced lean practitioner, who has held senior roles with Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Resource Solutions

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