Creating a Customer Centric Culture via Design Thinking

Launching a Car company in a new and a very dynamic market like India especially being mindful of cost and service oriented considerations is very challenging. It comes with cut-throat competition and related struggles of a highly dynamic market. This Automobile Giant had setup a base in India and yet after many years many IT employees in that region don’t seem to understand and recognize a flagship product, its differentiation and fame. The concern is that IT Employees of were not aware of the product portfolio. Quite disappointing. How did we reach to this conclusion: here is what happened:-

Emma, the Chief Executive Officer, traveled to India to hear about the great launch of their world famous flagship sports car. During her conversation with an Indian team member in the elevator she is stunned to know that another IT employee present in the lift with them has no clue about the launch. Furthermore, to her surprise, the person was not aware of this world’s bestselling car that the company took special pride in manufacturing. He felt that that name of that car was actually just a name of a conference room with no relation to the company’s product.

Imagine you are to lead this team.

How might you inspire and energize Indian IT employees for this Major Automobile brand of a company they work for and develop passion?

We explored by:

• Empathizing by observing IT employees in that region and having casual instead of focused conversations to gather deeper understanding on ‘why’. This lead to an insight that (IT) employees generally don’t understand and also do not exhibit inclination or motivation towards knowing more about their company’s products, any trivia about those products, facts of pride, company product’s differentiation. This situation is worse if the company’s transactions are B2B. Incase of B2Bs we actually found IT Employees (especially ones from a non ERP / Non Sales IT teams) struggling to share names of few products sold by their companies. We noticed that both emotional connection and a logical connection to the company and its products was missing for the above scenarios.
• This also added to tensions, skepticism about business and eventually affected the motivation and momentum in work.
• Shifting the focus to desires and needs of employees. This gave a compelling insight that there is a need to create special experiences to make them feel part of the organization and be the first brand ambassadors. Internal Campaigns were designed and executed to enhance the connection and pride in the products not by e-mails or town halls but by doing activities which excites and develops their passion.
• Formulating and executing surveys, coffee-meetups and discussions. As “Word of Mouth” marketing is one of the most effective media and what is better than having our own employees become our brand ambassadors.

Achieving results needs a change in culture and thought, and that may even initiate like a spark.

Compelling Insights inspires others towards action. It was time to redesign employee experience to not only achieve customer centricity but greater business success and productivity with passionate employees.

Great solutions don’t come in one go, we began iterating and observed employees responses .At last finally we worked on solutions that clicked:-

• Designed an internal modelling employee experience. This modelling experience was intended to connect employees from their heart and mind to the brand. Posters were displayed on the walls of the office.
• Designed a car mock-selling experience where all IT employees could nominate themselves to showcase their additional capabilities by doing a 5 minute mock sales  based on product and market knowledge, exhibiting their passion in presence of Dealership, Marketing and Sales Leadership to sell it to mock customer.

And finally judges selected the “Most Passionate Car Brand Ambassador”.

After the event, I still remember the energy, sheer exuberance that reflected in their actions and behaviour for many days .It significantly helped initiate the change in the culture. Employees recognized other employees and their work more that lead to ease of collaboration, they were able to connect the work they were doing with the big picture and above all they all felt so included in the vision, that indeed lead to increase in productivity.

The participants not only gained knowledge which would help in serving the customer better, they also acquired additional sales skill. The event further helped to increase passion, employee engagement, and connectivity towards the brand.

The employees indulged in what we would refer to as “Most Passionate Car Brand Ambassador”, during their dinner table conversations with their friends and family passionately shared why company products were better than competing products. As planned, the event helped spread the love for the brand by word of mouth, enhancing brand identity and creating customers.

These ambassadors not only get the badge and a different identity but also were given the sports car for the weekend to use and share their experiences with their friends and family on social media

Share the story with pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and lead to many more people curious about the event thereby many more prospect customers.

Treat your employees like you treat your customers to build more loyal customers!