HOW TO CREATE A WINNING CUSTOMER CULTUREThe LynxEye Brand and Business Seminar held on February 12th centered around the topic of how to create a sustainable customer culture. Guest speakers from Aftonbladet, Telia and Clas Ohlson shared their experiences, learnings and what they have done to establish customer centricity as a natural part of day-to-day operations.

Although these three companies have rather different backgrounds and oper-ate within very different industries they all have come to the same conclusion. Creating a customer centric organization cannot be seen as an isolated initiative, it really has to be an integral part of the business strategy. The strategy must provide clear guidance on who the cus-tomers are, what their key needs are and what the organization should fo-cus on to maximize customer benefit.

Jan Helin, Publisher and Editor in Chief at Aftonbladet, stressed the importance of hav-ing a clear purpose that answers the ques-tion why do we exist? He believes that you need a clear answer to this question in order to get clear long-term guidance and also to support development of the best experi-ences for the target users in the short-term. Aftonbladets purpose to be Swedens most engaging news source and meeting place for everyone who wants to be in the know also helps to balance the, sometimes con-

tradictory, relationship of satisfying readers and fulfilling a journalistic responsibility. In order to understand what really creates en-gagement and touches users Aftonbladet combines real time user data with a quali-tative analysis that is based on long experi-ence of reader interaction that is engrained in our journalists way of working. Jan Helin, stated that somewhere herein lies the ex-planation to the fact that Aftonbladet reach-es 3.4 million readers on a daily basis. Clas Ohlson and Business Development Director Ulrika Gransson embarked on a journey that meant that they left a strong product orientation to instead place the cus-tomer at the center stage in all strategies and key decisions. To succeed with this big strategic change they decided to build on the already existing Clas Ohlson spirit since it had many positive aspects. The rea-son was that they deemed it easier to adapt an existing culture, rather than to challenge it head-on and replace it with something en-tirely new in one fell swoop. A key success

factor in achieving this change was to make extensive use of steering and follow-up data. Customer satisfaction data results were communicated broadly; they were used as a rationale for key business decisions; they in-fluenced and shaped the content of training and induction programs. In short, customer centricity became an integral part of daily operations all the way down to store level.

Even though Clas Ohlson has come a long way in creating a strong customer culture Ul-rika stresses the importance of not resting on your laurels, but instead coming up with new initiatives that ensures a continued customer focus. One example of such an initiative is the recently rolled-out concept of Go-to-guys. Basically the idea behind the go-to-guys initiative is that we need a tangible role mod-el of how a Clas Ohlson co-worker should be, where we highlight desired traits that help to create customer benefit. This is not only directed towards retail staff, but should also influence how people at HQ acts.

Telia, much like Clas Ohlson, is aiming to make the transformation from product to customer focus. Coming from a history in which they have had a monopoly position for well over 100 years of course represents a huge challenge. Thomas Sparrmo, VP and Head of Brand & Marketing at Telia, believes that he must not only change how people view Telia, but also hopes that people will view the entire industry in a different light.

When implementing brand and customer strategies we work according to three different perspectives, Minds, Hearts and Hands. This holistic approach is de-signed to overcome the many different types of im-plementation challenges organizations encounter.

This then is the first step in shaping a customer centric or-ganization by implementing the strategy throughout the company. More and more companies see a need to es-tablish tools and ways of working that keeps brand and customer engagement on top of everyones agenda over a long period of time. In response to this need, LynxEye has developed two complementing initiatives that aim to achieve long lasting brand and customer engagement - Brand Governance and the Customer Connection Program. Our approach to Brand Governance ensures that all key aspects of the strategy are translated into KPIs and that ownership is distributed throughout the organization, making everyone see their role in the goal. It also enables a continu-ous dialogue about how it is going and what the top priorities from a customer perspective are, thereby creating vital com-munication content to drive change. Another very important benefit is that an action oriented way of working is promot-ed by adopting LynxEyes Brand Governance approach.

The customer Connection Program secures that decision makers within the company have a direct connection to customers in a structured and engaging way, thereby facili-tating deeper market and customer understanding. Reduc-ing the distance between decision makers and customers facilitates better and faster decision making. It also has the added benefit of making leaders more credible internally when driving change to create a stronger customer culture. By listening to and meeting customers it is easier for de-cision makers to understand shifts in customer needs as well as to detect new needs. This way current service of-ferings can be adapted in time and entirely new products and services can be developed to answer unmet custom-er needs - it helps to create a more agile organization.

If you are interested to know more and understand how LynxEye can help you to shape a customer culture please contact us: ulf.roberts-jones@lynxeye.com, Tel +46 (0)721 729 451

LynxEye Brand Engagement Ensures sustainable customer centricity

Thomas said that the first thing that must be in place to suc-ceed with this change is a committed and deeply customer focused leadership. By really getting to know the customers, key decision makers will be better suited to make decisions that really fulfill customer needs. In order to accomplish this Telia designed a program named Go and see that allows management to meet customers in different touch points. Thomas says Its important to constantly keep engagement levels high. I believe you have to actually visit the store, listen in on real customer service calls and put yourself in these situations where you experience what your customers experience. Management must do this in order to really feel for the customer and get a deeper understanding of custom-er needs and frustrations; this is probably the silver bullet

Key Take Aways

Customer culture cannot live in isolation- A clear purpose and a customer focused strategy is a prerequisite to succeed in creating a sustainable customer culture.

First hand customer experiences is a must for management- Culture change must be driven by management in order to succeed and to be credible management has to have first hand customer experiences.

Build on what you have- It is easier to adapt and build on existing structures and ways of working than introducing completely new concepts that challenge the existing culture.

Customer feedback must shape internal ways of working- It is important to collect the right type of customer data, but it is equally important that there is a clearly defined process of how to analyze, create action plans and communicate the results.