Close Encounters
How to link the growth of markets and teams
How do you address a customer segment that has not been well-engaged by your services so far? You could launch a communication campaign or a price initiative. Our client chose a different path.
UNLOCKING GROWTH POTENTIALS IN THE MARKET AND THE TEAM
Initially, it was about market share. But then it became about more than that: developing culture and competencies within the organisation. We began by training an interdisciplinary team of 5 employees to become service designers. The goal was to develop processes and services with a customer-centric approach, unlocking growth potentials in both the market and the team.
DELIVERING RESULTS — PREFERABLY
BY TOMORROW
The team had no prior training or exposure to service design or an innovation mindset. The processes and services of our client were aligned with the structures and requirements of more profitable customer segments, which were not comparable. And measurable results were expected within 6 months.
FOCUSING ON RESOURCES
Instead of the classic goal orientation, we focused on the resources within the team. This allowed us to build on existing emotional and professional competencies. We gradually established frameworks for methodological competencies and a learning-oriented leadership and working culture along the lines of solving specific tasks. Head, heart, hand, as it were.
"Service design enables
us to systematically change perspectives."
BUILDING EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE
Both companies and employees often overestimate their knowledge of their customers. What are mere data points, and what are relevant insights?
Service design combines customer orientation with process orientation, revealing what is important to customers and why it is important to them. This ensures that services not only meet functional needs but also address social and emotional needs.
DEVELOPING CULTURE AND COMPETENCE
How do you merge various experts and mentalities into a cohesive team? We design our training on two levels: project-based and cultural. Why do we exist as a team? What do we want to achieve together? How do we share our expertise, and how do we make decisions? This way, we integrate cultural and competency development.
CONNECTING POTENTIALS AND RESULTS
And what was the business outcome? An optimised and occasionally novel service concept covering the entire customer lifecycle, and an innovation hub with a team capable of acting as in-house trainers to unlock further potentials in the market and within the organisation.
