What do we mean by customer closeness? It’s pretty simple really, we mean any activity that gets your employees out of their daily corporate life and interacting directly with their customers, consumers or patients. Ideally physically, but in an increasingly connected world, this can also be virtually.
Why? So you understand them better and grow your business by meeting their needs.
We design experiences to suit your needs – it could be a one-off event to get your employees out and engaging with their customers face-to-face or a longer term programme that aims to embed a culture of customer closeness in the heart of your organisation through both events and capability development.
Mingle, be more connected.
One-off events designed to get an organisation out and mingling with their customers. This could be as part of a conference, a ‘back-to-the-floor’ activity for senior leaders or as a kick off to an important project.
A longer term programme made up of ongoing activities to develop a culture of customer-centric in an organisation. Including developing the right tools to be able to connect with customers regularly, the skills and behaviours to embed and act on what you experience and the knowledge you build.
Often underpins events and culture programs. Short, engaging, interactive training events to give employees the right skills to get the most out of their mingling. From interviewing skills to discussion guide development and effective capture of observations.
Many businesses are awash with data but employees still lack real empathy with their customers. And without customer empathy it’s far harder to make the right customer-centric decisions.
By ‘empathy’ we mean the ability to truly understand someone else’s world and their behaviours even though that world is completely different to yours. It’s the type of knowledge that comes from seeing things through other’s eyes and understanding in a way that a spreadsheet can’t.
Most market research relies on affective empathy – we have to absorb an understanding of our customers through reading a research report or observing discussions through a one-way focus group mirror.
It’s a scientific fact that what’s called cognitive empathy, the understanding we gain from actually doing/interacting directly ourselves, is far more effective at influencing our decision making. It also has a longer lasting affect.
And if that’s all a bit theoretical for you, a recent Harvard Business Review study laid out a pretty compelling fact: “Your company is 50% more likely to over perform if it incorporates direct employee-customer connection at multiple stages of the planning process”*
In short – get out and mingle and you’ll be even more effective at your job!
We could argue that simply getting out there and connecting with your customers is going to have a positive impact on your business but we’re conscious that the investments you make (both time and money) need to deliver a tangible impact.
That’s where our 4C’s process comes in. Whether it’s a small one-off event or a longer term programme, we use it as the backbone to our planning and deliverables to you.
Here’s some food for thought based some recent projects we’ve run.
Morgan Arnell
25 years experience leading insight teams in global companies such as P&G, Boots, Allied Domecq and Kimberly-Clark.
For the past 9 years Morgan has run IO Consulting, who enable companies such as eBay, BP and Kenwood to access insight capability in a highly flexible way.
Morgan’s Best Connection Experience:
“As a 20 something research manager at P&G I will never forget getting a rather stern telling off from a laundry detergent consumer in Newcastle when I innocently asked why colours and whites needed to be separated. She loved the opportunity to demonstrate her know how in a category many assume is ‘low engagement’”
Craig Scott
30 years experience working in insight teams for global companies such as Kimberly-Clark and Johnson & Johnson as well as Accenture owned capability company Brand Learning. Craig was also the European Head of Research for Pfizer introducing patient-centric programmes inspired by his consumer background.
Craig also runs Greensand, a market research consultancy specialising in medical devices with clients such as Allergan, GSK, Hollister and Pfizer.
Craig’s Best Connection Experience:
“Easy. Taking the team out to meet patients who suffered from severe osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. They thought they knew it all, had read every medical paper, but nothing prepared them for what they learned meeting patients and seeing their struggles with their own eyes.”
Craig Scott
Director
m: +44 (0)7542 831396
e: craig@mingleconnections.com
Morgan Arnell
Director
m: +44 (0)7801 045864
e: morgan@mingleconnections.com
