A case study

When market analysis revealed that our client was losing ground to competitors in their largest-growing customer segment, we were brought in to illuminate a deeper understanding of these customers, as they had been largely overlooked to date. 

At the outset of the project, we were also informed that engaging the employees who were the key liaisons to these customers would be paramount to future success. 

At that time, employee engagement with market research had been notably difficult to attain for this client, as it was often done in isolation from teams who would later be responsible for the resultant development plans. Further complicating the challenge of inspiring their employees was a standard practice of using PowerPoint as a means to engage teams with their market research results -- it was largely considered "white noise."

We proceeded with an ethnographic research initiative during which we engaged a sample of their B2B customers in the context of their working environments. We then applied our signature Voice of the Customer (VoC) analysis approach to establish a richer foundation upon which to capture the hearts and minds of their employees.

We captured thousands of customer quotes and rigorously organized them into rational and emotional content clusters onto massive storytelling boards, enabling a physical narrative of what mattered most to their customer.

Going grand and hands-on with the customer story served to be a key point of differentiation from the traditional “white noise” of slide presentations. “I think it’s very powerful,” said a director of global communications. “You know what it says to me? We don’t believe in PowerPoints anymore.”

The customer story was delivered in a way that everyone in the organization was able to relate to, reducing knowledge gaps that could have persisted. “I have never seen such broad emotional engagement," said a vice president of marketing. "It was a very, very diverse team from different businesses with different interests but they were still engaged… people have been emotionally touched, people were enthusiastic about it and that leaves an emotional impression.” 

This resulted in an unprecedented level of employee engagement and operational momentum that later translated to the development of products and services tailored to needs of our client's most strategic customer segment.