2024 Panel Discussion

Our 2024 Panel discussion, along with our partner the AMARC and led by Marie-Louis Jullien, featured the feedback of:

• Julie Charrier, Voice of the Customer Director at Compagnie des Alpes
• Benoît Larere, Customer Experience Director at DB Schenker
• Jean-Charles Soret, Customer Experience Department & Data Management Director at Toyota
• Anne-Marie Quina, Customer Experience Director at Roole
  

Julie Charrier (Compagnie des Alpes) : « The results we have extracted from our different surveys show that a large majority of our customers are globally satisfied. But we make sure to also take into account these customers who were extremely satisfied (global satisfaction notes ranging from 9 to 10) who make up nearly half of our customers. Those are the customers who come back and recommend us the most.

But what about the experience of the other half of customers, which was not considered enchanting (customers who awarded a satisfaction note ranging from 1 to 8)? Some among these customers have as a matter of fact experienced something critical: getting stuck on a mountain lift, issues with the ski equipment or when arriving in their rental…

To make sure that we do not miss these issues, we attempt to determine if a customer who did not experience enchantment and may have undergone problems:

• did share their problem in a verbatim?

• left annoyed and kept the problem to themselves?

• said nothing on the moment but then made it clear to their relatives that the experience wasn’t good?

To make sure that we are able to respond to these issues, we make use of our satisfaction barometer within which we have included the 5 following questions:

• Did you encounter any issue during your stay?
• What was that issue?
• Did you report it to a resort employee?
• Did you receive an answer to your issue?
• Were you satisfied with the way your complaint was managed?

Since these questions are part of our satisfaction barometer, we can then easily assess them with regard to the global satisfaction rate, the NPS score and the revisit intention. This ‘Complaint Model’ allows us to assess the ROI of a dissastisfaction management policy.”

Benoit Larere (DB Schenker) : « The ‘construction’ of our customer culture was initiated at first with the company’s executive committee and 200 executives (heads of headquarters or offices). The head of the company has to be convinced and ready to foster this commitment for such a transformation to happen.

When initiating this programme, we relied upon the COS (Customer Orientation Score). We introduced this diagnostic tool to 1500 collaborators, among which 400 work on the field. The reply rate of this survey was 78%, which demonstrated that this topic legitimately interested the collaborators and that customer culture already had a solid foothold in our company.

Through the diagnostic’s questionnaire, we have asked collaborators about their “individual, spontaneous customer orientation” as well as about their “perception of customer culture” within DB Schencker. This encompassed three pillars: strategic impulses, connection with customers and manager empowerment. We have then confronted these two orientations (individual customer culture and company culture), which has allowed us to identify which services (for instance, the IS or the headquarters) could be better supported when it comes to the development of customer culture.

Following this COS diagnostic, we have led training programmes aimed at each of our managers, taking into account the results observed within their professional environment. We have also exchanged firsthand with these managers to collect their thoughts on which actions should be implemented in order to improve customer culture within their particular field. »

Jean-Charles Soret (Toyota France) : « In 2019, Toyota introduced an extensive training programme named BRIT (Best Retailer In Town). Its objective is to turn the Toyota dealerships into the ‘best retailers in town’.

The BRIT programme relies upon four pillars:

• The ‘Toyota Way’, in other words the broadcasting of the company’s values and culture : ‘Kaizen’ (i.e. continuous improvement) and ‘Genchi Genbutsu’ (i.e. to pinpoint the root of problems, to put oneself in the customers’ shoes).

• Collaborators’ commitment, with a special focus on the one hand on Consideration Symmetry and, on the other hand, on best practices with regard to verbatim use. This is achieved through the planning of daily feedback sharing sessions, where all Voices of the Customers that have been collected with the help of the various customer listening tools used in dealerships are being discussed.

• Customer centricity, which aims to make the best use of the Voice of the Customer at the dealership level as well as firsthand at the salespeople and aftersales level. To make the best use of the Voice of the Customer, we notably use the E-letters which are generated by ERDIL which we then share with our network. This allows us to bring in, firsthand, some new material to our dealerships and to have the Voice of the Customer be an integral part of the collaborators’ focus.

• The development of business and customer experience are not about philantropy; in the end, the end-goal of the customer experience improvement is also to generate better results from a business point of view.

All these BRIT programme actions are part of an extensive groundwork being undertaken at Toyota, with for each action a carefully defined training period and follow-up. Three training sessions are thus planned: one in Île-de-France, another one in Brussels at the Toyota European Headquarters and the last one at the Toyota manufacturing center near Valenciennes. During this last session, collaborators will meet up with team members who assemble vehicles firsthand. »

Anne-Marie Quina (Roole) : When it comes to collaborator experience, several initiatives come to reinforce the well-being at work.

Meeting-free Fridays

This initiative is directly written in our agendas: our HR managers have sent each and every one an event taking place each Friday: meeting-free Fridays. This was obviously a bit challenging at first; even though we normally plan only a very few meetings, it was necessary to have them rearranged over the week. This action has led everyone to do without meetings, to free up some time during Fridays and to say “no” when necessary and when schedules are full.

11 hours of time-credit per month

Roole grants each willing employee 11 hours per month that are to be used within the framework of two schemes aimed at helping the others:

• The Roole Foundation which aims at alleviating mobility-related hindrances, most notably for the most vulnerable individuals. For instance, this may take the form of easing the driving licence acquisition process. The Roole Foundation has thus set up traffic rules classes which are directed by our teams’ collaborators during the alloted time-credit. This foundation really allows our collaborators to feel useful helping the others.

• The Collective is the Roole Foundation internal counterpart: collaborators also help others but this time within the framework of the company and with regard to topics such as ecology, well-being, sources of inspiration as well as in-house events. Each group gathers 6 to 10 voluntary employees. There is no hierarchy in play; one person will coordinate the group’s actions but everyone remains autonomous. One of these groups’ benefits is that its various participants will gain competences that they will be able to use on a daily basis in their work.

Support to personal development

Regarding personal development, our HR team has most notably set up training courses with regard to Nonviolent Communication which are aimed at all collaborators.

We also have two coachs (known as “Coachs at our service”) who visit us twice a month on Fridays. Anyone can arrange a consultation with them to discuss a topic and work on it.

To access the entire discussion, you may ask for the complete report (in PDF format) using the contact form below: