CASE STUDY: collaborating in the customer journey

Data driven IT company

This small organisation is creating value through data-driven HR solutions for the Dutch market. The team is expanding and is starting to sell their solution into new markets, requiring product development, marketing and sales, and customer success teams to collaborate more smoothly together. 
"Saskia worked with me individually in the group. That was on the spot, safe, and so valuable. The whole team helped me to sharpen my self-image. They showed me the attributes that I have to be an equal and valuable discussion partner for customers. (Potential) customers are now even calling me to get my perspective on their situation!"
- Key account and partner manager

So what happened?

This BU team was well-aligned on the overall proposition and team objectives. However, this team had divided the work into the different expertise areas (departments) and worked on their own sub-objectives.

The manager kept the overview and updated everyone involved, acting as a linking pin. All escalations landed on his desk. This team suffered from lack of real understanding and collaboration between their internal departments.

They worked in separate expertise islands and were too loosely connected to the others on the handovers of their customer knowledge.
In the 36-hour workshop, they found new ways to improve their communication and the process to pass that information on to the next team that is needed to assure that the customer can experience the promised value.

They learned to reflect on their projects over the last year and what they want to do differently in the year to come, creating their own guiding principles and aligning those with others in the team. 



—

1

Challenges

It was challenging to get the BU team to really listen to the different perspectives from marketing, sales, customer success, and product development and the value they bring to the customer journey.
The key to this was the level of openness and vulnerability that we were able to establish in the first couple of hours.
The smaller teams needed to learn to take ownership of their strategies, decisions, and communication with the other teams.
During the workshop it became clear that some individuals needed to strengthen their self-trust in the value they bring.
Empty space, drag to resize
2

Process

We worked on the customer journey and how the teams with their specific expertise bring value and fit in with the others. Visually they created the customer journey and the value they bring with their expertise to get the customer commitments, from marketing to customer success.
They shared and listened and understood the challenges and needs of the others and how they could contribute to support them.
They discovered their lessons from the past and the guidelines for decisions for the future.
The openness in this team and the level of trust allowed work at a deeper personal level with some; to heal and strengthen that person in their crucial role in the process. Everyone on the team supported that learning process whole-heartedly.
Empty space, drag to resize
3

Impact

The focus on the customer journey kept it safe, practical, and fun for the team. They learned to listen, give feedback, and support each other, and they were able to reach out more often to one another to allow smoother collaboration after the session.
By collaborating within this team at the personal and team levels, they connected at a deeper level, leading to more understanding and easier ways to communicate with one another.
They broke down the silos of departments and took the goals and customer perspective as their frame.
The deeper personal work was described as magic. It led to more qualitative sales conversations, better connections, and clearer values for the customer. 
This year, leading (potential) customers actively called a senior sales-rep because they were interested in their view!