Ingredients of a great team

When looking for a well performing team, we often consider benefits of diversity, typically consisting of gender, experience, nationality, culture and creativity. Instead, or in addition, should we be looking for a mix of behaviours, such as skills in social interaction, empathy and influencing? What are the ingredients that provide best outcome for a given purpose?

Researcher Katri Saarikivi at Tubecon industry day in Helsinki discussed elements of creating great online experience. She emphasized importance of empathy and interaction. A “human centered design” was featured as a key element in planning online experiences.

How do we do that? Demonstrating emphathy and interaction towards our customers? Saarikivi stated that (customer´s) problem solving is a combination of 3 factors: technology, cognition and sociability. In addition to technical knowledge, competitive advantage is built on better human understanding and better human contact. The key drivers to this, in supporting employees, are according to Saarikivi ability to provide psychological safety and trust, clarity of structures, meaningfulness and impact. In Saarikivi presentation the core is everybody´s voice to be heard. Thus, understanding, experience and actions together, generated by a well functioning team, drive good customer service. More on Saarikivi viewpoints in recent interview by Kauppalehti Optio.

The New York Time Magazine wrote about a quest to find the perfect team. The challenge was to find out how to turn employees into faster, better and more productive versions of themselves, also referred to as “personal productivity”. Some studies show findings that out of our daily work, more and more time is spent on collaborative work. This should enable better innovation and problem solving. Thus, focusing on team effort and its impact is a big deal.  

Successful outcome does not mean gathering the best people to do the work, but rather forming a team that has best ingredients contributing to success. New York Time Magazine case on Google proved that mix of personality types or skills or backgrounds did not make the difference. The “who” part didn’t matter. The norms and collective IQ that is distinctive, than that of any single member, makes the difference. The right norms could raise the group´s collective intelligence, good performance leading to another. Some norms were identified; group members talked the same amount of time ie everybody is listened to. Second, group members have social sensitivity, demonstrating interpersonal trust and mutual respect.

Behind great customer experience is therefore a great team that feels their work is meaningful, supported by open dialogue and sharing, and understanding their mission. Team members, in ideal situation, have various behavioural patterns. Those complement each other and each others´ experience, driving common, shared norms and raising the collective performance.

Aiming to develop our own competences and performance, and living in a world that is never ready, our marketing team established an own quest. Mission is to learn from digital marketing and online customer behavior. One of the learning experiences was to choose a platform where to benchmark our own work. As a result, we are now shortlisted at European Communications Awards as Team of the year. Final results will be announced after a pitch end of September. Feeling extremely proud of the team, I think we have some great ingredients. Work and development continues.

Transformation to a service company

Industrial companies are considering ambitions to re-position themselves towards service companies. We live in a service economy, thus the direction is evident. Consumers having great service experiences in e.g. retail, banking, and entertainment start having bigger expectations towards business interactions as well. A big consideration is profitability – how a service generates more value than a product, which may have attractive margins – but even bigger consideration may be how to maintain customer loyalty and remain competitive – since customer needs evolve.

An industrial transformation towards a service company will most likely not be a fast turnaround, but depending on the industry, customer base and scope of business a gradual change. From engineering towards technology provider, from integrated solutions towards services provider. There are a number of elements to be considered a part of this transformation.  

Ø  How do customer requirements change?

o   Customers understand increasing opportunities of online, data and analytics. Learning from consumer services, they expect a smooth customer service in various channels. Customer needs may shift from single transactions towards efficiency improvements, performance guarantees and consultancy. Some customers still want individual products, but delivery or installation requirements may change, and they may be willing to pay for them.

Ø  What is a positioning that provides a competitive edge?

o   Once the company understands its customers business requirements, it is time to decide what positioning to take. How to differentiate from competition? How to not just respond to customers basic requirements, but help them improve their operations, and even help them grow. Price, value, service, speed, sustainability, safety, peace of mind?

Ø  How to develop the footprint?

o   A company may own a number of locations ranging from offices, production or service facilities and research and development. Based on the positioning, what are the key factors? What are the operations that support company positioning and increase profitability in the long term and require more investments? Instead of own production, would joint ventures, partnerships, or leasing make sense?

Ø  What competence shift is needed?

o   A transformation towards a service company requires new kind of competences. These are wider set of various competences. Engineering and technology skills will be complemented by powerful supply management, partnerhsips, integration capabilities, business planning and advisory skills. Customer understanding is prerequisite for a successful service company.

Ø  What kind of offering sells?

o   What does the company sell? What is in the catalogue that transforms into money? What responds to customer needs and how can the portfolio be planned that it is modular and meaningful for volume and value selling? A company needs solutions that can be commercialized and promoted to its customers, not only tailor made upon request, which may become too expensive.

 

Ø  Importance of company culture and internal communications?

o   What are the employee processes, measures and rewarding systems that support the transformation? Is induction for newcomers still in own facilities or would it be time to get the employees closer to customers business? How to reward for value creation?

o   In cultural context, it is never too much to emphasise importance of internal communications. Employees need and deserve to know about the company´s vision and business, and be able to discuss and contribute to it. Next to customers, employees know best of the customer business.

Recommended article European Journal of Innovation Management Volume 7 · Number 3 · 2004 · pp. 218-228

 

Marketing as a service

I´ve never liked the concept of “content marketing”. Shouldn’t all marketing have some “content” that is relevant for the target group. The definitions I`ve seen have sounded like what integrated marketing has been about for decades. We need to find relevant message for our customers in a channel where they get most value of it.

In a meeting at Finnish Advertisers Association, we had a much more exciting discussion over “Marketing as a Service”. Since people spend increasingly time in various social media channels, it has become a hub for performing various tasks or activities. Finding information, making comparisons, finding inspiration, looking for services, performing transactions, or simply being entertained. This is where customer service, sales, marketing and communications get mixed. Someone may look for advertising for the sake of entertainment. Someone might be looking for online technical support to use a product, and ends up buying more.

Marketing, with the purpose of generating demand, can actually be used as – or generate - a service. Online channels provide great opportunity for various kinds of interactions – when wished by customers. Thus the customer journey logic works well. How can we serve the customer within their purchase process through various actions that help them make a decision – and be happy about it. Thus, the “Maalilinja” service by Tikkurila, who provides inspiration for interior design over selling paint, and “Traveller” service by Marriott, may be bigger reason to buy than a single offer. In fact, a short movie by Marriott, ended up with 80.000 bookings, with service being destination information.

We marketeers may spend our times on customer magazines and newsletters, which as such may be relevant and informative. The challenge for the future will be where and when to publish content to our target audiences. Someone suggested there should be a story bank. When there is a trigger, such as political or economic event, or cultural phenomena, we are ready to publish instantly. In addition to the annual or quarterly plans, we need to be prepared for instant feed. How does this change our planning or resourcing practices? Do online service personnel equal marketing as a service?

Characteristics of a solutions provider

Manufacturers globally are looking for ways of improving their profitability by transforming their offering towards services and solutions. What is crucial in this transformation is to clarify the definition of a solution. It does not equal products and services. Rather, a solution is an answer to a specified customer need. Example: improving energy efficiency. Improving availability of an installation for increased running hours. Reducing use of fuel in transportation.

A change towards an integrated solutions provider requires a wider scope of competences, such as customer business understanding, technology knowledge, auditing, consulting, communications and supply management or partnering. A study by Windahl, Andersson, Berggren and Nehler on “Manufacturing firms and integrated solutions: characteristics and implications” by European Journal of Innovation Management vol 7 iss 3 pp. 218-228 indicates that intelligent technology enables a continuous optimisation of customer operations. Developing services to complement the installed base requires fewer assets, is often counter cyclical and can provide higher margins.

Characteristic in a change process away from hardware or capital intense production is focusing more on customer process throughout the customer journey, including both business planning and operations. Some models may include even possibility for customers to operate equipment or installation without owning, maintaining or operating it.

Within the transformation, a key success factor is to plan how to build the capabilities supporting the customer performance. According to Windahl, Andersson, Berggren and Nehler, some key factors are: pricing models, generating new performance indicators against the traditional manufacturing set-up, increased risk taking and changing the relationship with customers and partners, including increased customer interaction and co-production. In their competence development model, they see a difference of “shaping the market” and a “interacting” as a strategic orientation. Listed key competences of an integrated solutions provider include technical and application competence, systems integration competence, partnering competence, as well as market / business and consulting competence.

It is no wonder companies are currently investing in advanced customer understanding models, CRM systems and continuous sales competence development. All gears towards collecting a flow of information from customers. Not only related to customer business and their needs, but increasingly into customer operational profiles, use data and related analytics. Providing integrated solutions is building a consistent business model with a customer, the solutions provider being an integral part of customers operations on a daily basis.

Not all customers are into ways of risk reduction and differentiating their services to their own customers. Thus a manufacturing company need to consider - and decide - the level of transformation they aim at, how much to build on existing manufacturing capabilities, how much to invest in building service and solutions capabilities – and to which customers to focus on. One way is to separate manufacturing altogether and build a new approach for customer focused solutions business with new metrics, culture and incentives.

Service opportunities for the “lifecycle” of Konmari?

There are various definitions for mindfulness, and the Finnish sanctuary, sauna, could act as a perfect example of an approach for focused thinking. However, sauna no longer acts as the only source for improving your self-awareness. We use life coaches, personal trainers, yoga and breathing exercises to find focus in life. To find joy of life. To find meaning of life. To find the next level. To find balance between personal and business life. To identify ourselves in the complexity of life.

The era of searching for balance and meaning has generated a number of approaches that fulfil our hunger for information and ideas - or simply generate joy and excitement.

In the interest of a best-seller, I read KonMari by Marie Kondo. What is it about the KonMari movement that has made more than 20.000 Finns join the Facebook group or more than 50.000 books sold in Finland?

The KonMari movement could be described as finding joy for life. Or at least getting your home organised. What Kondo does is link the search of joy with something simple – by cleaning and organizing our homes. Getting rid of unnecessary stuff concretises how one does not spend time on unnecessary things one doesn’t like or you doesn’t pleasure. Looking at the stories on KonMari movement, the method seems to work from shifting the logic from your home to your whole living. KonMari is about creating an environment where you see and use things that you appreciate. My friend is expressing excitement about getting rid of 30 year old clothes and old childrens toys.

But what when you have read the book and organized your home? What´s next? How can we fulfil the search of joy for the Konmaris for the long run? What is the “lifecycle” of these fans?

Marie Kondo does not really take stand into where to take all the 30 bags of unnecessary items from your home. Could this be a source for further ideas?

As much as you like food, groceries and goods being delivered right to your door, wouldn’t be equally nice having things delivered out of your house, from your door?

In Finland recycling has been arranged extremely well. There is a system where to leave paper, glass, cardboard, metal and plastic. There are public recycling stations which accept items free of charge. There are logistics services that collect old used electronics. But are there turnkey solutions for recycling the full stack of unnecessary items you want to let go?

If we look at the lifecycle of an enthusiast who would like to maintain the life of cleanliness, what could be the opportunities?

-        Somebody to clean and organize. Including categorizing, providing packaging and storing solutions and getting the job done. There are professional organisers but is the market full? How could one differentiate from family homes to elderly homes or singles? People with different hobbies?

-        Turnkey solutions getting rid of things. Somebody to recycle, donate or sell. Take to rummage sales or sell at online store. Take things for charity or recycling stations.

-        Ensuring your home stays clean and organized throughout years to come. Making progress checks and helping out at agreed frequency. Providing clear service intervals or monitoring the condition of your home. Making health checks to your home and yourself. The intervals may include highlights like “children leaving home” or “moving out”.

-        Generating a memorable experience of things you may miss. Documenting, photographing things you feel you may yet want to see again. Generating digital versions of paper photos or old VCR videos. Making a summary of your favourite books or scrapbooks you no longer need.

-        Etc.

In the light of the movement and seeing all the existing options around us, could there even be a Finnish version of it? “Siivoa ja iloitse”? “Desinfioi ja nauti”?