Business Lead CX Maarten van den Broek: 'I like to challenge myself, my team members and clients to do just a little bit better for the customer every time'

After his internship at Blauw, Maarten enthusiastically started working as a quantitative researcher in the Customer Experience team. To this day he continues to challenge himself to further develop his expertise and to do even better for clients every day. But as Business Lead Customer Experience, Maarten also likes to challenge his team members and clients to do the same. He also enjoys playing his guitar, if possible together with his colleagues in the BlueBand. In this interview you will get to know Maarten better.

Who is Martin?

'I was born in Bakel, but for my studies I moved to Tilburg. I still live there at the moment, together with my girlfriend and three-year-old son. I've always had a love for music. Rock, pop, electronic music, I like everything. In my spare time I like to visit concerts or festivals and I play guitar myself. I am also in a band with colleagues, the BlueBand. At Blauw's parties or during special occasions with clients, we play some songs. I also like soccer. I support Ajax, but that's sometimes a sensitive issue at a market research agency in Rotterdam. In the summer we often participate with Blauw in a corporate soccer tournament, which is great fun and hopefully possible again this year.'

What education did you take in Tilburg?

'At Tilburg University I took the Leisure Studies program. I always had a broad interest and at that time I found it difficult to choose just one field of study, so I more or less ended up here. People around me often laughed about the study. I often got the comment "you must know very well what you want to do in your free time." Among other things, the course focused on the psychological, sociological and organizational side of the leisure industry. The study included many different perspectives, including several statistical subjects, which gave me a good research base. Then I took a second master's in Marketing Management, which was more focused on the economic and commercial side. I found it enormously interesting to learn about consumer perception and ways in which organizations build relationships with their customers.'

What brought you to Blauw?

'That's a funny story, though. Through my network from studying Leisure Studies, I was affiliated with an alumni network. At the time I was looking for an internship for my last master's degree, there was an alumni reception at Blauw's pub. At the bar, I literally ordered two beers and an internship position. I was allowed to interview and was hired as an intern. Blauw was doing something completely different in marketing, as well as in research, than I had learned in school. In marketing, for example, you have the five p's (price, proposition, place, etc.), at Blauw it was more about the superpromoters: enthusiastic customers who recommend your service or product. More than a decade ago, this was a relatively new marketing concept. Blauw was already working on this back then with a lot of enthusiasm and positivity, which really appealed to me. Moreover, Blauw was market research agency of the year in 2009. I thought it was super cool to be part of that.'

And after your internship?

"I really wanted to continue working at Blauw after my internship, because I thought it was a very nice and young company. At the end of my internship, there was a vacancy for a quantitative researcher, so I applied and just went through the whole application process. And I was fortunately hired. I was allowed to start as a junior research manager and immediately joined the team where I still work today: the Customer Experience team.

Currently working as a Business Lead Customer Experience, what exactly does this position entail?

"I now lead the team in which I myself started as a junior at Blauw. As a team, we work for organizations that want to research and improve their customer or employee experience. For these clients, we get to work with smart and in-depth research.'

What makes this position so much fun?

'It makes me very happy to take a step forward every time. Development. Challenging myself. But I also really enjoy challenging team members and clients. That's really one of my motivations. To stimulate the team internally, to discover what everyone likes to do, what they are good at and how they can further develop their areas of expertise. I also keep a close eye on the market in order to determine how Blauw can stay ahead of other agencies. A lot is happening in the world of Customer Experience. When I started at Blauw, CX was still very new for many organizations, but in the meantime it has become a mature expertise. I also think it's cool to discover with clients what stage they're at, and then discuss how they can develop further, and what research method fits that.'

Maarten and his team are increasingly specializing in the field of Customer Experience. We have continued to develop research solutions such as our research community, as well as user experience and service design. Especially for this market research area, we work with the Triple Diamond Approach. Our team distinguishes three types of CX research needs, depending on the customer stage in which organizations find themselves. Discover your type of research need? Read more about the Triple Diamond Approach here.

What is your own expertise?

'I myself specialize in Voice of the Customer research, which are customer satisfaction studies that run continuously. I make sure that organizations are provided with customer feedback at any time of the day and that this customer feedback is collected and analyzed in a smart way. This is the quantitative part of customer experience surveys. So I'm especially good with numbers and dashboards, more the statistical analysis and associated customer advice. On many assignments I work together with the qualitative research experts on our team, so that we can offer the best of both worlds.'

Why would you recommend a job at Blauw to others?

'I'm definitely a promoter of Blauw. By working at Blauw, you see a lot of organizations from the inside and you gain a lot of different insights about how they approach their customers. You can help these organizations move forward in a nice way. You show them what customers say about their services, what customers find important and how they can make concrete improvements. Our Blauw expertise and research enable us to make a big impact for clients and their customers. I really like that. In addition, you work in a nice team with fresh perspectives and we develop our own areas of expertise. I see in my team that everyone wants to keep challenging themselves and is specializing in certain areas, each with their own motivations.'

How do you experience working from home at Blauw at the time of corona?

I miss the dynamics with clients and colleagues enormously. Spontaneous moments, joking around at the coffee machine, those are a big part of your job satisfaction. Talking to people from behind a screen is different, less spontaneous. But I am happy that we have found good digital tools that make digital work possible for us. I lead online workshops, for example, and that goes very well functionally. So in terms of work, everything goes on, but it's a lot less fun. On the other hand, I see a lot more clients on screen that I would normally just call, which is another advantage. I can also talk to more clients online on the same day than if I were to travel to a client in Amsterdam or Utrecht one day. But I do miss visiting clients immensely.'

How do you make sure you stay motivated while working from home?

'At the beginning of each work day, my team members meet online for a huddle. We give each other a brief update on exactly what everyone is going to do today. We also deliberately schedule a few moments to discuss how everyone is doing and to have a nice chat. That certainly motivates. We also continue to do all sorts of things together online with employees at Blauw, from a pub quiz and get-togethers, to bootcamps and yoga for the enthusiasts.'

Does working from home manage to keep personal and work separate?

'That generally works out fine. There was a period when my girlfriend and I had to improvise because our 3-year-old son was also at home. But he can go to daycare again at the moment, so that's very nice. I try to keep a good work-life balance. For work, I can shut myself off in my own little attic room just fine. When I'm done working and close the door behind me here, I can be there for my family or do other things.

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