Customer Journey Expert Sanne Kempers: "I make sure the customer's voice gets the attention it deserves.

Could you introduce yourself?

I am Sanne and 39 years old. I grew up in the South, but currently live in Utrecht. I have two children aged six and eight. A while back I studied psychology, in which I was driven by what moves people. My interest was mainly in 'normal people', so not necessarily the abnormal. I found it very fascinating to study the cognitive functions of our brain, how the brain works. Basically what makes people "human. After studying psychology, I took a number of courses in Tilburg to learn more about consumer behavior.

How did you end up at Blauw ?

I was a girl from the south of the country who really wanted to move to the Randstad. That's how I ended up at Blauw for an internship. During that internship I discovered that business life doesn't always have to be formal, it can also be informal and fun. After that internship, Blauw has always held a special place in my heart, even though I ended up working at another research firm. After many years of market research, I wanted something different and I thought I would find something different at a service design agency, where I learned a lot about customer journeys and at KLM, where I worked as a UX researcher. There I came to the conclusion that my heart still lies with customer experience. Blauw had a great vacancy as a customer journey expert in the customer experience team. For me this role combined exactly those elements that I like and find interesting: focusing on customer experience, doing research and using customer journeys to find out how a company can improve its services.

What position are you working in now?

I work on the Customer Experience team as a Research Consultant Customer Journeys. This means that I research and map customer journeys for organizations. I hold up a mirror to them, so to speak. Sometimes organizations think they have their services in order, but in reality customers experience them differently. I engage with our clients' customers and ensure that their voice gets the attention it deserves. As a researcher, I especially enjoy talking to everyone: all kinds of people and different specific niches. That way you can find out people's deeper motivations and drives. I really have a fascination with the edges of society. The further the subjects are from me, the more interesting I find it.

Why does researching customer journeys matter?

Mapping the customer journey gives an organization a structured picture of how customers behave and feel as they go through a particular process. This process is often the same, but the interpretation and value customers place on the different steps in the process may be different. Sometimes customers' behaviors are the same, but the motivations behind them are different. I think it is interesting for both commercial and social issues to examine behavior and the motivations, because then you can then anticipate that and market your service or product even more strongly. I believe that if you make a product well or market a service well, everyone can ultimately benefit. As long as it is important that it fits into customer behavior and meets their needs. If it does, the customers are happy and so are you. In fact, I believe that if you make a product or service fit well with a customer's needs, a product or service will sell itself. Just look at the online shopping world. There are fewer and fewer arguments that keep people from shopping online. You see more and more improvements, for example a close up picture to show a fabric properly, or size charts and descriptions. They are listening to customers' needs, and you discover them by researching customer journeys.

You started a new job in corona time, how do you experience it at Blauw ?

I still recognize some of the faces from when I was an intern here, which may make it a familiar environment for me sooner anyway. I had to work from home a lot right away because of the corona measures, which I found strange. So I get to know a lot of colleagues online instead of on the shop floor, it does take a lot longer before you have a good idea of who your colleagues are. What I do like is that during your first year at work, Blauw gives you a number of assignments to get to know people. That forces you to learn more about Blauw's culture and to get to know my colleagues. I also notice that Blauw spends a lot of time maintaining good ties between colleagues, especially in these times. I like that.

What does a week working from home look like for you with two children?

I have co-parenting and therefore have the children every other week from Wednesday to Wednesday, so half a week each week with the weekend in the middle. Working from home actually works out really well because the kids go to BSO three days a week and the other day I'm free. The corona measures and mandatory working from home means I have much less travel time, which eliminates the stress of traveling. So working from home with two children is quite manageable at the moment, as I have arranged it. When the children were home in the spring, combining work and teaching was complicated. Especially long phone calls with colleagues or clients were difficult, because the kids just need attention from time to time. During that period I had to leave several meetings suddenly, because a child suddenly ran off angrily, for example. Or I had to help look for a particular skirt, that kind of small suffering of children that grows up when there is no attention.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Besides my work, I enjoy cooking and baking immensely. For myself, I can make little projects with dishes that have a long preparation time. I can really enjoy that. Letting my friends discover new flavors also makes me very happy. I also enjoy doing activities outside the home, such as visiting a city, museum or market. But also cycling to a beautiful place nearby or walking through my own city, to discover new things there.

How do you balance work and home during corona time?

Since having children, I have learned to better guard that balance. I find that I benefit from that especially now during corona time. When I'm with the kids, I'm with the kids. As soon as I pick the kids up from school or BSO, I am no longer busy with my work. That doesn't mean I always have my full attention for them at those times, because I often still have things to do, such as cooking, but my work is really "off" then. If I am busy at work and have a deadline to meet, for example, I try to put the children to bed earlier, but I certainly don't always succeed. For me it is mainly a matter of thinking carefully about when I can or cannot take time off. I'm pretty flexible about that. I don't mind if I have to call or email a client or colleague on my day off. It gives me a sense of freedom to be able to spend more time with my children on other days. If the kids are around and something urgent comes up, I do it in front of them. They are six and eight, so they can do quite a bit for themselves if they need to.

What expertise do you bring to Blauw? How do you make a difference for clients?

I am a qualitative researcher with a lot of knowledge in the field of customer journey research. In recent years I have been involved in this a lot, both from the agency and client side. I think it's important that as a research company you focus on the research piece that allows you to map out a good customer journey. You shouldn't expect a research agency like Blauw to provide detailed final solutions or to guide a culture change process, but we do provide hooks that serve as a starting point. We deliver good fundamental research that provides an organization with a good basis to work with for a number of years. For example, based on the customer journey, you can start brainstorming on how certain parts of the journey can be improved. You can use it to better deploy your touchpoints or you can gain insight into which internal processes do not yet fit well together and take a closer look at them. Thorough and in-depth research is extremely important. I am therefore pleased that my expertise at Blauw allows me to be part of a valuable research team that works for great clients."

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