Evides
Customer Arena: Evides brings customers and employees closer together
Information about the case
Evides considers it important to give the customer a voice internally. They do this through their online customer panel, where Blauw presents various challenges to their customers. However, to truly give the customer a face, we recently also organised a Customer Arena for Evides, where employees engaged in conversation with customers themselves to hear about their experiences, needs, and expectations.
The question
Evides gives their customers a voice within the organisation
Evides is a supplier of drinking water to 2.5 million consumers and businesses in the south-west of South Holland, Zeeland, and the Brabantse Wal. Customers cannot choose their water supplier and therefore naturally deal with Evides. Evides puts the customer first and strives for happy customers who feel seen and heard. As a result, they know who their customers are and what is important to them.
The challenge
Customer Arena: engaging with customers directly
A Customer Arena is a qualitative research method. During a Customer Arena, employees engage in dialogue with customers with the aim of gaining customer insights and discovering what is on customers’ minds. Our vision is that the Customer Arena has the most impact when employees themselves talk to customers. Under the guidance of Blauw Research, employees draw up a list of discussion points themselves. This discussion guide helps to maintain structure in the conversations and to think carefully beforehand about how to get the most out of the conversation within a theme.
The approach
What are the results?
A win-win situation resulting, on the one hand, in enthusiastic employees who have come closer to the customer and want to get started immediately with what they have heard themselves in the dialogue with customers. And on the other hand, a number of engaged customers who greatly appreciate that Evides has organised such a customer event in which they are listened to.
‘Initially, I found it very daunting to talk to customers. What if customers started asking difficult questions? But in hindsight, I found it very educational and fun to do! The customer now really has a face, and this helps with my daily activities.’
<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">the result
5 tips for a successful Customer Arena
- Ensure an inspiring location; customers find it interesting to visit the company. Additionally, it is important that the location is easily accessible for customers.
- Consider a warm welcome, something to eat and drink, and a thank-you gift afterwards. Customers take the trouble to give you valuable feedback, so show your gratitude.
- A Customer Arena has the most impact when employees themselves talk to customers. Ensure they are well-prepared for their role. Prepare the discussion topics and themes in advance and choose a focus area that also affects customers in their (daily) lives.
- Invite engaged customers. These do not only have to be people who are either very dissatisfied or very satisfied. And ensure there is a point of contact if there are customers with a complaint.
- Ensure proper guidance during the Customer Arena by a market research agency, including prior training in drafting a discussion guide and interview techniques. And one that offers tools for analysing the results afterwards, so that what has been said can lead to actual insights that can help the company move forward.
In practice.
Want to excel in customer experience? That starts with effective research
