The challenges in the European automotive world remain major, but as mentioned: your customer is the hero in your CX story. Or as Michael Cirillo put it: relevance = revenue.

At the event, participants were already given hands-on tools to enhance that relevance. Multi-Value will be happy to guide you further with customer experience visits, calls and e-mails.

You will also be given our SMILE document. Empty, so you can already start working on this with your team. I am curious to see how your employees will interpret SMILE.

Make sure to share the result with us.

Download our SMILE document

Het bericht Automotive event verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and e5?

Sévérine thus. Meanwhile, I have 25 years of experience in the retail world. My career started on the shop floor and eventually progressed to my current position. Through experiences in the world of shoes and bathrooms, I eventually ended up in fashion, at e5 that is.

In my role as Sales Manager, I am responsible for the entire commercial strategy and management of our shops and I am also involved in B2B matters. Of course, I do not do this alone: I am surrounded by a fantastic team that I work with every day.

What do you believe makes e5 unique within the Belgian fashion sector?

I think that is a good question, because it is common knowledge that the fashion sector is struggling today. That is why I am proud that we as e5 can say that we have seen double-digit sales growth for several years now. But what makes us unique? Simple: we want to do everything just a little bit better. We want “a wow everywhere”, as we say ourselves. Hence our cooperation with Multi-Value, by the way.
We want to do better at product level. This is reflected in our ageless collection in various styles and a good price-quality ratio, thanks to the fact that we keep the production fully in our own hands. We also want to do better in terms of customer experience. We recently redesigned all our shops so that customers enter with a ‘wow’ and leave later with a ‘wow’ after exceptional service.

“Our people are more than friendly saleswomen. They are professionals who give you personal style advice and really pamper you.”

We notice that our ambition to do everything better also works: e5 has now been in existence for 45 years and we see that the customers we have attracted over the years remain loyal to us and, moreover, that younger customers also find their way to our shops and come back.

And that ambition then forms the starting point for investment in the e5 CX program?

That is indeed true. When I started at e5, I also visited an e5 shop myself for the first time. I remember being impressed even then by the level of customer service: the staff knew their customers, many of them even by name. We then started a first round of customer experience visits with Multi-Value.

On the one hand, to investigate in general which areas we could improve further. On the other hand, to check whether “the new customers” I mentioned before receive the same top service as those who have visited e5 stores for some time. After all, we want to accompany every customer all the way to the fitting room and style them completely. So that they look in the mirror and say, ‘Wow, I look good!’. That is our intention. It is in that guidance that we still saw growth potential and that is how we started working with Multi-Value.

Why did e5 choose Multi-Value?

I myself already knew Multi-Value from my time at Brantano and afterwards in the bathroom business, in which the cooperation with Multi-Value resulted in clear improvements in results.

It was in that partnership that I got to know Pauline and I can say that Pauline and I understand each other very well now. I think three words are enough for her to know what I mean. Stefaan is also an excellent partner for us as a trainer at e5. He shares my passion for customer experience. Moreover, he is also a really good listener. Not only to strategic plans, but also to our people in the shops. During his training sessions, he therefore speaks a practical language that delivers immediate results.

I noticed that other trainings often remain too theoretical. ‘We are going for a wow’ and ‘service beyond expectations’ sound nice, of course, but it only really means something when it is also given concrete and tangible substance. We build that wow feeling and that service beyond expectations based on the advice from the customer experience visits and the input from Multi-Value itself during sparring sessions and training courses.

What impact has the program had so far?

Of course, we have the NPS. This was being measured before, but it was not really used for anything else. So we shared it with everyone at e5 and set up a workshop to get everyone involved in the “why” and the “purpose” of NPS measurement.

Since I started at e5 three years ago, I saw a significant increase in NPS year-on-year. Looking at the customer experience reports themselves, we also saw a slight increase in scores and particularly in the area of needs analysis. This is due to our approach of continuously sharing, discussing and following up the results of customer experience visits. Let me give an example:

If I express in a clothing shop that I am looking for blue trousers, and the salesperson or saleswoman replies with ‘here are the blue trousers’, the West Fleming in me thinks: ‘Whatever!’ (‘again!’, Ed.). Take a few steps back and ask your customer targeted, open-ended questions: why exactly do you want blue trousers? For what occasion do you want them? Only then one can give appropriate, personalised advice. Our people understand this insight particularly well thanks to the quantified advice Multi-Value gives us. For instance, we see clearly in the results of our customer experience visits that a good needs analysis leads to a higher average purchase amount. In addition, we remain alert for small areas of improvement such as service-oriented extra sales and the goodbye at the checkout. This keeps us on our toes and motivated to keep doing better.

What are the ambitions for 2025?

Continue to focus on what we are already doing: continue with our ageless collections, sustainable quality, our boutique experience, our growth. For us, that growth is not only growth in turnover, but also growth in customer loyalty thanks to our service beyond expectations.

The European fashion industry is challenged by online sales at extremely low prices. How is e5 dealing with this and what is the role of customer experience in this?

Of course, there is a difference in segments. If you are in the cheaper segment, I think you will face a tough battle. Because the well-known online shops will always be cheaper. We at e5 are in the middle segment. Within that middle segment, we focus on that wow experience, high product quality and, last but not least, sustainability. We offer our customers a repair and refurbishment service, which you won’t find with many of our competitors. We bet on those USPs in such a way that the customer thinks: if I need clothes, the first thing I think of is e5. Because there one will find quality at the price one has in mind and, in addition, a service like one won’t find anywhere else.

What advice would you give to other fashion chains?

Make sure you know which customer you want to reach. Listen to that customer and act on what he/she tells you. Also, be close to your customer. At e5, we made a conscious decision to limit the number of shops managed by our district managers. Precisely because we want them to be close to our colleagues on the shop floor in their role. This allows them to optimally fulfil their role as coaches, with Multi-Value’s customer experience reports as a supporting tool.

And what I also think is very important: make sure you have the right people in your shops. People who, like Multi-Value and myself, have the passion for the customer. You actually want people who are happy themselves to see a customer leave with a smile, knowing that he or she will soon return thanks to a service that was even better than the customer expected.

Multi-Value is an important partner for us in this because we use their customer experience reports as a coaching tool. Not to wave a report score, but to help our people grow further in order to do better and better as a company.

One more thing I would like to share. We created our own sales training program based on feedback from Multi-Value’s customer experience reports. We are now building on that with a coach-the-coach program. For this, we will soon be sitting together with Stefaan again, to train the managers in our shops in a practical way as well. That way, also they can get to work in a concrete and optimal way with the feedback from their branch. That is the next step in our cooperation with Multi-Value and I am looking forward to the results.

So did we from our side. Thank you so much for this interview!

Het bericht E5 – interview with Sévérine Dermaux verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

After a dynamic introduction of the principles of Customer Excellence, the insurance experts were given a comprehensive toolkit with guidelines for telephony, e-mail and live conversations. Not to adopt blindly, but to look at with a critical eye: what works, what can be improved and what is still missing? In groups, they enthusiastically started deleting, supplementing, refining and sharing new ideas.

The result? A set of golden rules, compiled by the people who work with them every day. This bottom-up process not only provided strong insights, but also increased support and commitment. Because who better than the experts themselves to know what really works in practice?

The interactive approach was much appreciated and led to concrete, applicable guidelines that CED can start working with immediately. A successful workshop that proves that Customer Excellence is strongest when it comes from within. Our sincere thanks to Sofie Van Dyck, Sven Marinus and Paul Schillebeekx for their confidence!

Want to know more about training courses like these and how you can use them to upgrade your CX too?

We look forward to telling you about them.

Contact us

Het bericht Interactive workshop for CED: Customer Excellence from the inside verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

We started with a fascinating update on the evolution of Multi-Value. Where are we as a company, what steps have we taken and what will the future bring? Then we dove into an interactive brainstorming session to further optimise our processes. Ideas flew back and forth, and the enthusiasm was palpable in the room.

In between all the thinking, we enjoyed a delicious lunch in the top sphere of the Atomium, with a spectacular view over Brussels. A moment to pause, catch up and simply enjoy.

The cameras were also in full swing: a photo shoot included both group and individual portraits. Great memories of a successful day!

On to a successful year with an even stronger team!

Do you also have ideas you would like to discuss with us?

Feel free to get in touch

Het bericht Review of our international Team Day at the Atomium verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

• What opportunities are missed in online lead follow-up?
• How does the customer experience their complete journey when visiting your dealerships?
• How convincingly do your sales advisors explain the ins and outs of electric driving to the customer?
• Which sales consultants really know how to win over the customer in the sales conversation?
• Who gives the best follow-up to the customer after their visit?

Interested in this automotive benchmark study?

All the answers can be found in our Automotive Benchmark study.

In total, we conducted 170 customer experience visits for an electric vehicle from some 15 brands in Belgium:

Order the report of your own brand(s) or dealer group now and see how your dealerships compare to the benchmark!

Investment

• Report for 1 car brand: € 1,250 per report
• Report for 2 car brands: € 1,100 per report
• Report for 3 or more car brands: € 950 per report
• Report for dealer group: € 750 per report

This is what you can expect:

• Complete research report with graphic presentation of your results compared to the benchmark
• Position of your brand(s) or dealer group in the complete ranking
• All individual reports of the customer experience visits carried out at your dealerships
• Consultation with one of our consultants

Interested in this automotive benchmark study?

Enter your contact details and we would will contact you as soon as possible shortly.

Het bericht Unique automotive benchmark study 2024 verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

‘Would you like to taste our biscuits? What do you think of these biscuits?’
‘We have a biscuit that pairs well with this chocolate cake.’
‘Do you have everything for your birthday party? We have another delicious coulis that tastes great with this cake.’

Create memorable experiences by offering personal service, product tastings and tips. This creates a community feeling, making a happy customer recommend you to friends and family.

Mystery Shopping can play an excellent role in this as a coaching tool. With customer experience reports in hand, you can give your employees targeted feedback and tips. This way, you identify additional sales opportunities and help them improve interactions with their customers.

We see that it works, for example in our collaboration with Les Tartes de Françoise.

Involve your employees from the start. That way, you create ambassadors and work towards a customer-oriented environment resulting in better service and customer experience.

Listen to the podcast with Stefaan Vandroogenbroeck and download CX Channel’s Magazine, where you can read Stefaan Vandroogenbroeck’s full contribution.

Curious how we work?

Contact us

Het bericht AS A BAKER, HOW DO YOU TURN YOUR VISITORS INTO FANS? verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

Who is United Retail?

I had the pleasure to interview Dirk van der Hagen about the strategy that United Retail follows together with their retail entrepreneurs towards a strong brand in consumer electronics, becoming customer centric. “Electro World is all about you”, is how they call it at Electro World. United Retail is collaborating with Multi-Value since the beginning of 2023 in order to support entrepreneurs in the execution of the brand promise in their stores.

Originally, United Retail is a buyer’s organization for entrepreneurs in consumer electronics and appliances with two strong formulas: Electro World and De Witgoed Specialist.

Even though the buyer’s function is still a very important part of the company, with the extension to category management and marketing, United Retail is on its way to being a more full-service organization for its members. Eventually, United Retail wants to facilitate their entrepreneurs to be able to servce the end consumer (the consumer that visits the store) as well as possible. By, for example, taking over administrative services, so that entrepreneurs can better focus on serving their customers. And through marketing communication, focused on the end consumer and a webshop for online sales, that has the important goal to attract consumers to go into the store for their purchases.

United Retail serves a total of approximately 300 points of sales, which doesn’t only include (137) Electro World stores, and (60) De Witgoed Specialist stores, but also about a 100 buyers. This last group is a heterogeneous group with mechanics that repair appliances, but also sell through their customer contacts. A substantial part of the sale takes place inside the customer’s home. When it comes to appliances, United Retail is the largest mechanics company in the Netherlands. Combined, the entrepreneurs have about 400 mechanics that are certified for one or more brands. They are able to independently sell an appliance or redirect the customer to a store.

Woth 137 stores and nearly 200 service mechanics, Electro World is the bggest Dutch franchise in consumer electronics. The amount of entrepreneurs is drcreasing, but the number of stores is increasing. Electro World and De Witgoed Specialist distinguish themselves by the freedom that entrepreneurs have. United Retail therefore also speaks of “Fully Local” entrepreneurship by ways of a strong Electro World or De Witgoed Specialist formula. The formula takes care of, among other things, company attire, uniform house style, joint purchases and folders. But the entrepreneur chooses their own product ranges, and can carry their own local product range.

Connecting link between entrepreneurs and service office

Dirk van der Hagen has been with the company since mid 2022 in the role of Manager Sales and Operations. Together with a team of 5 regional managers and 5 contact center employees he is the connecting link between the entrepreneurs and the service office in Huizen. On the one hand to be able to explain to entrepreneurs which choices are being made by the organization, and why. And on the other hand to gather input from the country and the entrepreneurs and take this to Huizen, so that the entrepreneurs feel heard and the policy can be tailored to this.

This happens, for example, during the Franchise Council meetings in Huizen that Dirk organizes with the chairman of the Franchise Council 6 times a year. Another good example is also the follow-up that United Retails gives to the DOA (“Dead On Arrival”) procedures for products that are delivered damaged or with flaws. Entrepreneurs used to be very bothered with the web of administrative procedures that had to be followed with several producers, and based on this feedback, United Retail centralized this process in their distribution center in Nijkerk.

Building high customer appreciation with a new brand strategy

Electro World and De Witgoed Specialist can boast about their high customer appreciation. The customer gives Electro World a 9.2 score and De Witgoed Specialist a 9.4 score. With this, the company has a major asset that can be utilized even better. So the goal was to share even better why Electro World is the right party for your appliances and IT products, and thus share even better what they were good at.

The led to Electro World choosing to reposition with new brand values. Brand values, that entrepreneurs could recognize, and that were actively communicated in all commercial messages.

Customer experience reports as a mirror for sales conversations

Besides this orientation on new brand values, there was a long-standing wish with United Retail to start customer experience visits. With this, they couldn’t only see the execution of the formula and POS materials on the shopfloor, but could give entrepreneurs a mirror to see how the sales conversations in their stores went; what was going well, and where was there room for improvement.

We called in the help of Multi-Value for the execution on the floor. Multi-Value was asked to start doing customer experience visits in all stores, and to develop commercial trainings in collaboration with United Retail for all employees in the stores.

Just like with other organizations that start working with customer experience visits, there are still entrepreneurs with Electro World that see these reports as a way to control, to give a score and to look at the report to see what is incorrect. But luckily after 4 visit rounds, there are a lot of entrepreneurs that make these visit reports work for them, and are able to mirror to see what is going on in their stores. Based on this they can help their employees become aware of how they can improve on their sales skills. And then, after a training, they can also see the direct effects of this training.

Regional managers will also take these reports during their own visits to the stores to use it as a base. For example, if an entrepreneur signals that the additional sales on soundbars is low, the regional manager will look together with that entrepreneur at the presentation of the soundbars in the stores, the employees’ knowledge, but also at the sales conversation. And for the latter, the customer experience visit reports are being used actively.

Organizing face to face trainings was something completely new when Dirk started with United Retail. United Retail did offer e-learning, but face to face trainings did not exist yet back then. Coworkers from stores that had worked at other chains, also said they were used to following commercial trainings, so we think that we still have a long way to go when it comes to developing this. When we started with the brand values and customer experience visits, it was just a logical next step to start with this and follow up with a commercial training.

Meet the needs of entrepreneurs with face to face trainings

Multi-Value has developed the training with their trainer Floor van Esch. We started with this from a collaboration between Multi-Value and New Growth, the company that developed the brand values for Electro World. After a dry run with the regional managers we started executing the training with 10 of the Franchise Council’s stores. They were essentially a pilot group for this training, and they came with valuable feedback to improve the training.

The entrepreneurs are local heroes, and thus it is essential that the local aspect is present in the trainings. Based on the experience with this pilot group, we improved the training by doing an intake with each and every entrepreneur beforehand, so that they can make us aware of the challenges in his or her store. This way, one entrepreneur can ask for more detailed attention for additional sales, where the other wants to focus on giving less discounts, or do a better customer needs analysis. By taking this input to the training, you will automatically create better training sessions.

Better sales conversations after following the trainings

We are in the middle of the roll-out of these trainings, that we organize with the help of Multi-Value trainers Floor van Esch and Martin van Duijn. Each and every entrepreneur that has followed the training, is positive about it. You can see that this truly fulfills a need, because various entrepreneurs ask for a follow up training after the first one.

Employees start asking more for the customer’s needs, which leads to a better success rate in selling, for example, a larger screen television. Because they found out that it fits well in their living room, and the distance between the couch and television is big enough. After following the training they know how to consult the client after hearing out their wishes. Of course you can talk about the specifications about a washing machine, which often does not really say much, or you ask about someone’s laundry planning or what their family format is, so you can make a better suites offer.

“We do have some more small steps to make when it comes to service and customer friendliness, but there is always room for improvement on the sales conversations.”

A common thread in the reports is that the needs analysis is often too short. It evidently fit the Electro World formula to be able to give well-suited advice to the customer (“Electro World revolves around you“), and for this you need to be able to a good needs analysis, and we can only get better with this.

What are the next steps?

At this current moment that the article is being written, about 25% of the stores have received a training. United Retail will continue with the customer experience visits and would like to see all stores having completed the training. A logical next step for Electro World would be developing new modules for the trainings. For example for mechanics and fitters, that could use some help on improving when it comes to commercial customer contact. For example for young, new employees that just graduated and for whom a module for junior sales assistants could be of good use. This way we can further expand the generic training with modules.

Besides this, we are also working on a re-orientation of the brand values for De Witgoed Specialist. A logical step for them would also be to start with customer experience visits and trainings over the course of this year.

Written by: Roeland Jacobse, May 7th, 2024

Het bericht COMMERCIAL TRAINING SESSIONS AT ELECTRO WORLD verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

Happy to congratulate you!

Put your best scoring teams or employees in the spotlight. Send them flowers, a cake or just a nice little card. Let us support you with this. We send your best employees from the past visits (with a perfect score from the visit report) a personalized HAPPY TO CONGRATULATE YOU postcard or flower to congratulate them on their customer experience success. Small effort, great gesture.

Audio feedback

In a short audio recording attached to the report, the mystery shopper will share his or her personal experience during the visit. An audio recording increases the impact of the report.

Our way of working is as follows: after the mystery shopper submits the customer experience report, a Quality Checker will check the report. They will contact the mystery shopper by phone to interview them. The phone call will be recorded and added to the report.

Direct feedback

We can also have highly experienced “success shoppers” carry out the customer experience visits. After the visit they will immediately make themselves known and give the employee(s) direct feedback about their experience. Based on this feedback, the agreed upon action points can be added to the customer experience report.

Follow-up card

Two to three weeks after the customer experience visit, or two to three weeks before the start of a new campaign, Multi-Value will send the locations to be visited a personal postcard with the reminder of the established action points: “Do you remember? During our last visit we wrote down some important action point: xxxx? We are curious to know about the experiences and actions taken! We look forward to visiting your store again!”

Webinar results

Let us present the results of the customer experience visits during a webinar to your employees and/or local managers. During the webinar we share practical tips and tricks, and with polls and a chat function we will keep the webinars interactive.

Are you interested in these extra options? Ask us about the possibilities and pricing!

Het bericht MAXIMIZE YOUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROGRAM! verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

An analysis of n=4,755 customer experience visits conducted by Multi-Value at nonfood/consumer durables retailers in the Benelux in 2023/2024 reveals interesting insights about the impact employees in the shop itself have on NPS results. By welcoming incoming customers enthusiastically or not, discovering the customer’s needs well or not, NPS differences of more than 60 points can arise.

Net Promoter Score as KPI

The NPS is and will continue to be an important customer KPI (Key Performance Indicator) in retail. In many of our customer experience visits, it turns out that it is mainly the employees in the shop who make the difference here. They have a direct impact on the share of promoters among shopping customers and are therefore at the controls when it comes to turning Passives into Promoters.

NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS) The NPS (Net Promoter Score) is determined by asking how likely customers are to recommend the employee and/or shop to friends and acquaintances as a result of their visit to the shop on a scale of 0 to 10. Customers who give a 9 or 10 to that question are called Promoters. Customers who give a 7 or 8 are called Passives. Customers who give a 6 or lower are called Detractors. The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The NPS is an important KPI in the field of Customer Experience.

NPS drivers at non-food retailers

In our extensive database of customer experience visit data collected from non-food retailers, we see that it is often the same points where employees in customer contact still miss opportunities. What we also see is that these are the same points that help determine whether customers become Promoter, Passive or Detractor.

Based on our benchmark data at non-food/durables retailers in 2023/2024, we see that the NPS is substantially higher in customer experience visits where:

• Employees greet the customer enthusiastically (+40 points difference)
• Employees are good at discovering the customers needs (+68 points difference)
• Employees who suggest additional products and services (add-on sales as a service) meet the customer’s needs (+40 points difference)
• Employees know how to remove doubts or objections (+65 points difference)
• Employees at the check-out introduce the loyalty program (loyalty card) (+20 points difference)

Interested to know more?

Measuring is knowing of course, but knowing without doing does not add value. It is important that the right actions are taken on these NPS drivers. Multi-Value coaches retail organisations on Customer Excellence on a daily basis. With a focused program on measurement, training and coaching, we can also contribute to your organisation’s Customer Excellence objectives.

If you would like to know more about this NPS benchmark analysis at non-food/consumer durables retailers, or if you would like more information on services, please feel free to contact us.

Het bericht HIGHER NPS THROUGH ENTHUSIASTIC GREETING AND PROPER NEEDS ASSESSMENT verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.

Since 1994 masters in sharing happiness

The history of les Tartes de Françoise goes back to 1994. Françoise, the wife of founder Olivier Laffut, had a great passion for receiving people in a homely atmosphere and sharing her happiness with cakes, which she made in a traditional way with the very best ingredients. The enthusiastic responses to this prompted – back then – bank director Laffut to offer the cakes on a larger scale to local restaurants. Before he drove to the bank he worked at, he put the cakes in the oven. During his lunch break he drove back home to take the cakes out of the oven and put the new ones in.

Les Tartes de Françoise was not yet a retail company at the time. They mainly supplied the catering industry from a bakery in Ixelles. During an “Open Door Days” event in Brussels, the business opened to the public for the first time. Showcases were still taped up and people had to walk through a narrow corridor to the bakery to smell the delicious, freshly baked cakes.

It took some time before they realized that selling these cakes from bakeries without taped-up display cases and narrow aisles was also going well. And worked even better. The product-oriented, business-to-business oriented concept gradually transformed into a retail company for private customers. And that is where Olivier De Bolle came into the picture.

His mission was clear: to make les Tartes de Françoise a premium retail brand, where customers can get the best customer experience. An experience created by delicious products and an inviting store appearance at convenient store locations. But also with a customer ceremony, that exceeds customer expectations from the moment they open the shop door until they close the shop door behind them when they leave. Letting customers get a taste of their happiness is what they call Les Tartes de Françoise.

From ‘helping’ customers to ‘enchanting’ customers

“About three years ago we developed a customer ceremony, which we realized that in practice it was a little difficult, too abstract and not very sales-oriented”, Olivier De Bolle admits.

Customers’ feedback, which was collected through Multi-Value’s customer experience reports, among other things, showed that customer experience was not yet moving sufficiently into the direction we had in mind. When we met Stefaan Vandroogenbroeck from Multi-Value last year, we reexamined the customer ceremony and greatly simplified it. Much more concrete and much more focused on sales. And that turned out to be the right step.

“For us, Stefaan is an incredible asset. You can tell that Stefaan is someone who understands the store environment and can also give concrete hints to our people, which they understand and can actually work with.”

Stefaan then started a training for all store managers, and later we also involved the employees and assistant managers. Our people are now much more aware that the customer is central to us and that selling is a real profession. Where we used to mainly ‘help’ customers, today we mainly want to ‘enchant’ customers. We now understand much better that you have to go the extra mile to exceed our customers’ expectations. And this is reflected in, among other things, better customer support, for example by asking better questions and by providing better advice about products and ingredients.

While our people used to be afraid of “reaching into our customers’ pockets”, service-oriented sales are now much more part of the service we provide. And with proven results. Our turnover in cookies has doubled, and we have also seen significant increases in the sales of our wines and coulis.

“If you sell a pack of cookies costing € 6 with a € 30 cake, you will have sold 20% more.”

We also see the evolution in the monthly customer experience visits that Multi-Value carries out at our stores. We see the report scores improving nicely. The average score is already above 80% and we have set a target of achieving 90%+ scores.

You must keep a customer experience process like this alive daily. In Weekly Focus, our internal newsletter, in which we highlight all the highlights of the coming week, one of our topics is also the customer ceremony as a standard. Each time, a different store manager takes the turn to show in a video how you can make additional sales in a service-oriented manner, for example. Like recently with the champagne around Valentine’s Day. We then share the videos with all our employees via WhatsApp.

It doesn’t end with training the store managers

We still have a long way to go. We have seen that more actions are necessary to get everyone on board. As store managers and assistant managers, you can already succeed in exceeding customer expectations, but that’s not enough. Only 30% of the cakes are sold by the store managers themselves. We have a company with around 240 employees, so we must do more to include everyone in this customer ceremony.

That is why we have also asked Multi-Value to train our store managers and our assistant managers in team management skills such as coaching their employees. And we are currently also looking at how we can get the approximately 150 working students on board with this, who work for us during weekends and at busy times.

Les Tartes de Françoise is well on its way to giving customers a premium experience that matches that of a premium retail brand. To my closing question about what advice Olivier would give to companies facing similar challenges, his answer is clear: “make sure you keep your sales ceremony simple and concrete and be assisted by people who have real, practical experience in creating the right customer experience.”

By: Roeland Jacobse, February 15, 2024

Would you like to know more about how we work? Don’t hesitate to contact us.

Het bericht Les Tartes de Françoise: masters in sharing happiness for 30 years! verscheen eerst op Multi-Value.