Best Practices in Customer Experience Management
KPMG annually investigates individual consumer experiences with brands worldwide. In its Customer Excellence research in 2024, the following companies in the Netherlands come out on top:
Dutch companies with the best Customer Experience
In its research, KPMG assesses organizations on 6 criteria:
- Personalization: using individual attention to create an emotional bond
- Empathy: gaining understanding of the customer’s circumstances to create a deep connection
- Expectations: managing, meeting, and exceeding customer expectations
- Time and effort: minimizing customer effort and creating frictionless processes
- Resolution: turning a poor experience into a great one
- Integrity: being trustworthy and instilling confidence
The European Customer Experience Awards platform in 2024 recognizes the following brands and organizations for their CX excellence:
- IKEA (best CX Strategy, employee-driven CX, and customer-centric culture)
- Volvo Car Group Customer Care (best use of customer insights and feedback)
- Radisson Hotels (best use of technology, customers at the heart of everything strategy)
- TUI (customers at the heart of everything, CX team of the year)
And in the Netherlands, Marketresponse annually asks consumers who they consider the most customer-friendly company in our country. According to this research, the 10 most customer-friendly companies in the Netherlands in 2024 are:
Once again in 2024, Efteling is in first place.
What are the Characteristics of a Customer-Centric Culture?
What we consistently see in organizations with a customer-centric culture, which have successfully managed customer feedback in their daily processes, is that the following elements are present:
- Experience Management (XM) leadership is essential. CX transformations require leadership with staying power. A CX leader must therefore be an R.O. I borrowed that term from Nienke Bloem CCXP CSP, and she uses it to refer to a role as “Chief Reminder Officer.” This indicates that CX leadership is not something temporary, but something that requires continuous attention and repetition. The CX story must be repeated constantly, so it should return in every presentation. By continuing to repeat it, people begin to anticipate the message.
- Customer-centric organizations usually have a clear XM story that aligns with business goals, the overall strategy, and the brand promise. A customer compass, in other words, which defines the customer ambition (for example, we want to become the market leader within 2-3 years) and the desired customer experience.
- There is also a clear roadmap: we know how we are going to build this customer-centric culture over the next 1-3 years. Furthermore, every team has determined in its operational plans how it will contribute to this desired experience.
- Within organizations with a customer-centric culture, there are usually also sponsors (at C-level) within the organization who ensure that the CX transformation remains important and continue to promote it, both internally and externally. Buy-in at the C-level is important for any CX transformation.
- Making the XM Story, customer journeys, customer promises, personas, etc., visual also plays an important role here. We see the customer compass and the desired experiences being promoted on posters, videos, booklets, and other communication materials with their own branding, quotes, and visuals that reflect the message.
- Organizations with a customer-centric culture make it playful and fun. A fair contest or competition system is linked to it, a system of rewarding and giving compliments to all initiatives that contribute to a better customer experience or higher NPS.
What can we learn from organizations with a customer-centric culture?
As an example of an organization with a customer-centric culture, I’ll take Efteling. An organization where 9+ thinking and doing is carried through in every detail and where we find all these elements of a customer-centric culture. Efteling is and remains an inspiring example of how an organization can be continuously engaged in exceeding customer expectations and is thus strongly connected with its customers. 1 in 5 Dutch people visit Efteling every year, and during a lifetime, a person visits Efteling an average of 7 times.
Crooked Paths philosophy
At Efteling, ‘enchantment and wonder’ are important core values. The ideas of Anton Pieck are captured in the DNA and culture of the organization. They call this the “Crooked Paths” philosophy. In the fairytale park, you don’t have straight paths, but crooked ones. You can look ahead a maximum of 50 meters and then there is a bend, after which you are surprised again by what you see.
That philosophy has also been extended to the leadership style, where employees are encouraged based on their talent to create that wonder on the guest’s face at any moment. Whether you’re buying fries or standing in line at Danse Macabre. At Efteling, it is clearly the people who make the difference and who are given the freedom to bring that 9+ experience to life.
Team leaders start the day with a short talk with the whole team. To go over the planning and points of attention, but also to gauge if everyone is feeling good and to pay attention to that if necessary. Because a day at Efteling can be so much fun, but if a visitor doesn’t feel well-served by an employee, it can immediately cast a shadow over the entire experience. Excellent service starts with employees who are excited to be there. When interviewing applicants, the focus is therefore primarily on motivation and a customer-centric attitude. That is more important than having a hospitality background.
Apps and other digital applications are used to make everything that is annoying less annoying. Such as waiting for attractions. For example, there are apps that tell you where the lines are shortest – they ensure a broader distribution this way – and if you do have to wait somewhere, there is an app that allows you to play a game together.”
Guest feedback as a starting point for change
Efteling has (by its own account) an NPS of at least 70. If guests give an eight, they are actually not satisfied. Guests expect at least a nine from Efteling. Efteling sees it as its greatest challenge to meet those high expectations at all times.
How Efteling incorporates its guests’ feedback into its improvement process can be seen, for example, with Danse Macabre.
Making the attraction experience less intense
From the opening of this attraction, Efteling received a lot of positive feedback from visitors with praise for the visual and auditory elements and the special theming. There was some critical feedback about the intensity of the experience, which might not be suitable for everyone. Efteling responded immediately to these concerns by making various adjustments to make the experience more accessible for young families. In some cases, the sound and light intensity in parts of the queue were adjusted to make the experience less overwhelming for children. More information was also provided to parents at the entrance of the attraction, with clear information about the content level of the experience (for example, through warnings for sensitive themes). Additionally, quieter areas were created in the queue where families with young children can take a break if the atmosphere becomes too intense.
Making wait times more pleasant
Some visitors indicated that the wait times for Danse Macabre were relatively long, especially during peak hours, which caused frustration and loss of patience. This often occurred during the summer months or on weekends when the park was busier, and guests indicated that the wait time made them feel the experience was less enjoyable. Efteling acted by improving wait time management, both by making the experience in the queue itself more attractive (as mentioned earlier, by adding thematic elements and interactive components to the wait time) and by realizing faster throughput. For example, they used virtual wait times and the app to allow visitors to stay informed of their wait time while near the attraction, so they could plan better and shorten wait time by doing other things in the park. In addition, extra attention was paid to coordinating capacity and improving the flow of visitors, especially during busy periods, so that the wait time was less likely to be experienced as frustrating. More entertainment elements were also added, such as employees who engage visitors more during the wait time, to make the waiting less burdensome.
Explaining the theme better
Some guests indicated that they found it difficult to follow the story and thematic elements of the attraction properly, especially for people unfamiliar with the specific concept of Danse Macabre and the mythological elements behind it. Efteling anticipated this by providing more contextual explanation in the waiting areas and at the entrance of the attraction. This was done through information boards, digital screens, and even the Efteling app, which offers visitors more background information about the characters, the story, and the theme of the dance of the dead before and during the wait time. A better story structure was also created, making it easier for guests to understand what was happening, especially at the beginning and end of the ride.
Through these rapid and customer-centric adjustments, Efteling has once again proven that it holds customer-centric thinking in high regard, ensuring that all visitors can enjoy a 9+ experience.
Conclusion
Efteling remains an interesting example of an organization that has fully integrated customer-centricity into its culture and way of working. What we can learn from Efteling is that a CX transformation is a dynamic process that requires commitment from both employees and technology. It is essential to keep experimenting and innovating to meet the ever-changing expectations of customers.
In part 2 of this series on “CX Transformations – from measuring to improving,” we will discuss the steps to get from data and insight to action and share concrete tips on the matter.
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