The company鈥檚 COVID-19 crisis response team in Australia and New Zealand began using Qualtrics pulse surveys this past year to stay connected with workers and address their challenges.

鈥淚t鈥檚 critical that we constantly communicate with employees to understand their challenges, and act quickly to address their needs,鈥� said Alexandre Moreau, chief people and safety officer at Veolia ANZ. 鈥淲e needed a quick and easy solution to keep people connected, whether it was managers and their teams, or customers. Qualtrics helped us make sure that our people were okay, and receiving the support they needed.鈥�

Sustainability is in Veolia鈥檚 DNA. The company鈥檚 business portfolio includes providing environmental solutions across water, waste management and energy. With operations and treatment facilities nationwide, they serve customers of all sizes 鈥� from local cafes and food chains to industrial facilities. One of their business units helps municipal water customers provide safe drinking water for their communities and industrial clients to more sustainably manage water in their operations, while their energy division helps companies build energy resilience and become carbon neutral.

Listening translates employee feedback into engagement

As a designated essential service during the pandemic, Veolia ANZ provided the same level of support for customers despite significant challenges, including social distancing, schedule disruptions, and lockdowns. During the height of the crisis, they needed even more flexibility to respond to highly changeable situations. For example, workloads increased in the health sector because of pandemic-related activities. Meantime, some employees were working remotely, while others had to be in the field. The company used Qualtrics to stay in touch with employees.

Kate Moonen, head of marketing and digital experience at Veolia ANZ, was part of the company鈥檚 pandemic response team. Speaking during a recent , she discussed how short, but targeted surveys helped the company stay in touch with its diverse workforce that includes truck drivers, machine operators, engineers, lawyers, and sustainability experts in urban and remote locations.

鈥淲e really wanted to understand that our people, particularly essential workers, were feeling supported,鈥� she said. 鈥淒id they have enough PPE equipment to do their jobs safely? What were their concerns about their mental health and well-being鈥ased on that feedback, it helped our team formulate鈥hat we were going to communicate鈥nd what actions we needed to take to continue to support our people.鈥�

Initially, the team was surprised at the high employee engagement levels with the surveys. Over time, the company rolled out new activities based on the feedback. These included regularly scheduled anywhere, any device communications with senior leadership through live webinars and question and answer sessions. In response to employee requests, executives also sent short video messages that employees could watch on their mobile phones, with personalized stories from company leaders about their lives outside of work, and how they adapted to the changed working environment.

鈥淧eople felt they wanted to take the opportunity to be heard,鈥� said Moonen. 鈥淲e would often share regular communications with them about what came out of the latest pulse, and what we were going to do about it. If you鈥檙e asking people for their time, it鈥檚 critical to demonstrate what you鈥檙e doing with that feedback to meet their needs.鈥�

Continuous dialogue through employee surveys

Just like any aspect of sustainable business, employee engagement is not a one and done effort.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing strong employee engagement every time we roll out a new survey,鈥� said Moreau. 鈥淚nstead of waiting a year to connect with employees, Qualtrics has given us a more agile response tool with a quick pulse check that our people appreciate, and we can rely on for updated feedback to make better decisions. We want to know how people are feeling in a fast-changing business environment.鈥�

Go digital for fast action

Moreau said companies should be explicit about what employees have shared and how it鈥檚 taking action. Even if there isn鈥檛 an immediate answer, people appreciate the transparency.

Moonen also advised employers not to overthink the survey process.

鈥淪ustainable business is all about agility,鈥� she said. 鈥淐ollecting the feedback and acting quickly is far more valuable than spending months iterating questions. Digital technology gives us the ability to constantly evolve and adapt as customer expectations, market conditions, and employee experiences shift.鈥�

Future of work is in employee experience

In the wake of the pandemic, many employees yearn for a greater sense of belonging. They want more help with their individual career goals, and to have pride in their workplace. Getting the employee experience right is part of every organization鈥檚 transformational journey to sustainable business.

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鈥淲e view well-being as a key predictor in employee experience, engagement, and all the outcomes that organisations seek from their employees,鈥� Autumn explained. 鈥淭his initiative has involved a couple of key components, one has been the ability to draw connections from our suite of products at and how organisations can utilise those to improve employee well-being, so really connecting the dots for our customers between the functionality we offer today and how they can leverage it to improve well-being.

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鈥淭he other components are more associated with our partner ecosystem. We have some great partners focused on well-being and offering different technologies in the market, so another key part of well-being at Work is to bring those into our ecosystem and integrate them with 51风流SuccessFactors and really have the best of both worlds 鈥� what we can offer from an organisational and HR functionality point of view, and then collaborating with these amazing well-being experts who are doing awesome things in their own right when it comes to technology and improving well-being.鈥�

Autumn received her PhD in organisational psychology around 15 years ago, specialising in organisational healthy psychology with a focus employee well-being, health, and safety. 鈥淚 like to endorse a more holistic view of what well-being is, so part of my research has been on safety at work, which during the COVID-19 pandemic has become more paramount in all different types of industries,鈥� she said.

鈥淢y primary background in that research was high-risk, high-reliability industries, which are places where people can get significantly hurt and die,and studying the psychological piece of safety 鈥� how can we instil good safety attitudes and beliefs to have workers make good safety choices and support them with a strong safety culture.鈥�

鈥淏eyond that in the more the well-being and health side, I鈥檓 studying all types of stressors at work and trying to understand how organisations can really cultivate better work environments and design jobs in a more healthy and effective way. We can really go upstream and reduce the likelihood of stress at work and take a more proactive approach instead of trying to treat the symptoms once they occur.鈥�

According to Autumn, the value of well-being has only gotten earlier scepticism in the past ten years. 鈥淲hile we all might want to endorse it because it鈥檚 just good to do as companies invest in well-being, provide benefits, and take care of their employees, there鈥檚 an argument to be made in its own right that we鈥檙e still running businesses.

鈥淚f we want to get executive teams onboard and invest in well-being as a strategy, then we need to show that it has significant positive impact on both employee and organisational outcomes. Luckily over the past decade there has been a lot of research that鈥檚 been assembled, both academic and business studies, to show that it does impact important outcomes.鈥�

Autumn noted that at an individual level, well-being can mitigate and reduce burnout, absenteeism, presenteeism (when people come to work but aren鈥檛 fully engaged or productive), and ultimately reduce turnover.

鈥淎t an organisational level, I like to think more of the upside, trying to improve organisational capability, resilience, and agility,鈥� she added. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e thinking more of financial impact, there鈥檚 a lot of evidence that it reduces healthcare costs, mental health claims, and the like. There鈥檚 plenty of evidence that I would argue that shows well-being makes sense for business.鈥�

Autumn encourages businesses to think of organisational well-being focus like culture change. 鈥淪ystemically embed well-being as a value in our company and there鈥檚 a lot of work to be done. It鈥檚 not as a simple as a band aid of well-being benefits, which I think is one of the common mistakes that organisations make.

鈥淲hen they do wrap their head around the potential business benefit and switched on to the idea that well-being is important, what they often intend to do is then throw a lot of well-being benefits at it. They鈥檒l have a cornucopia of well-being offerings, be it training or gym membership, nutrition classes, whatever it might be. There is a lot of focus on benefits, offerings, and programs rather than initiatives.鈥�

Autumn expressed the importance of to approach this cultural shift more holistically. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about trying to drive work environment, work conditions, leadership support, and executive decision making that cultivates a strong culture of well-being alongside providing benefits.鈥�

Another key driver Autumn highlighted in company well-being is leadership. 鈥淲e know generally speaking that better leaders are going to have more positive well-being and when I say better leader, I mean more transformational 鈥� people who are more inspirational, more encouraging, have a vision that they can communicate to their workforce, offer support and coaching, and show a lot of active care 鈥� being able to really recognise your workforce as whole people and support them in that capacity. Better leaders have healthier employees when it comes to well-being.

鈥淲hen I talk about the organisational culture and really showing that well-being matters, one of the key ways is leader role modelling. A lot of the interviews I鈥檝e done, employees will say, 鈥業 can鈥檛 find the time to walk at lunch or take a break, or invest in my well-being and have reasonable work hours because I see my boss and they鈥檙e chained to their desk, not taking advantage of those programs or giving themselves breaks.鈥� Research has shown that leader role modelling of well-being being important to them then certainly translates to employees having permission to also invest in their own well-being.鈥�

According to Autumn, the most recent research shows that leaders who invest in their own well-being not only shows they鈥檙e role modelling positive behaviour, but also afford themselves the capacity to be better leaders. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e expecting a lot out of a leader, they really don鈥檛 have it to give 鈥� they can鈥檛 turn around and offer the right level of resources and support to their employees. There are so many reasons why we have to start with leaders investing in their own well-being to create that space and role model for the rest of the business.鈥�

To learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on team dynamics, social exhaustion and understanding how to foster positive well-being particularly during this challenging period, listen to our most .

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A build on SAP鈥檚 鈥楨xperience Revolution鈥� podcast series, the show focuses on how different industries are evolving, new business models are emerging, and the changing nature of how work gets done.

As part of the series, the team has created some special episodes that focus on how tech is helping manage the disruption caused by of COVID-19. This includes episodes focusing on , , and lessons from the in how to source supplies in times of crisis.

Industry Insights by 51风流is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify. Listen to the podcast

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Two years ago, Sigma Healthcare, a wholesaler and distributor to the pharmacy sector, decided to take a look into the future to ensure customers were right at the heart of their business going ahead. The decision has since transformed the company and made it much more responsive to what these pharmacies need.

As part of this process, Sigma did a deep dive into what their customers really wanted when engaging with the business. It used this process as a lens to review policies, procedures, technology and how to better connect with them.

鈥淲hat we found was that technology was a big area that needed improvement,鈥� says Sigma Healthcare鈥檚 e-commerce manager Luke Shaw. 鈥淲e had a lot of legacy tech and systems that had been built on top of each other without keeping the customer鈥檚 needs in mind. As a result, we created an entirely new ordering platform for our wholesale customers.鈥�

The digital platform, called Sigma Connect, features 51风流Commerce Cloud and Qualtrics software and allows the company to improve how customers order and manage stock, offering faster checkout, clearer product details and better customer experience. Using Qualtrics allows the firm to perform customer surveys and collect verbatim feedback across the entire customer base.

鈥淚t gave us that one-on-one connection with everybody in our network. We place the feedback mechanism across every page on our ordering platform, so our customers at every step can give us feedback, good, bad or indifferent,鈥� Shaw says.

Sigma now uses this feedback to further develop its technology, he explains. 鈥淲e ask our customers what they want, act on that feedback and then measure our success. It’s a really powerful tool to find out whether we’re going in the right direction.鈥�

Key to the process is the ability to analyse sentiment across the customer base, to allow it to focus on changes that are going to make a big, positive difference to the company. Sigma combines the insights it gleans through technology with information about customer sentiment it collects face-to-face when talking with pharmacists instore and also at events and conferences.

Being able to combine this information gives the business an understanding of what鈥檚 truly important to customers. This avoids placing too much emphasis on issues raised during one-off focus groups, which may be important to that group, but may not be as critical to the wider pharmacy cohort.

An example is a recent focus group that involved an important group of pharmacy owners. They had concerns around Sigma鈥檚 search engine marketing.

鈥淲e had been working on search and our analysis showed search wasn鈥檛 a primary concern across the customer base. But it was for that focus group at that time. So while the feeling and the sentiment immediately in that workshop was valid, search was less of a priority for the greater customer base,鈥� Shaw explains.

Had the business decided to redouble its efforts on search just based on the feedback from the focus group, it may have missed responding to customers鈥� other concerns it was able to glean from a more comprehensive sentiment analysis. This showed inventory accuracy 鈥� being able to tell customers when an out-of-stock item would be back in stock 鈥� was more important than search across the board.

Sydney University鈥檚 professor of marketing, Vince Mitchell, also stresses how important it is for businesses to seek immediate, regular feedback from customers to drive business decisions.

鈥淔eedback is the breakfast of champions and all businesses find feedback nourishing,鈥� Mitchell says. 鈥淧revious tracking of ‘how are we doing in general?’ on customer experience has been replaced with ‘how did we do today or on this transaction?’鈥�

Online pop ups, mobile texts, end-of-call surveys or social media feeds can be used to generate real-time feedback to build a much more detailed and actionable picture of customer experience.

Nevertheless, Mitchell concedes measuring sentiment can be tricky. 鈥淵ou need to have the right ‘dictionary’ of words that are bespoke to your brand to get an accurate read on sentiment.鈥�

He also says it鈥檚 important to use multiple touchpoints including online, telephone, instore, face-to-face and email when measuring sentiment. 鈥淵ou can analyse positive and negative reviews online, but this only covers one touchpoint and only people who use social media. So making conclusions from this is difficult.鈥�

As for what鈥檚 next for Sigma on its journey to use technology to get closer to its customers, Shaw says they are working on harnessing customer feedback to drive greater loyalty.

鈥淲e do that by continuing to measure our net promoter score. It’s shifted more than 60 points in the past 18 months. This gives us faith we’re doing the right thing. If customers appreciate we鈥檙e giving them a better experience, this builds trust, which will lead to even greater business benefits down the track.鈥�

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Market-leading yoghurt firm Chobani鈥檚 consumers are so invested in the business, they help co-create exciting new product ranges. Such is the case with the limited Halloween range it releases each year, explains Maria Voronina, the business鈥檚 senior brand manager for innovation and new platforms.

鈥淲e’re constantly talking to our consumers and engaging from multiple channels in a very personal way. That allows us to form relationships with them that make it possible for us to pull them into our new product development process,鈥� she explains.

Consumer involvement in the Halloween range started in 2016, when Chobani launched its first pumpkin pie yoghurt. Last year, it introduced a yoghurt pouch in the shape of a ghost. This year, it launched six new Halloween-themed packaging designs.

鈥淐onsumers knew this was coming because Halloween is an annual event and they get very excited. We ask people what they want and they submit ideas for flavours 鈥� some even design packaging. It鈥檚 an amazing source of inspiration. We鈥檙e currently planning next year based on this feedback, and I can guarantee it will be something special. It will be something different and we鈥檒l be drawing on our consumers鈥� ideas,鈥� says Voronina.

Chobani has enjoyed incredible success thanks to the proximity it enjoys with its consumers 鈥� every person who contacts Chobani with either a compliment or complaint receives a handwritten note.

Commenting on the best way to engage with consumers, Sydney university academic Vince Mitchell says understanding what they want involves thoroughly researching their behaviour and attitudes.

鈥淭his can range from watching how people buy and eat, to getting them to answer survey questions, to listening in on what people say on social media or in focus groups. It’s particularly important to have a range of methods. As [British advertising legend David Ogilvy] once said, ‘People don’t think how they feel, don’t say what they think and don’t do what they say鈥�,鈥� says Mitchell.

It鈥檚 important to Chobani to take a very personal approach to its interactions with its customers.

鈥淢arketing used to be about a one-way dialogue with consumers,鈥� says Voronina. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 completely changed 鈥� now consumers have a voice; they co-create your value. We have transcended mass marketing because we find the time to treat every person as an individual. We have so many personal stories from people who contact us who might be battling cancer or trying to lose weight. We record every interaction and follow up with them later, checking in and maintaining that relationship.鈥�

Mitchell says it鈥檚 important to have formal processes for involving consumers and incentivising them to become involved in product development.

鈥淔rom early-stage market research, ask them about what they like and dislike about current offerings on the market,鈥� he says. 鈥淭est concepts with them and allow them to play with prototypes or even buy them in simulated online or real life stores. Many companies co-create or use customer ideas as the inspiration for their products.鈥�

The Chobani team鈥檚 dedication is also a critical part of its success. Says Voronina: 鈥淓very employee knows the values, what the brand stands for and what it takes to deliver a truly exceptional experience. When everyone is responsible for the brand experience, your business becomes something really different.鈥�

Chobani also brings retailers along with it on its journey. 鈥淲e deal with our business partners in the same way we engage with our consumers. We aim to surprise and delight companies that have worked with us for a long time in the same way we do with our consumers; that鈥檚 very, very important.鈥�

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Understanding the problem your customer is trying to address and focusing on how you can resolve that with your products and services is the key to delivering what shoppers want, in an age in which customer experience is everything.

This is one of the key themes explored in a new podcast episode of The Experience Effect featuring Macquarie Graduate School of Management lecturer Karen Ganschow.

Ganschow, former general manager of consumer marketing and strategy at NAB, uses banking as an example. Where once great service was defined by what happened at the branch, now what鈥檚 imperative is the quality of a bank鈥檚 mobile app.

鈥淭he mobile phone is the largest, busiest branch of any retail bank,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o how you service your customers through your mobile app is what鈥檚 important. In my time in retail banking, we obsessed about what it was customers wanted to do with their bank via their mobile. It was all about making sure it was an easy experience. So the challenge for organisations is continually being focused on improving how you solve your customers鈥� problems.鈥�

But, says Ganschow, it鈥檚 not just about making everything easy on a transactional level. Brands also need to connect emotionally to offer an exceptional experience.

She uses shopping at David Jones鈥� flagship Elizabeth Street Sydney store as an example. Traditionally, the pianist playing a grand piano on the ground floor, and the high level of customer service the business offers, made shoppers feel special 鈥� and they have been prepared to pay a premium. The current $200-million redevelopment for the space aims to enhance this.

鈥淥ffering a true theatre of experience when, really, all you are offering is a transaction, makes all the difference,鈥� Ganschow says.

Technology has helped revolutionise the experience of how we shop, do our banking and more.聽Getty

Apple is another example. 鈥淚t has mastered customer experience. All its devices are on show in their stores, and there’s lots of staff on the floor, so you get a high level of service and engagement. When you choose to buy something, you don’t have to queue up at the cash register, you can do the transaction then and there,鈥� says Ganschow.

The message for other businesses is to focus on addressing customers鈥� pain points to offer the best possible experience.

鈥淵ou need to do this in a way that鈥檚 so intuitive and easy, they keep coming back for more. You have to make sure you engage both the head and the heart to design an optimal customer experience. It鈥檚 easy to get buried in the transactional nature of customer experience. But making a purchase involves a high degree of emotion. So, when organisations think about how they’re interacting with customers, they must emphasise both.鈥�

51风流head of marketing ANZ Rushenka Perera says consumer expectations of the buying experience are much higher now, given they are able to access all the information they need in real time, thanks to technology.

鈥淭hey want everything faster and they have high expectations of companies. But they tell us there’s often a real experience gap in terms of what companies think they offer and what customers think they receive.鈥�

Research backs this up. According to a survey by consulting firm Bain聽& Co, 80 per cent of CEOs think they’re providing a great customer experience 鈥� but only 8 per cent of their customers agree.

Yoghurt firm Chobani is one business that is bucking this trend, Perera says. Since launching in Australia in 2012, Chobani has used experience to become the country鈥檚 fastest growing yogurt brand.

鈥淐hobani realised it needed to get feedback from customers to improve their product. After asking the market about what people wanted, it found some customers wanted a different kind of product to the one they were offering. This group were eating breakfast differently. Some were skipping breakfast all together. So Chobani came up with new products.鈥� An example is the yoghurt pouch container it pioneered in its category.

鈥淐hobani championed the pouch, based on market research and feedback from customers captured by its 51风流Qualtrics platform. That feedback loop is really important in the experience economy to bridge the expectation gap. Companies need to get that feedback from customers, look at the data they have in their systems and respond to it,鈥� says Perera.

This involves collecting testimonials and reviews and conducting surveys to get a greater understanding about how to improve products and services. Then, it鈥檚 important to marry this with operational data contained in backend financial, manufacturing and supply chain systems to be able to deliver customers the experiences they are seeking.

That鈥檚 the best way to cater to the experiential expectations of customers, to achieve a great outcome for buyers and for the businesses from which they buy.

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