Crocs - expansion of customer focus

“InContext really works with the people themselves, also at a team level”

(Wim Bosboom, Human Resource Officer)

 

A change in customer approach

They appeared on the European street scene for the first time five years ago: the brightly coloured Crocs clogs. They soon became a trend and Crocs Europe experienced a period of explosive growth. Crocs is now a company with more than 300 staff members and the number of models has expanded to more than 200 different styles. This requires a change in our customer approach, and for this reason, after a period of five years we decided we needed to further professionalize the Crocs customer service department at the European head office in the Hague.

Top of the class is the ambition

“In three years time we want our customer service department to be top of the class”, is the ambition of Kersten Elzakkers, Customer Service Manager at Crocs Europe. She heads the Customer Service department which serves Wholesale customers in France, England, Germany and Austria and also distributers which serve the rest of Europe. “We have very enthusiastic staff members and after a period of fast growth it is important that we get more support, become more professional. “This is why it was decided to give a Customer Focus training not only to the Wholesale Customer Service, but also to the Internet Customer Service.

Wim Bosboom, the Human Resource Officer who is responsible for the customer service department knew of InContext. “In my last position I myself had a training given by InContext. I was very impressed by it. They really work with the people themselves, also at a team level.” On Bosboom’s request InContext was one of the four companies invited by Crocs to come to talks. InContext got the job.

Trainings were given in Dutch, English and in German

Bosboom: “The goal was to get the staff of customer service to think with more customer focus. Everybody concentrated on the direct answering of questions and solving immediate problems, but customer focus means recognising the question behind the question”.
“InContext began by interviewing about half the staff, in order to hear what was going on in the teams. In this way they could report back to us on what the questions and the needs of the staff were. After this they developed the training material”, said Elzakkers..

A first meeting was organized during which the whole group spent a day in Kijkduin working with trainers and actors. “It was a fantastic day which set the tone for the rest of the training.” Elzakkers said. “It also became clear that InContext was completely open to feedback.  When we felt the need for a change in the content, they responded immediately.” After the opening day, two focussed trainings were held in small groups on communication in the wider context and on how to conduct difficult conversations. These trainings were given in Dutch, English and in German. Actors also took part in the final training.

Management has to be able to continue this process into the future

Elzakkers and Bosboom see that the staff members have learned a great deal from the training, but of course, the skill is to retain what has been learned. “We are doing our best”, Elzakkers said. “There will be some training for management and in the coming months we will be talking to people to keep it all fresh.” “Of course you can give people tools and knowledge, but the follow-up is very important”, adds Bosboom. “Our management has to be able to continue this process into the future.” Before long, probably eight new staff members will be following the InContext training, but after that the team leaders will have to be able to guide and train new people themselves. That will be necessary because Crocs’ growth, even after five years, is on-going.

For more info about strategic behavioural change phone Mr. Benedict, 0031 35 6286848.

 

 

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