Title: Hey Folks, we need long term  relationships with our customers.

Challenge

I work as a coordinator of a technology innovation center which main goal is to develop  innovations projects with industry. Then, our customers are large industry corporates.  During the project, we interact with 3 main customer stakeholders: Financial manager,  R&D manager and the Tech Leader.

Our team conducts weekly meetings with the customer in order to show them the  progress of the project and to discuss the next steps. In these meetings, usually, on the  customer side, only the tech leader participates.

On the end of our projects we ask the tech leader to fill a form in which she evaluates the  quality of our work. As a result, our track history has shown we are very well evaluated by  our customers in which regards technical aspects.

However, we have noticed that even with remarkably high satisfaction levels, we are  experiencing a lower than expected rate of contracts renews. In other words, our clients  are not staying with us in the long term.

So, the problem is: “How to engage our customers in long term relationships?”

Selection and Application

In order to try to understand the reasons of our problem, we selected Ethnographic as a  tool to better understand our customers. We identified all persons of our customers that  we had contact with. Then we create an empathy map for each one of them. We used  personal knowledge, linkedin and even whatsapp history of conversations to try to better  understand them.

Once we had the empathy map for everyone, we discovered that much of their concerns  and aspirations were being neglected by us. We discovered that we put too much focus on  the technical aspects of the projects and ignored other concerns our customers had.

Then we built 2 personas in which represents our typical customer: the R&D Manager and  the Financial Manager. We realized that the tech leader was already very well satisfied and  then, we choose to focus our attention to the other two stakeholders.

Insight

We changed our mindset to be more user centered other than a too technical approach.  As an example of this reflection, now we provide a periodic report that answers much of  the concerns we discover our customers had.

Approach

We chose to deploy a MVP to a subset of our customers in order to quickly validate our  solutions. One of the solutions (MVP) was an executive summary addressed specifically to  the two personas we modelled. In our MVP, the customers reported that they fell less  anxious about financial and formal aspects of the project and they also fell their bosses is  more happy about the results of their work due to greater visibility we provide in the  reports.

It is still in too early to get quantitative data on our renewable rate. However, we are  surely adding more value to our customer and the explicitly reported better satisfaction  levels.


Title : Hey Folks , we need long term relationships with our customers . Challenge I work as a coordinator of a technology innovation center which main goal is to develop innovations projects with industry . Then , our customers are large industry corporates . During the project , we interact with 3 main customer stakeholders : Financial manager , R&D manager and the Tech Leader . Our team conducts weekly meetings with the customer in order to show them the progress of the project and to discuss the next steps . In these meetings , usually , on the customer side , only the tech leader participates . On the end of our projects we ask the tech leader to fill a form in which she evaluates the quality of our work . As a result , our track history has shown we are very well evaluated by our customers in which regards technical aspects . However , we have noticed that even with remarkably high satisfaction levels , we are experiencing a lower than expected rate of contracts renews . In other words , our clients are not staying with us in the long term . So , the problem is : “ How to engage our customers in long term relationships ? ” Selection and Application In order to try to understand the reasons of our problem , we selected Ethnographic as a tool to better understand our customers . We identified all persons of our customers that we had contact with . Then we create an empathy map for each one of them . We used personal knowledge , linkedin and even whatsapp history of conversations to try to better understand them . Once we had the empathy map for everyone , we discovered that much of their concerns and aspirations were being neglected by us . We discovered that we put too much focus on the technical aspects of the projects and ignored other concerns our customers had . Then we built 2 personas in which represents our typical customer : the R&D Manager and the Financial Manager . We realized that the tech leader was already very well satisfied and then , we choose to focus our attention to the other two stakeholders . Insight We changed our mindset to be more user centered other than a too technical approach . As an example of this reflection , now we provide a periodic report that answers much of the concerns we discover our customers had . Approach We chose to deploy a MVP to a subset of our customers in order to quickly validate our solutions . One of the solutions ( MVP ) was an executive summary addressed specifically to the two personas we modelled . In our MVP , the customers reported that they fell less anxious about financial and formal aspects of the project and they also fell their bosses is more happy about the results of their work due to greater visibility we provide in the reports . It is still in too early to get quantitative data on our renewable rate . However , we are surely adding more value to our customer and the explicitly reported better satisfaction levels .