RedBalloon on Why Culture is the Perfect Gift for Agents -- And Customers

"A well-articulated leadership vision and employee engagement lie at the heart of customer experience and brand success," says the founder of Australia’s RedBalloon and well-respected entrepreneur, Naomi Simson.

It is an interesting concept, and it is one that has gathered significant steam over the last 12 months. Workplaces are rapidly transforming and it is easy to see why - results have shown that employee happiness indeed equals customer happiness.

To gain some insight on how this theory is working in practice, I recently caught up with
Roslyn Hogan, Head of Customer Happiness at Red Balloon. The interview follows:

How are you driving a positive culture at Red Balloon, why is it a focus for
you?

Simply speaking, culture is everything at RedBalloon. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have been listed as a BRW Great Place to Work five years in a row, one of only nine companies to do so. We come to work as ourselves, not our job titles.

What we share is a deep belief in our purpose, which is to give people more good
times. We also have a shared set of values that we live and breathe more than in any
company I’ve ever worked for.

We drive that culture by acknowledging that "what gets recognised gets repeated",
both by the individual and the group who witnessed that recognition. On this basis it
follows that if you recognise behaviours in line with the culture of the business, it
will reinforce those behaviours and therefore drive more of the same. It becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy.

Do you have any results to demonstrate the direct correlation between
culture, customer experience and business performance?
Are you familiar with the saying "Happy wife, happy life"? Well, the same could be
said for the workplace in that "Happy employees, happy customers". We believe
that if our people are happy, it leads to happy customers, happy suppliers and
ultimately, a happy financial performance. RedBalloon has often been quoted as
saying "employees are the new customers" and "happy people = happy profits". And
that’s exactly how you should look at it. If you’re willing to go the extra mile for a
customer who is upset, then shouldn’t that same attitude apply to your loyal
employees?

The results here at RedBalloon speak for themselves. Our employee Net Promoter
Score (eNPS) is 100%, so we have unquestionably happy people. Our Net Promoter
Score has risen by 14% in a year, so we have happy customers. And as a result of
both happy people and happy customers, our sales per call has increased a
whopping 34% year on year (2013 to 2014), which equals happy profits for our
business.

How do you ensure consistency across all touch points to provide a seamless experience?
Coaching is imperative at RedBalloon – when it drops off, so does the quality of
service. The Customer happiness team are empowered to deal with a whole range of
customer inquiries. They are largely self-sufficient and free to make decisions as
individuals. Every customer happiness team member knows they have an individual
impact on the RedBalloon brand - good or bad.

We’re active on several social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram and Flickr. We know that every customer is unique and we want them to
be able to reach us in the way that best suits them. Every employee who interacts
with customers via social media platforms, email or over the phone are trained with
the same key messages. We empower our people to deliver a great customer
experience that exceeds customer expectations at every opportunity – we even have
discretionary budgets set aside to surprise and delight our customers.

It’s all about training our people to do their best, and then trusting them to get the
job done.

What would be your one key piece of advice for anyone looking to improve
the culture of their organisation?

My one key piece of advice would be to train and empower your people. If your
employees know they are making a worthwhile contribution, and if they are noticed and rewarded on a regular basis, they will be happier and more willing to give their
extra effort day in, day out.

At RedBalloon we have an annual training budget set aside for every single employee – with knowledge and confidence comes the power to trust your own instincts and discretion. We also reward our people with points to redeem against RedBalloon experiences, and we find these rewards work just as well in other organisations seeking an out-of-the-box reward alternative to store vouchers and cash bonuses. Believe it or not, happiness is throwing your people out of a plane!

Finally, customer centricity is a phrase that has been gaining traction -- what does it mean to you?
Customer centricity for me means that our customers are always at the heart of
everything we do. We want to be an integral part of our customer’s experience; we
don’t want to just facilitate it. For us, this means listening to them with open ears
and constantly evolving our approach based on the feedback we receive. But in a
way it’s more than that – we don’t just listen; we actually act on what they say. We
have no limit on our call times to ensure that we can meet customer expectations
and needs every time because we understand that excellent communication is
fundamental in every relationship - it’s no different when it comes to customer
service.

It’s also important to ensure that we effectively communicate with our customers
before, during and after the sale of an experience to ensure we’re there every step
of the way. Our ‘How was it for you’ survey is sent to every customer after they
complete their experience, and we constantly benchmark our customer reviews and
use this feedback to better what we do.

Customer centricity means putting our customers first with their best interests at
heart.