30 years of Integron. Time to look back, but certainly also to look forward. Glad Stephan van Gelder, co-founder and former director of Integron, was there on the day. We’ve been on the road for 30 years, but really just getting started. What we were already doing – namely conducting employee surveys and customer experience surveys and advising customers – we will continue to do, but we want to take it a step further. More from project to program. Making long-term commitments to our customers. Why? To make a real impact, a long-term approach is needed. No short flings, but a relationship of at least three years. We call that an employee experience or customer experience program. Thus, together we can contribute to people’s (work) happiness and ensure sustainable successful organizations. Happy people, that’s what we do it for. And as I look around me, there are plenty of happy people walking around here today. Not only the winners of the Experience Awards, but also the nominees and other attendees. They are all top performers.
Key to success
Some of those top performers, including pharmaceutical company ALK and cleaning company 1nergiek, told what the key to their success is during breakout sessions. And especially how they provide happy people. Mariska Scheffer, customer journey manager at ALK, outlined how they are successfully working from their mission and dot on the horizon – everyone has the right to a life free from the burden of allergy – to a CX compass for daily practice. “To win outside is to start inside,” Scheffer said. “First of all, make sure you have everything in order internally, on the employee side. Then you have a common starting point to see how you can add value to the customer’s journey. Everything starts with wanting to know and understand. Hence my take home message from Einstein: ‘I have no special talent. I am merely curious.’
“To win outside is to start inside.”
“According to Laetitia Simonis, director of 1nergiek, becoming a top performer is not higher mathematics, but rather a matter of being long term and consistent. “It’s about the combination of simple and, above all, often small things, and the courage to make certain decisions. What matters is that employees are happy with their work. That you give them attention. Rewarding them when they are willing to go the extra mile. It all seems so simple, but it is far from happening everywhere in practice. A handwritten card when you are sick… We also work, for example, with clean miles during the summer period. A reward system for clean colleagues who want to work more and fill in for colleagues who are on vacation. And in this way they can save extra for something nice for themselves. It works like a charm. Thousands of hours are worked and everyone is happy. Culture is also very important; you have to fit in. We look at that in particular when recruiting and retaining cleaning colleagues. Nice if people have been in the business for 20 years; but do you fit in with our organization as a person?…”
“What matters is that employees are happy with their work. That you give them attention”
Enjoy jamming together
Of course I could not be present at all break-out sessions, but the contributions of “our friends” Feike Cats, Team Heartbeats, Tjeerd den Boer, my colleagues , including Kay Sijbrandij, Quinty van Linden and Dennis Went, and other top performers, such as Steinweg and McDonalds were to be heard and seen to be appreciated. I haven’t mentioned everyone here, but I’d say check out www.belevingawards.nl/sessies. Then everyone passes by. Thank you all for your contributions! Certain thanks also to keynote speaker Richard de Hoop. Before we had drinks and socialized together at the “food trucks,” the musical finale was his. And how! “Let me entertain you” by Robbie Williams reverberated through the speakers as his opening piece. As Richard himself pointed out, he was captivated by the power of words and the power of music at an early age. “The power of success is made by the right mix of employees and their team talents. Working together successfully in a team is similar to playing together harmoniously in an orchestra. Musical instruments can be compared to characters of people. Are you the bass? Then you want to see the point of something and just want to get going. The trumpet is enthusiastic. The drum is purposeful. You need all these different characters to be successful. Only then can you really jam together!” said Richard. With the “Integron Symphony” – the A Brand New Day from the famous musical The Wiz sung along at the top of their voices – the entire “hall” provided the musical happy moment of the day. Fantastic. It was a beautiful, successful and especially special event that we concluded with our own DJ Joep, accompanied by saxophonist Caroline Breugem. We like to hold that feeling of happiness together with all our customers and everyone who cares about us. Together, we continue to go for real impact. Hope to see you at our next Experience Awards event!
View all photos from the event here:
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