Editor’s note: Colin Buckingham is CEO of market research firm Rainmakers CSI, U.K. Paul Webb is CEO, at U.K.-based surveillance technology firm, Synectics. 

For many years customer research was the preserve of big multinationals with big budgets. For many smaller organizations it wasn’t really an option, but times have changed and data is now far cheaper, so insight and the strategy it leads have opened up significantly. However, there are still many smaller companies, particularly those in the B2B area, that have little experience in placing customer insight at the heart of their business. Although smaller companies – those with fewer than 250 employees – account for 99.9% of U.K. businesses in the private sector, many of them think market research is only for giant businesses and big budgets.

Although by no means small, with revenues approaching £100 million globally, Synectics is typical of many medium-sized businesses in that it’s a global leader in a focused area. The firm designs, builds and manages advanced surveillance technology and networked security systems. Historically, as with many technology-based businesses, customer insights had not typically been at the heart of the organization. Despite previous bad experiences of working with consultants, the Synectics management board realized that they had reached a critical point in the group’s evolution and made a conscious decision to take a different approach and gain an external viewpoint in order to deliver a clear and focused strategy.

Having worked with consultants before, Synectics looked for a strategy and insight partner who would provide practical, tangible advice. The company was looking to build a lasting relationship, rather than an agency that would deliver fluffy ideas and move on without seeing changes implemented. Synectics chose to work with Rainmakers CSI because of the practicality of its approach – they thought that Rainmakers would provide lasting, tangible advice rather than just a throw-away report. 

Aligning with customer needs

The approach to redefining the company’s strategy was to put the customer at the heart of its business model. The team began by finding an external perspective of the business, conducting in-depth interviews with customers around the world. They also spoke with key stakeholders within the business, and completed detailed market and competitor analysis. A series of workshops throughout the program – some more structured with a wider management group, others informal or impromptu with a core team – enabled Rainmakers to develop the strategy iteratively and ensure that the plans put in place were viable to execute as well as being fully aligned with customer needs.

This work had three key outcomes:

  1. Starting from a legacy of previously disparate and in some cases acquired businesses, Rainmakers aligned the company’s offer around two core propositions and simplified the brand architecture.
  2. Rainmakers identified some major growth opportunities for the business, including the expansion of the group’s U.S.-based gaming specialism into the Asian market, where Synectics has subsequently enjoyed huge success.
  3. Rainmakers guided an internal restructuring, driven by customer needs and market opportunities. The business was reorganized around the two core propositions and business models, and regional service hubs were located to maximize the global market reach achievable with the group’s resources.

The relationship, which started with building this cohesive strategic plan for the diverse group of businesses, has since evolved over nearly eight years, into a range of work from customer experience and NPS measurement, to investor messaging, to pure strategic consultancy. The partnership has developed in a way that ensures Synectics really knows its customers and other stakeholders, embeds insights at the heart of the business, and delivers growth. This has been achieved through a number of practical solutions:

  1. Have a clear road map for growth. For every program of strategic work, implement a step-by-step plan that is easy for everyone to navigate in order to make the journey tangible and transparent.
  2. Treat the relationship as a partnership. Synectics works with Rainmakers as an extension of its team, integrated in the business. The market research industry constantly refers to suppliers and vendors but the best work is done in a partnership between client and agency. In these scenarios, agencies will drive the best impact and own the outcomes.
  3. Take the long view. At the beginning of every project, lay out the aims clearly to enable everyone to work together to achieve them. Rainmakers always worked with the assumption that they would be working together for long enough that they would see the consequences of the decisions they made.
  4. Communicate, communicate, communicate. With Rainmakers support, Synectics has listened to consumers’ needs and fed back how they are going to meet them. These feedback loops have optimized Synectics’ business and helped them get better at what they do.
  5. Put the customer at the center of everything. If you don’t know them, you never really know your business! 

Improving customer service

Synectics has established a constant dialogue with customers. In 2016, this expanded into Synectics’ Customer Excellence program. This program works to collect the metrics needed to improve customer service – NPS scores (willingness of customers to recommend you); the importance of different aspects of the product and service offer to customers; and Synectics’ performance on each of those.

Through this program, Synectics has worked with its customers to share, action and improve results. The tech company has fed back the findings very openly and directly to customers, acknowledging honestly what needed to be addressed as well as absorbing the praise for its strong points. It has told customers what it is going to do to improve, and shown that it has committed the resources needed to make it happen, reporting back on a regular basis. It has created a true program of continuous action and improvement, not just the words.

As a result, the core NPS metrics have risen every year, performance on key drivers has improved and 80% of Synectics’ customers say that they view Synectics as their preferred long-term partner for future needs.

The Synectics story shows that insight is not only for giants, and it’s not only for consumer-facing companies. Customers can be placed at the heart of every organization, large or small, business to business as well as business to consumer, in order to drive positive, long-lasting change.