RM Results (part of RM Education) understood that whilst they dominated certain aspects of their market, they could not simply sit back and assume everything was going to remain that way. They wanted to ensure they had the right level of engagement with their clients and that where possible and appropriate, they were seen and acted as a true partner and not just a commodity supplier.
Challenge
- They had recently undergone a re-brand and whilst they had good feedback there were some signs of negative feelings that came up during this period. There was a concern - not shared by all - that this might mean there were bigger issues that needed to be brought out.
- At least one of the Clients had previously expressed a desire to develop their own capability as a result of the issues they had with the current system. This linked to the brand feedback that they were not close to their Clients and key relationships were at risk.
Solution
- It was clear that the project had two components, the expressed external relationship with the clients, but also an internal one related to the culture and history of the business as a supplier to a captive audience. We agreed a scope to address both.
- Using the new brand launch as a reason to talk, we created a joint project team with key areas of RM and then undertook two core activities: 1) A stakeholder process which is bespoke to us and looks at the alignment of a brand though it’s colleagues to its clients. 2) A series of cross functional workshops with Clients & RM colleagues to look at the experience journey both now, and as a future ideal.
- Regular - twice weekly - updates were done to ensure RM were kept up to date on the evolving issues and opportunities.
Outcome
- They obtained a clear picture of the current level of engagement with their clients which acted as a wake up call. Pain points and recommendations were made - including restructuring the Service Desk function and product development pathway. We identified high risk client relationships with remedial action plans.
- We were invited to their Senior Leadership conference a year later. Here they gave an update on the progress against the series of agile 30 day ’wake up’ plans we had left them with, for which we were specifically thanked by the CEO in front of his team.
“For me the most impressive thing was how open they were to taking the comments on board. They went from a position of not listening, to really engaging with Clients” Nicola Collister, Founder, Custerian
