{"id":1035162,"date":"2023-04-11T11:59:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T18:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.follow.it\/track-rss-story-click\/v3\/qxbKxgSvou3mhWZ7MNi6eWsGk81fO-bN"},"modified":"2023-04-11T12:05:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T19:05:38","slug":"the-crucial-role-of-constant-storytelling-and-change-management-in-our-transformation-interview-with-nadia-ness-of-ikea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/the-crucial-role-of-constant-storytelling-and-change-management-in-our-transformation-interview-with-nadia-ness-of-ikea\/","title":{"rendered":"The crucial role of constant storytelling and change management in our transformation \u2013 Interview with Nadia Ness of Ikea"},"content":{"rendered":"<img src=\"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/book-gac87de393_1920-1600x480.jpg\"\/>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"section the_content has_content\"><div class=\"section_wrapper\"><div class=\"the_content_wrapper\"><div class=\"podcastdotco-wrapper\"><iframe class=\"podcastdotco-player podcastdotco-player--episode\" style=\"overflow: hidden; max-width: 750px; height: 160px;\" src=\"https:\/\/play.pod.co\/punk-cx\/interview-with-nadia-ness-of-ikea\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-target=\"punk-cx\/interview-with-nadia-ness-of-ikea\"><\/iframe><script src=\"https:\/\/play.pod.co\/embed\/frame-v1.js\"><\/script><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Today\u2019s interview is with Nadia Ness, who is Global Head of Transformation (Customer Support) at <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ikea.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Ikea<\/span><\/a>. Nadia joins me today to talk about transforming IKEA\u2019s customer support, the rationale behind their three-year transformation programme, what they did, what they achieved and what they learned along the way.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">This interview follows on from my recent interview \u2013 <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/2023\/03\/as-people-we-dont-need-personalization-we-need-humanization-interview-with-paul-greenberg\/\"><span class=\"s2\">As people, we don\u2019t need personalization, we need humanization \u2013 Interview with Paul Greenberg<\/span><\/a> \u2013 and is number 461 in the series of <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/category\/interviews\/\"><span class=\"s3\">interviews<\/span><\/a> with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Here are the highlights of my chat with Nadia:<\/span><\/p>\r\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\r\n<li class=\"li4\"><span class=\"s5\">Big shout out to the folks <\/span>(<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digit.fyi\/\">Digit<\/a>) <span class=\"s5\">behind the <\/span>recent <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itsxsummit.com\/\">ITSX event<\/a> in Edinburgh, where I met Nadia.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Ikea embarked on its transformation programme as they realised that they had probably lost track of the fact that the world was evolving round about us in terms of remote customer expectations. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">The catalysts for why we started this huge transformation programme were:<\/span>\r\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">We have around 10,000 people that are working in customer support around the world.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">They were telling us that they felt like they could use their skills in a better way, but they didn\u2019t have the right investment and clear accountability processes that empowered them and systems that would allow them to do their job effectively. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">We also knew from looking at our customer surveys that we weren\u2019t at the level that we wanted to be, or at the level that our customers expected from us.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">The cost of our customer support was also growing exponentially just with firefighting.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">There were no economies of scale because we didn\u2019t have a blueprint for how customer support would work. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Self-service is a key part of the Ikea experience.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s part of our DNA that customers are empowered to be able to do things for themselves. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">A central part of the transformation was identifying the great things that were being done in some local markets and how we could take those things and scale them up and make them fit for purpose so that every market can enjoy the benefits of those tools.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Once done that allowed them to start building more complex digital solutions like virtual planning tools and selling kitchens over video.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m really proud of the fact that our transformation team is diverse. We deliberately recruited people from a number of different countries, from different backgrounds, working in their local market as well as people that had never worked at Ikea before so we had fresh eyes and expertise.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">We worked with the countries as equals. So we had a global team, but we also had a project team in every country and they\u2019re the experts.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">All of this has led our customer support team to no longer be seen as a cost centre. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">While the business has to try and achieve the lowest cost to serve possible. Customer support is also something that creates value streams for the organisation, and that\u2019s the mindset shift that we\u2019ve really been focusing on more broadly outside of customer support at Ikea. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">We track our happy customer score (essentially customer satisfaction) and coworker satisfaction.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">By consolidating over 200 local systems, we have made tens of millions of cost-efficiency savings. Our transformation has also generated significant growth in sales.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Constant storytelling is crucial.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Transformation is not just a one-and-done type of thing. It\u2019s a continuous kind of improvement. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Our customer satisfaction has gone up by 22 points since we started and it continues to climb. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">The other score we are very proud of is our coworker engagement (employee engagement) score. The score for our customer support population has gone up by five points and is now on par with our coworkers in our stores.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Are you investing in change management and storytelling and doing it from start to end?<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">One of the things that we\u2019ve built into my team\u2019s rituals are things like strategic recovery i.e. giving people permission to take time to clear their brain, to go outside for your walk or something like that.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Spend most of your time listening to what your frontline teams are actually telling you. <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you\u2019re a leader and you are showing up and listening and you\u2019re walking the talk where it\u2019s a regular feature in your calendar and that time is blocked out and it\u2019s sacrosanct, then that contributes to a culture of I genuinely am listening. I\u2019m not doing it to tick a box. I want you to tell me the honest truth.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Nadia\u2019s Punk CX word: Brave<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Nadia\u2019s Punk XL brand: Bloom &amp; Wild<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>About Nadia<\/b><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-15090\" title=\"Nadia Ness\" src=\"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"Nadia Ness\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-500x498.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-768x765.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-147x146.jpeg 147w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-50x50.jpeg 50w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-75x75.jpeg 75w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-85x85.jpeg 85w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness-80x80.jpeg 80w, https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Nadia-Ness.jpeg 1045w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\"\/>Nadia Ness is Global Head of Transformation (Customer Support) at <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ikea.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Ikea<\/span><\/a>. Nadia is an experienced leader in large scale customer transformations. With a background in strategy and change leadership, her career expands over several industries, including telecoms, utilities, finance and retail. Nadia started her career on the shop floor, and uses that experience to keep her humble when creating people-focussed strategy that delivers business growth. A good day at work for Nadia would be one that involves learning something new, with a bit of fun along the way. She lives in Glasgow with her husband and rescue dog.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Check out <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ikea.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Ikea<\/span><\/a>, and feel free to connect with Nadia on LinkedIn <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nadianess\/\"><span class=\"s2\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Image by <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/ri_ya-12911237\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=6709160\">Ri Butov<\/a> from <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\">Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s interview is with Nadia Ness, who is Global Head of Transformation (Customer Support) at Ikea. Nadia joins me today to talk about transforming IKEA\u2019s customer support, the rationale behind their three-year transformation programme, what they di&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7143,"featured_media":1027460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,130,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035162"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035376,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035162\/revisions\/1035376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1027460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}