Our services
Customer research
Journey mapping
Concept validation
CX Principles
It doesn’t really matter whether you buy a snorkel mask in the store or the webshop. You buy it at Decathlon. It’s one company, so you expect the same service in-store as online, and vice versa. However, offering the same customer experience always and everywhere does not happen by itself. That’s why it’s vital for the sports retailer to know its customers and customer journeys down to the tiniest detail.
situation
Work up a sweat for the customer
Decathlon wants to know customers inside and out to provide them with the best service. That always made sense already but became even more urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic. As shops and gyms had to close their doors, Decathlon saw online sales skyrocket. And with it, the pressure on customer service and the warehouse, so the sports retailer worked up a sweat to service customers. Meanwhile, time and again, bringing the customer into the organisation’s heart – by zooming in on customer journeys, spotting opportunities, experimenting, and learning, with the help of Essense.
approach
Show how it’s done, do it together, do it yourself
We first conducted extensive customer research. We spoke to retailers and product experts, and Decathlon has a wealth of data that we analyzed. With all this input, we created a macro customer journey that includes both the stores and the webshop. It is the stepping stone for all micro customer journeys, such as order to delivery or returns.
We drew up the first micro customer journey with Decathlon’s multidisciplinary team in tow so that they could do the subsequent customer journeys themselves. But, first, they needed to learn the skills. How do you discover who your customer is? What do opportunities look like? What are possible actions? And which improvement do you pick up first? So we allowed half an hour for theory in all our workshops and then set up an experiment to learn from and achieve results. Very lean. Very effective. The team has taken up the second micro customer journey under our guidance – including a fully detailed customer journey in Miro. Up next: more customer journeys, and we’ll be there to coach.
“Nice work, folks! Such a good, clear story. Super strong approach, I’m excited to see the first improvements that we bring to our customer!”
Robin Vegter
Customer Experience Manager Decathlon Nederland
result
Step by step, click by click
The Decathlon team proves the new method to be successful, time and again. They are freeing up more and more budget for their customer-centric ambition. By learning from experiments and achieving customer satisfaction, profit, and sustainability results, the entire organization is excited about customer-centricity – step by step, click by click. So, working in a customer-centric way doesn’t stop with this one motivated team. Whether it’s a seemingly simple extra email to the customer or making return logistics more sustainable: collaboration is necessary to get things done. It’s collaboration and customer focus that keep Decathlon moving.
Noor Schopman
Lead CX Consultant