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Net Promoter Community > European Conference Blog 2008 > Tags > conny
 

European Conference Blog 2008

2 Posts tagged with the conny tag

Conny Kalcher from LEGO Company addressed the topic of growing brand ambassadors.  The name LEGO comes from Danish words that mean "play well," and most agree that LEGO makes that a driving passion for the company as well as for the customer/consumer. Did you know that there are 52 LEGO bricks for every person on earth? In many cultures, when the idea of creative play is discussed, LEGO enters the conversation.

So how is it that a company with such focus on play could hit hard times, even face the possibility of bankruptcy?  Conny suggested that perhaps it was the loss of a keen focus on the customer. She shared how the grandson of the company founder reentered the picture and restored focus on the essence of the LEGO brand - the customer experience.

 

The more connected a customer is to LEGO the more they spend to get the LEGO experience. The company's strategy, then, is to leverage various customer touch points to get to know their consumers and create a special connection with them.

 

One way LEGO builds that connection is through the Kids Inner Circle. Members get the opportunity to talk about their experience and, as a reward they get an inside track to LEGO news. The kids participate in blogs and adaptive conversations (a unique way to get collaboration on ideas). They get to see how their ideas are being accepted by others and used by LEGO.

Net Promoter is a key metric to track connection with the customer. Conny pointed out actions the company has taken to improve their Net Promoter Score (NPS), such as changing packing materials and working to improve fulfillment. Monthly reports provide Net Promoter Scores and action plans, and all parts of the company share NPS KPIs, driving a focus on the customer experience.

There are over 70,000 YouTube movies on LEGO, over 200,000 LEGO pictures on Flickr and a LEGO search on Google returns over 50 million hits.  LEGO is taking an organized approach to this popularity, with Promoter programs such as LEGO Club, AFOL (Adult Friends of LEGO), LUGs (LEGO User Groups), Brickfests, LEGO Professionals and others. (I have personally attended a Brickfest in Washington D.C. and the LEGO section of last year's Maker Faire in the San Franciso Bay Aarea. If you want to see examples of truly engaged customers, I recommend you attend!)

 

What LEGO has found is that openness and dialogue with customers pay off. LEGO has, in essence, extended the boundaries of the company to include its advocates. Lead user involvement and co-creation are a growing part of LEGO's business and they are implementing business strategies that put the customer in the center of their business. While NPS plays a central role in driving customer-centric behaviour, it needs to be implemented alongside a customer-centric culture and engagement programs such as LEGO's Club and the Kids Inner Circle, to deliver the desired results.

 

Click here to download the presentation.

0 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, lego, conny, kalcher, kehler
AlisonD

From the presentation delivered by Conny Kalcher from LEGO Company, there were a number of points made from which you could choose a key takeaway such as...working for LEGO is so cool! to the importance of understanding your customer affinity groups and how to segment them.

However, for me there was one comment that stood out from all the others Conny made: "Listening to the customer is a commitment to taking action."

 

I'd be surprised if there are more than a few people out there unaware of LEGO as a company. Some fantastic facts about them include:

  • There are 52 LEGO bricks in existence per person on the planet
  • LEGO is the largest manufacturer of tyres in the world - albeit very small ones
  • There are over 71,000 LEGO films on YouTube
  • If you search for LEGO on Google you'll get over 53 million hits
  • The 4,400 customers in their top customer segment have a Net Promoter score of 90%
  • The average promoter spends around 50% more than the average detractor

 

With a brand like LEGO, with the passion that generates from both children and adults for their products, are we surprised that their results are so good? Isn't this a case of playing with a stacked deck?

No, that would be a somewhat unfair assessment. LEGO have had their fair share of problems, especially over the last 6-7 years; but their focus on the customer has helped them to keep their heads above water and get back on track once again. A revealing communication from a key UK customer -- a member of AFOL (Adult Fans of LEGO) -- helped to highlight the fact that LEGO were not spending the time listening to customers. That communication went straight to CEO level and the net result was LEGO started to listen actively and translated that customer insight into action.

 

Led by the CED team (Community, Education and Direct), LEGO have re-evaluated their customer affinity groups, changed their action focus accordingly and really reached out to the customers in terms of developing their community of enthusiasts. Tracking key drivers alongside the Net Promoter Score (NPS) has enabled the team to understand the impacts of process or packaging changes, for example, on customer satisfaction. Where action is then taken on that insight, the impact is visible in improvements to their NPS.

 

Conny admits that there are areas where they could still do better. For example, the closing of the communication loop with customers could be more robust. Recent customer feedback from the 9V protest group, however, would indicate that this is improving.

We all need to take action from our customers' feedback. LEGO are, and look at their results!

 

Click here to download the presentation.

0 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, conny, davidge, lego, kalcher

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