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Lavoisier: involving employees in a new dynamic
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Catherine Géhin, Subscriptions Division Director at Lavoisier, explains how,
thanks to the project implemented with the support of Vento, she turned her
crumbling sales figures around in 18 months to reach 10% annual growth.
"When I became Director of the Subscriptions Division at Lavoisier, sales were
not strong. The market was merging and employee morale was quite low," remembers
Catherine Géhin. At the time, staff did not trust her, judging her background as
being too rooted in sales. Her mission was to stabilise turnover and attract new
customers.
Before drawing up a suitable action plan, Vento consulting
firm performed four steps. First, they performed a diagnostic. What did
customers think of Lavoisier Abonnements? What did our teams think? Satisfaction
surveys were sent to the company's customers to better identify their
expectations and areas of improvement for the company. At the same time, an
in-house survey was conducted on the same topics. The point was to compare the
viewpoints of customers and teams. "It was very interesting to see where
viewpoints diverged," comments Catherine Géhin. Staff tended to think that
Lavoisier lacked the resources of their competitors, while customers assigned
greater importance to their relationship with our company."
Once
their voice was heard, the teams actively contributed to the project
After
this initial measure, a three-step staff training plan was designed. At first,
all it took was three half-days of training to breathe new life into these teams
and start change. "It was essential for me not to take part in these sessions,
so my employees would not feel judged. All the more so since they didn't really
trust me," notes Catherine Géhin. Besides traditional training sessions in
customer relations (i.e. including role playing and scenarios), the teams
themselves made suggestions on how to improve customer relationships based on
the findings of the two surveys. "The workshops had a relaxed atmosphere to them.
It made such an impression on me since at the time, we weren't used to hearing
any laughter in the hallways", explains Catherine Géhin.
Using the
summary written by employees during the workshops, an action plan was drawn up.
Above all, it had to be realistic and concrete, with well-paced implementation
and acceptance of responsibility. Individuals should be well aware of their role.
This teamwork identified 22 concrete measures for improving customer relations,
especially by creating a new offer and overhauling several in-house processes.
The employees were also highly motivated to overhaul these processes. In fact,
all contributed, for a total of 18 months.
"The results are more
than positive", notes Catherine Géhin, "since we stabilised sales figures as
early as the first year, 2007, and Lavoisier Abonnements has since posted
overall growth of 10% per year. Additionally, we discovered new talents among
the staff. Today, there is a genuine team spirit and motivation is at an
all-time high. Our bet paid off."
