A story of evolution: Plant & Food Research's CX Collective Design Safari
- Sarah Clearwater
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
This April, CX Collective members gathered for an immersive experience at Plant & Food Research (PFR) for a Design Safari.
Design Safaris are small group, in-person experiences that allow CX professionals to get an inside scoop into the design and innovation engine of an organisation.
Led by Megan Jones, Business Manager – Customer Excellence, and supported by a visual presentation from Leyla Gurr, Senior Graphic Designer, attendees learned about the five stages of Plant & Food Research’s CX evolution.
With an emphasis on the importance of learning from initial attempts and continuously improving their approach, the stages were:
Information era: Early efforts to analyse and present customer data, sparking interest among leaders and staff.
First Attempts in Learning: Establishing the Customer Excellence function, conducting satisfaction surveys, in-depth segmentation and initiating customer interviews to gather valuable feedback.
The Wakeup Call: Identifying inconsistencies in customer experience and the future potential risks resulted in a mandate from key stakeholders for the CX team to formulate a comprehensive CX action plan.
Insights to Action: Integrating CX into strategic initiatives including an enterprise system update.
Growing Practice: Engaging staff across the organisation through roadshows and creating CX artifacts to support staff at Plant & Food Research and more consistently enables positive customer engagement.
Key Learnings for PFR's CX Journey
Throughout this journey, several key learnings emerged:
Relationships, Relationships, Relationships: Building strong relationships with colleagues and enlisting their support is the cornerstone of a successful CX practice.
Move at the Speed of Trust: CX initiatives are fundamentally change initiatives. While we always want to push for the gold standard we must recognise that it takes others time to come on the journey with us to unlock a different future.
Show, Don’t Tell: Helping others see the value and opportunity of more customer-focused ways of working is far more impactful than telling people what to do differently.
Align with Strategy and Existing Business Initiatives: Integrating CX efforts with broader organisational strategies ensures they are seen as part of the overall business goals and leverage existing momentum in the organisation.
Own the Work, Share the Commitment: Organisations are quick to say that ‘everyone’ owns the customer experience, yet someone still needs to do the work. When a small team (of just over 1 FTE) is delivering the work, it is necessary to have a larger team commit to enabling and advocating for it, as this fosters a sense of ownership and collective responsibility while still delivering tangible outputs by a core CX team.
Plant & Food Research is committed to advancing its CX initiatives, with plans to implement new measures for customer satisfaction and continue integrating CX insights into its operations. The journey so far has been one of learning, adaptation, and growth, and the organisation is poised to continue making strides in enhancing its customer experience.
About the CX Collective
The CX Collective is Aotearoa’s industry network for customer experience practitioners.
Our focus is to build skills, cross-industry connections & experiences that help our members push practice, grow careers & amplify collective impact. Curated events and experiences are an integral part of what we offer and are designed for intentional serendipity, reflective learning, and building courage.
Supported by our industry-endorsed course, our virtual community forum and On Demand library, CX Collective membership is available on your terms from anywhere.
To check out our upcoming events, click here, or learn more about our memberships.
About Plant & Food Research
At Plant & Food Research, they believe science can create a better future.
By finding smarter, greener options today, we’re helping secure the world we want to live in tomorrow.
With their partners, they use world-leading science to improve the way they grow, fish, harvest, prepare and share food. Every day, we have 1000 people working across Aotearoa New Zealand and the world to help deliver healthy foods from the world’s most sustainable systems.
For more information, visit www.plantandfood.co.nz
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