Avast’s mission was to develop better brand advocacy and grow revenues via improved customer retention, to ensure customers were satisfied and inspired to stay longer and spend more.
The newly appointed VP of Customer Retention and Loyalty defined a strategy to deliver the revenue goal and reached out to DWG to help develop the strategy further and create a clear plan to achieve the commercial goals. DWG then provided a team of additional resources to help realise and accelerate the plan.
The DWG team lead worked closely with the VP (as well as other senior leaders in the organisation) to get the department in the best possible shape to deliver the strategy.
For this part of the loyalty strategy delivery, DWG focused on the organisation and governance of the team, the culture, leadership, and examined closely the processes and working practices being used.
Key actions taken on the organisation structure and processes:
Examined the target operating model by completing a full audit of existing ways of working and mapping out the processes being used which were then refined later on to improve productivity and results.
Reviewed the team resources and conducted a capabilities gap analysis to assess the level of skills and experience, both existing and required, to achieve the strategy and associated goals.
Designed the HR profiles using MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and recruited for existing and new roles. Scaling the team from 11 to up to 40 in 6 months.
Defined the OKRs (outcomes and results) for Customer Retention and Loyalty based on the strategic goals and outcomes. This was further supported by implementing the RACI model (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) to eliminate confusion and provide careful control at a more granular level.
Developed new cross-functional communication and working processes to break up the silos between teams and departments and get people talking to each other and working collaboratively.
Key actions taken in culture and leadership:
Assessed the culture and determined that improvements could be made to the consistency and quality of outcomes for customers with more a more collaborative team culture and improved team practices.
Spearheaded a drive to change the culture by leading an initiative named ‘The Culture Club’. Team building sessions were run and team events were created to build communication and relationships.
A mindset of ‘squad empowerment’ was developed to build strong cross-functional teams that used improved working processes, to deliver a better customer experience.
Conducted and led an MBTI session with the leadership team to identify strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.
Improved governance by leading a bi-weekly Consumer Committee which served to get product, technology, and commercial leaders to communicate more and collaborate to create better outcomes for customers.
Coached team leaders to adopt new Portfolio Management processes to control programme and project activity and optimise available resources according to strategic value.
Coached and mentored key individuals in the Retention team and some from the teams they worked closely with such as Product and Technology, supporting cross-functional working.
A more collaborative approach across Customer Retention & Loyalty, Product and Technology was successfully established enabling the strategic goal to be achieved.
By the year-end deadline, the “16 winning moves” from the strategy were completed and delivered $72 million of additional revenue and significantly reduced churn and improved customer retention rates.
New ways of working using cross-functional teams and new processes for tracking, measuring, and delivering initiatives were embedded into the leadership team managing the Retention team and supporting teams to increase proficiency in delivering good outcomes for customers.
