Céline Sarrazin, Director of Customer Experience at Bouygues Immobilier, comments on the developer's commitments to its customers, its dedicated charter, and the employee day dedicated to customer satisfaction.
What is your customer experience strategy?
The customer experience is the number 1 issue in the company's strategy, and the employee experience is the number 2 issue. We strongly believe in the symmetry of attention. That's why we've taken steps to acculturate our teams. In 2018, we set up the Customer Academy to train all our customer relations staff (around 150 employees) - customer relations managers, after-sales service managers, and sales administrators - in customer relations know-how and interpersonal skills. In property development, the customer journey is a long one, stretching over more than two years, and requires a great deal of support, especially as the purchase of a property involves both a financial and emotional investment. It's all about getting the message across. We have opened up our academy to other professions, such as programme managers, who manage property developments from design to delivery and are likely to be in direct contact with the end customer. Each year, we offer training courses on the fundamentals of customer relations, communication (conflict management, for example), etc., as well as dedicated induction courses. We also offer induction courses for new recruits.
We have also digitised our customer services, making the customer area as easy to read and as practical as possible. Our customers know that they can keep a record of their interactions there, and receive answers to their questions within 48 hours, and so on.
In March, Bouygues Immobilier unveiled its Customer Commitment Charter. What are its objectives?
This charter represents both the culmination of the work carried out on customer relations since 2016 and the beginning of the story, because it commits us. Thanks to our efforts, our performance indicators are improving. For example, we have gained 28 NPS points in two years, and the volume of complaints is falling. The charter is made up of 5 commitments, set in stone, accompanied by very concrete actions, on a wide range of themes encompassing customer relations, customer experience, product quality, and CSR. Bouygues Immobilier has strong ambitions in terms of reducing its carbon footprint (with a target of minus 32% by 2030). We want to lead the way in our sector, for example by using bio-sourced materials in our homes and systematically installing heat pumps. What's more, our "Coeurs de vie" approach allows customers to imagine their home as soon as they book it, and to personalise it using a 3D configurator.
On 14 June, you organised the 2nd Customer Day, a day dedicated to customer satisfaction. What does it involve?
This event mobilises all the company's employees and encourages synergies. Each branch manager brings his or her staff together to work on a customer satisfaction topic. In 2023, they worked on collective commitment (after having worked on individual commitment in 2022). They take stock of the actions carried out during the year, discuss the practical cases they have encountered, make commitments, and decide on the actions to be implemented to meet them. The 2023 event was a major mobilising force throughout the company.