INTRODUCTION TO CLIENT INTERVIEWS
I interviewed a selection of CAS’s past and present clients, to form the basis of the client research. I conducted the interviews telephonically, face-to-face, or through video conferencing.
Additionally, I sent a digital survey questionnaire to eighteen former clients, and eight responses were received back from company founders, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Managing Directors (MDs), and Heads of Marketing.
I have included the Google Forms Client Survey, Survey Responses Table, Summarised Survey Responses and an Interview Sample below.
Fig. 1. Wiggett, 2022a. Google Forms Client Survey.
Fig. 2. Wiggett, 2022b. Survey Results Table.
Summarised Survey Responses
1) How did you hear about Creating a Storm?
90% Referrals
10% Internet search, portfolio, LinkedIn
2) What made you want to work with Creating a Storm?
65% Passion, energy and personality
65% Portfolio
50% Professionalism
40% Referrals and reputation
35% Creativity
3) What do you love about working with Creating a Storm?
65% Creativity, innovation and uniqueness
50% Quality of work output
40% Energy, passion, personality and fun
40% Insight, experience and knowledge
30% Professionalism
30% Customer relations
10% Flexibility
10% Speed and efficiency
4) How does Create a Storm differ from other agencies and designers?
• Briefs and turnaround times are speedy and efficient
• Solutions are creative and innovative
• Personal, focused approach
• Professionalism
• Enthusiasm
5) What has Creating a Storm achieved for your company?
• Increased brand awareness
• Positive customer feedback
• Great packaging and a strong brand identity
6) How could I improve my offering?
90% Nothing
5% Increased capacity / shorter lead times (clone yourself)
5% Share more of your knowledge and industry trends
7) Would you recommend Creating a Storm?
100% Yes
8) Why would you recommend Creating a Storm?
90% Creativity, innovation and quality of work
30% Personality
20% Customer satisfaction
10% Professionalism
9) What words would you describe your Creating a Storm experience?
• Fun
• Friendly
• Passion
• Enthusiastic
• Personality
• Inspiring
• Imaginative
• World Class
• Creative
• Efficient
• Professional
Nicola Malan Interview
Engen Petroleum Head of Product Development, Food Technology and Packaging
3 March 2022
1) How did you hear about Creating a Storm?
• Referrals - It is the most vital asset for your business.
• Suppliers, competitors and clients ask me who my designer is every week. Sometimes I am reluctant to tell them because I don’t want the competition.
2) When you recommend Creating a Storm to clients, what do you say?
• Whenever people ask me who my designer is and what agency she works for, I say a ‘Storm’ or ‘a storm in a teacup’. I cannot remember your company name.
3) Would you recommend Creating A Storm?
• I recommend you all the time to suppliers, clients and competitors asking about the designer behind our awe-inspiring packaging.
• Your work is in a league of its own.
• Your reputation is recognised and respected in the industry.
• You need to capitalise on your name and make it easier for people to share.
4) What do you love about working with Creating a Storm?
• Your energy, experience and confidence.
5) How does working with Creating A Storm differ from past agencies or creatives you’ve worked with?
• An agency offers focused expertise across many diverse areas. They have the resources to cater to a client’s diverse needs across different mediums. Your strength lies in your specialisation and niche. You are a brilliant brand and packaging specialist, don’t try to offer more to that detriment.
• Focus on your niche and stay in your lane.
• Companies want to deal with a business but recommend a person—a single entity design studio in essence services a company’s wants and needs in this respect.
6) How can I improve my service offering? What can I do better?
• Stick to what you are good at. Focus on brand and packaging design.
7) What have you achieved from working with Creating A Storm?
• A substantial increase in brand recognition.
• Creative, innovative, unique and beautifully designed packaging.
• Our biggest competitor, Woolworths, a packaging and retail design leader, tried to torpedo our plans early on because our designs threatened their market domination.
• An increase in revenue and sales.
• Our Q&CO water is now the biggest seller in our convenience stores, ahead of all competitors.
Customer feedback attributes this to the visual design and cost.
8) Are there improvements you envision for the brand, website, visuals, and communication?
• I feel that your brand has evolved since you initially started. You are now more confident, experienced and passionate. Your personality, creative energy and excellent portfolio of work define your brand. Your identity and website don’t reflect who are currently are.
• Companies are open to and expect change for the right reasons. Updating your brand identity and communication to reflect you accurately is good.
• My suggestions include:
∙ Play to the strength of the word storm
∙ Capitalising on your fun, playful, energetic nature
∙ Be mindful of keeping the brand professional and reputable – these are essential to big corporates
9) Are my services sustainable long-term, and is there room for improvement?
• In a post covid world, you can now design for a global audience, and you should do so. Make sure your branding choices work in your favour here and cater to everyone (Malan, 2022).
I then collated the responses, and the results are displayed in the infographics below.
Fig. 3. Wiggett, 2022c. Client Survey Infographic
CLIENT INTERVIEW FEEDBACK ANALYSIS
I conducted client surveys to understand key success drivers, to investigate engagement efficiency, to assess whether client selection could be automated, and to develop the robustness of the sales pipeline.
The client engagements indicated that CAS's key success factors are a combination of professional services, exceptional quality, and the individual enthusiasm and energy of face-to-face engagements. Personal engagement was revealed to be a critical factor in the referral network and added to the success of initial client conversations.
Further differentiation and engagement preference revolves around the smaller, more focused nature of being a single entity that provides focussed yet agile solutions.
These two fundamental success factors, personality and enthusiasm, and delivery through personalisation, should remain nurtured and at the core of any future CAS strategy or adjustment.
In this context, the following observations were made from the client engagements.
CLIENT ANALYSIS FEEDBACK - BRAND
CAS branding is primarily built around a reputation for high-quality work delivered professionally and enthusiastically. As such, the brand is established through operational engagement instead of through systems, or other conduits. The brand is powerful and well established, however there are limitations regarding exposure. The risk is that increasing exposure could diminish CAS's well developed exclusivity.
Furthermore, it is evident that the brand does not play a key role in referrals or securing clients. The majority of clients are secured through referrals from previous work. In contrast to the low brand awareness, reputation is high, which results in CAS being approached by prospective clients.
Public showcases are mechanisms to leverage the existing reputation of CAS and to create proof of excellence to a broader audience. This strategy will expose the brand to a broader audience without diluting its reputation.
CLIENT ANALYSIS FEEDBACK - SYSTEMS, PROCESS AND OPERATIONS
The current key success factor in early client engagement is primarily face-to-face engagement. While highly effective, it's not efficient or scalable, and should be the last step on the journey.
Face-to-face communication should "seal the deal" as opposed to "create the deal".
The current systems for early customer engagement should be updated to act as an information source, and should be an easy-to-navigate journey roadmap that provides automatic engagement.
The automated systems should provide the necessary information to set the expectation, and funnel potential clients through a system, as far as possible, before personalised contact is required.
The automated system will disseminate the following information:
• Price point
• Project timelines
• Client responsibilities
• CAS specialisation and brand message
• Client case study successes
CLIENT ANALYSIS FEEDBACK - CLIENT ACQUISITIONS AND RETENTION
"Companies seek to work with studios; clients seek to work with individuals" (Malan, 2022).
Early client engagement, outside of the referral framework through conventional avenues and media, is less efficient and plays a reduced role in CAS's overall success. Therefore, developing conventional avenues could play a more significant role. However, reliance on these systems alone don't suffice.
The digital portfolio and website need to be tailored to the high referral rate in order to achieve two key objectives. These objectives are to verify and enforce the referral and to encourage and ensure that a personalised conversation takes place.
Extreme care should be taken so as not to place barriers in the way of potential clients through automated systems. The intention is not to remove the fundamental personalised approach that clients value and seek out, but rather to enable this attribute to be focussed, and selective.
References
Burns, H. (2022a). Brand Creation Process. 6 Feb.
Burns, H. (2022b). Brand Name and Tagline Workshop. 12 Apr.
Burns, H. (2022c). Brand Positioning Workshop. 16 Apr.
DeLabesse, H. and Roussea, F. (2022). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 18 Feb. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Erwee, A. (2022). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 17 Mar. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Kempshall, T. (2022a). Creating a Storm Business and Brand Review. 12 Mar.
Kempshall, T. (2022b). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 5 Mar. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Louw, A. (2022). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 2 Spring. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Malan, N. (2022). Creating a Storm Business and Brand Review. 7 Mar.
Malan, N. and Grant, G. (2022). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 22 Feb. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Stander, D. (2022). Creating a Storm Client Survey. [Online] Google Forms Online Survey. 1 Mar. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
List of Figures
Figure 1. Wiggett, S. (2022a). Client Survey Infographic. [Digital Presentation] Brand Business Report.
Figure 2. Wiggett, S. (2022b). Client Survey Questionnaire. [Google Forms] Online Survey. Available at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdM5CEVu3DvRtWXPjdEbfYa_Tb60mvTJIYcdVGSqfOImysIaA/viewform.
Figure 3. Wiggett, S. (2022c). Automated Client Survey Responses Table. [Digital Presentation] Brand and Business Report.