Agile service transformation for NSS
This mini-case study is presented as an example of how a rapid and streamlined creative process can transform service delivery and generate leads from a modest marketing and internal resource investment. If conditions allow and a business acts in an agile, creative way with empowered decision-making then brand and marketing ROI will always benefit.
- Modest client investment in the middle of pandemic and economic downturn
- Rapid brand development and campaign turnaround (14 days from initial discussion to launch)
- £300k quotes and £50k orders within first two weeks
Opportunity
Our client NSS is a nationwide specialist services provider.
From building maintenance to window and technical cleaning, platform hire and equipment testing, they offer a consistent, self-delivered and most importantly safe service. Anywhere in the UK.
Unsurprisingly, the national lockdown late March 2020 saw an immediate downturn in business as non-essential key projects and contracts were suspended to comply with government advice.
Discussions mid-April with the Group Commercial and Operations Directors identified potential opportunities for the Cleaning division to play a vital role in maintaining and elevating the hygiene standards the UK would need to emerge from this health crisis. Specifically, conversations focused on the timing of opportunity and imminent preparations many businesses would be making ahead of employees and customers returning to buildings across the UK.
Speed was of the essence.
Strategy
We fast-tracked a mini-workshop (via Zoom of course!) to understand the potential scope of service proposition in more detail and how it could be packaged to tease out key messages.
We needed to be careful in such times of national emergency to ensure that the ability to support customers with enhanced deep-cleaning procedures was positioned appropriately and that no unsubstantiated claims or promises would be made.
When digging deep into customers’ motivations and needs, speed and safety mattered most and with their national infrastructure, nobody is better placed than NSS to rapidly deploy bespoke specialist cleaning across multiple sites. That’s why their client base includes the likes of Tesco and Costa Coffee.
But also, we identified an ongoing need for this type of service and didn’t want to come up with something that would be viewed as a one-off project. There would undoubtedly be a significant lifetime value off the back of these initial engagements in the post-pandemic world.
So SafeTouch was born to cover all aspects of their enhanced deep-cleaning service (internal, external, preventative and reactive). And though its purpose was fundamentally about ‘Getting safely back to business’ we decided to launch with a key campaign message of ‘The rapid way to a safer environment’.
It was evident that once given the all-clear, businesses would be under internal commercial pressures to reopen quickly. But safely.
We also created tiered packages so buildings and facilities managers could pick and choose what they needed to suit their individual requirement. Fundamentally, we made complex and varied cleaning services much easier to buy.
Implementation
The lead creative asset was the development of the service brochure to help support the sales team deal with direct enquiries but we also created a limited suite of teaser assets to assist quick-burst marketing activity. We expanded the visibility of SafeTouch on the website under the Cleaning division’s core service areas and promoted it via a new home-page panel. We’d later add richer content including photography and video of the service in action from some early project engagements.
An email was sent out to 3.7k database contacts and a social media campaign delivered across the company Twitter and Linked In accounts. Alongside this, the sales team utilised personal Linked In accounts with campaign assets provoking timeline interest and prospect engagement. It was a real blitz rooted in hard work and collaborative effort rather than huge budgets.
Transformation
Only ten days into the campaign activation and quotations have already exceeded £300k and order value circa £50k. This already represents a very healthy ROI on what was essentially a modest investment in strategic and creative marketing support given the speed of delivery.
Find out more about NSS SafeTOUCH here
Feedback
“This has all come together brilliantly. Professionally executed from start to finish… thank you!”
Malcolm Fyall, Group Operations Director
