Recently, I had an opportunity to speak with the manager of the creative services group at Saint-Gobain, and I think his story from the past few years can provide some encouragement to other in-house creative leaders who are continuing to experience the pressures of a down economy. What makes this group's story so encouraging is that they work in the building products industry, a market that was down, way down, by all counts over the past two years. Given the ease that corporations have in justifying the cuts of creative resources when times are tough, I was excited to hear that this group had navigated the recession with strength and consistency.
Ken Warshaw has served as the Creative Services Manager over Saint-Gobain's corporate creative services department since 1999. His group has been around for several decades, and was originally founded as a fee-for-service, break-even department. Their mission is "To deliver strategic marketing communications with world-class service for the success of Saint-Gobain businesses." Because they are an optional fee-for-service department - that operates in many ways like a business unit within the Saint-Gobain group - the "world-class service" aspect of their mission statement is of prime importance. They have to earn their clients' business every day.
The group's service offering includes virtually everything within the realm of marketing communications. They have grown many services organically from within, such as application programming and video production, based on the evolving needs of Saint-Gobain businesses. They are fortunate to have a very talented group of people within their department who embrace developing new skills and committing themselves to becoming experts through training and self-study. Most people within Creative Services have experience and skill in multiple disciplines, which allows them to offer a wide range of services for clients.
I asked Ken if he'd be willing to answer a few questions for me, to help us get to the bottom of how his department managed to perform with strength through such a turbulent time.
What is your client service structure? Account management function? Full cost recovery or only partial?
In the past we had no account executives. Our creative staff (primarily Art Directors) also were the Account Managers. In the past, our clients have told us that they like talking directly to the people doing the creative work on their projects. But, over the past few years as we have integrated ourselves more with our clients' businesses we both see there is more of a need to have a dedicated Account Executive presence.Our goal each year is to break even and cover our costs. We operate functionally as a not-for-profit business within the Saint-Gobain Group. Our objective is to base our hourly rate on our cost structure and ensure that our rate is extremely cost-competitive with similarly sized agencies on the outside. We don't expect to be cheaper than a mom-and-pop shop.
You're in an industry most would assume to be struggling over the past couple of years. What has the financial impact (ie. billed client work) on your group been as a result of the recession?
We have seen a dip in our annual hours of creative over the last couple of years, but we still have a steady stream of work from our clients.
Your group has flourished during a down economy, in a down industry, and your rates have even increased at the same time. What are your clients finding so valuable in your creative department that would lead to such success?
I think our continued success has to do with the people within Creative Services who have established strong working relationships with our clients. Also, the fact that even with the bad economy Saint-Gobain, product and marketing managers understand that it's still important to communicate with customers. Our clients' budgets are smaller, but there is still work to be done. Because our people have done such a great job of servicing clients, those clients generally call on us first because they know they will get great work at fair prices. Also, clients know that because we are employees of the company, we are not trying to profit off of them and we will try to preserve their budgets as much as possible.
Have you ever been asked to deliver a bottom-line cost justification to management, encompassing all of your team's activities? If so, how were you able to develop such a response? Have you ever compared these costs against outside agency costs?
We don't often get asked these questions frankly, because we're a break-even group for the company and as long as we stay close to break even our cost is easy to justify. We do however benchmark our rates on a regular basis against external resources, and as long as we are efficient in how we produce the work, there is a cost savings to the company when businesses use our services.
What has been your greatest lesson learned over the years in trying to provide the highest customer service levels to your clients? What part of your standard customer service process has been most valuable for your department?
Being accessible is really important. In addition to cost competition, we compete against external resources on client relationships and response time. Because we have such tenured staff, they've built the relationships that clients can rely upon. We're always there to respond to clients. The stronger our client relationships are, the more accessible and effective we can be for our clients.
Of all the things you've done over the years to promote your department's services to the organization, what is the single most effective event or process you've implemented?
We have not done a great job of marketing our department to the organization. Then again, it hasn't been totally necessary because it seems the word of mouth about our quality and service does a pretty good job. But it is critical for us to do a better job of letting people know about the wide range of services we offer. For example, more people within Saint-Gobain should know we do video production and application programming.
At the end of the day though, one principle that I've always found to be important in driving word of mouth marketing is to simply say "Thank you" to your customers. It is a simple thing, but it can easily be a lost practice amidst corporate departments who feel "entitled" to the work opportunities that they receive.
My simple analysis here is that the combination of Saint-Gobain's full cost recovery model and exemplary staff retention levels are driving a high level of customer service out of their team. It is very nice to see good old-fashioned customer service playing the lead role in helping a creative services department to justify its value-add to a company. This is one of the key performance indicators for creatives that can bring a lot of enjoyment to a job when you succeed, so it's great to be reminded that success can be had by focusing here.
Thanks for sharing with us Ken, your story has been very encouraging!
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