‘Working environments, whether good or bad, are usually a good indicator of what a brand represents,’ says Mariann Wenckheim, director at strategic design consultancy 20.20. ‘For all the Google employees who get to take their laptops to one of the imaginatively designed breakout areas, there are many more workers who spend their days in drab, soul-less offices.’ Wenckheim raises an important point – although in the past three decades brands have radically shifted the way they view their customers, with designers striving to make customer experience the focus of their projects, brands keep forgetting about their employees.
‘While customer-centric brand delivery has now become the norm, many in the industry have failed to think more broadly about the people behind the scenes – the ones who pick up the phone in a call centre, greet you as you walk into a store or sell tickets to a football game,’ explains Wenckheim. ‘As the company’s most important brand ambassadors, surely they need to be empowered?’ Brands should of course continue perfecting their approach to customer experience by combining psychology with intelligent design – but improving employee experience is just as vital.