7 great insights from Innocent Drinks CEO (with thoughts for the property industry)

For me, the stand-out speaker at yesterday's Future Decoded event in London was the first- Richard Reed, CEO of Innocent Drinks. Richard focussed on creating high-performing teams through staff and customer engagement. Given his company's massive 94% engagement score (which compares to a UK average of just 17%), this is something he clearly knows a lot about. As Richard spoke, I couldn't help relating some of what he was saying to our own property industry, where staff turnover is often high, competition is fierce and having the right people, all of them engaged and motivated, is a major competitive advantage.
Here's what I took away:

1. Keep the "Main Thing" the "Main Thing"

Be clear what it is you are in business to do and put this at the centre of your team's experience.
Richard showed us a great (although somewhat extreme!) picture of a basket-making company's head office.
The building was basket shaped. As staff and visitors approach the company, they are left in no doubt what its business is - the production of baskets!
This immediate connection can be replicated in our own industry. Staff need to be motivated to help people to find homes, not to sell houses in return for their commission.
If a house hunter comes into your agency and you help them to find a home that they are happy in, the laws of customer loyalty suggest that they will come back to you to sell it on and, if you have the stock, to find them their next home.

By focusing on the core objective of your business, you will build customer loyalty. Customer loyalty in turn makes the job easier and more satisfying for your employees. Customer service excellence brings opportunities and returns. Do everything you can to minimise the distractions and focus on what you are in business to achieve. Distractions can come from many direction, from needing to make your sales target to not having the keys you need to show somewhat a property.

If a potential buyer is waiting in the rain outside a property and you are still in the office searching for the keys, the kerb appeal of that property is fast depleting, to the point that you might have lost a sale down to a simple case of key management. See an example of how we've helped with that here.

2. Think entrepreneurially

Richard believes that everyone in the business must be valued and encouraged to be entrepreneurial. So often it is the customer facing people within an organization who can see exactly where the need for changes in processes is.

They might not always get it right, but Innocent's motto is "If you're 70% sure, then go for it". Richard says he will always back the person who "tries something" more than the person accepting the status quo, someone who sees the need for changes, but does nothing about it.

Richard was far from convinced by Innocent's Big Knit campaign, but he trusted his colleague's instinct and has watched the germ of an idea develop into a highly successful charity fundraising campaign, and, of course, brand building exercise for his drinks business!

It is down to simple trust and entrepreneurial spirit that has seen the partnership between Innocent Drinks and Age UK help thousands of older people across the country.

In the property industry, my experience is that there is already high level of entrepreneurialism. The most successful agencies trust their staff and offer them the opportunity to use their instinct to get he best results - for the buyer, the vendor and the agency!
Richard pointed out that Google has a policy of "Only hiring A-Types". A-Types will only be happy working with other A-Types. Craig Kreeger, Chief Exec. of Virgin Atlantic, mirrored this encouragement of cross-team vision. No one can doubt the success of these businesses!

3. Create a community

Leading on from entrepreneurialism, Richard described fostering community as creating an environment in which every person contributes to making it the best it can be.
This struck a chord with me. We created Keyzapp in response to agents needs. We were continually hearing the same message: "Managing keys is a nightmare." The features of the product and service are evolving in response to the on-going dialogue we have with you and your colleagues. The more we learn about what we can do to make your life easier, the easier we can make it.

At Innocent, everyone's performance is measured against the company values. Working to these values opens up opportunities for pay rises and promotion.
I believe there is scope in our industry to look beyond simply rewarding people on a commission basis. As we move towards a world where local agents rely more and more on their added value services and expert knowledge, having team members rewarded across a variety of customer-centric values may have the effect of driving up standards across the board. I know this is already the case in many of the customers we work with.

4. Start small, think big

When Richard founded Innocent, he and his co-founders invested £500 in fruit and whizzed up their favourite smoothies, before going into the street with a simple sign - "Should we give up our day jobs to make these smoothies?"
They started small, but always had an eye on their ambition. In a staff context, this is about sharing your ambition and giving staff a feeling that they have the opportunity to progress. It also links back to entrepreneurialism and not being afraid to let people try things on a small scale and then to grow them further as their viability is proven.

In the property industry, ambition can be about increasing your company presence, expanding into new locations, or it might relate simply to becoming the most respected estate agency in the area. Being transparent about your ambitions keep staff focused and motivated.

5. Work the details

Anyone who runs a business will attest to the fact that the little things matter. With Innocent, it's the nice touches in their branding, such as using "Enjoy By" rather than "Use By" - despite some raised eyebrows at Trading Standards! This one, for me, reinforces the "community" point above. If you work at the small things, the overall experience for staff and customers will just get better and better.

Something many in the property industry do well is relate to their customers, to understand more about what they need in a property, helping match the right tenant to the right landlord, or the right buyer to the right seller. In a competitive market, such as lettings, the little differentiators can make all the difference.

Virgin Atlantic's Chief Executive mentioned that one of they key things they do is make an effort to know their customers. At the end of a flight, they don't just say "Thank you for flying with us", but "Thank you... and we hope you enjoy the party you came here to attend."

6. Ethics help

I've often heard those at the top end of the property industry bemoan the "rogues" who give the sector a bad name. Once again, staff and customers benefit from strongly reinforced ethics tied to company values. Everyone is happier working at an ethical organization.

Innocent gives a percentage of profits to charity. As Kate Faulkner recently pointed out at both the Property Ombudsman Conference and The Negotiator Conference, estate and lettings agents are some of the most generous businesses in their local communities, but perhaps don't shout about it enough. Having a code of ethics and putting it front and centre will not only motivate staff, but it may also win customers.

7. Listen up: Promise and give back to customers

Innocent gets a staggering amount of correspondence from customers. It really does have a big banana phone that customers can call to talk to them and it does give tours of its facilities. Listening to customers is something that all good negotiators need to do, but it doesn't actually hurt to make that listening explicit. Tell customers how you will engage them and seek their advice, and always follow through.

CONCLUSION:
I had a great day at Microsoft's Future Decoded event. Richard's keynote set the bar very high and left me pondering a lot, both for how we reflect this ourselves at Keyzapp and how his advice can be used in our marketplace. From a marketing perspective, there are few brands with greater appeal than Innocent, in my opinion, and it was a great privilege to hear how they did it.

I hope I'll get the chance to write more about the conferences we've visited in the near future.