Turning employees into brand advocates and micro influencers

Always in touch

Hunkemöller is a leading women’s bodywear retailer in Western Europe with over 940 stores in 21 countries. The brand is famous for its design led approach and world class service, with over 9,000 employees focused on delivering an inspiring customer journey - whatever the channel.

World Class

In 2010, Dutch based Hunkemöller, began its turnaround strategy. At the heart of the strategy was to create a brand - for the high street. We knew that a great brand needed great service - world class service, which is still at the core of its growth strategy today. Its key focus and USP is to provide exceptional world class service, lingerie expertise and be driven by design led product strategy. For the business positioning this was crucial as competing on price with others was not an option.

Hunkemoller MTE 1

So we created a world class training programme to deliver this world class service. A combination of in store and online training enables the transformation of staff into brand ambassadors. Hunkemöller have a network of global trainers to support teams in store with training, processes and certification as well as online access.

Hunkemoller MTE 2

Keeping in touch

With a set of brand values established, that included being in touch, we worked with Kega to create an internal communication platform called just that - in touch. We wanted to show the store teams what good looked like - not tell them and the platform was ideal for this. It gave our employees a voice and usage was high with almost all employees regularly using their own smartphone to access the app, but Hunkemöller made sure it’s on all tablets in store too. Meaning all staff had access through the day.

We also knew the store managers know more about our customers than we did, so used in-touch as a two-way feedback channel. Hunkemöller also make sure staff are up to date with fashion trends so they can inspire customers and give them advice on how to achieve the latest looks. Along with this it is important to the brand that they are seen as ‘social’ and as such their employees are comfortable with social media. Our 9,000 army of Shero employees are one of our most important groups of micro influencers. In touch allows us to continually inspire and encourage our internal influencers to be our very best brand ambassadors.

Top tips

Your employees on the ground will know your customer better than anyone


Staff are your brand ambassadors to your audience and shoppers, by advising and also wearing products etc


Keep staff up to date on relevant trends that will aid your audience


Having an accessible app 24/7 means reaching all employees quickly


Combine online and in store training to ensure easy reach of staff, accessibility and to keep things fresh and interesting!

• Your employees on the ground will know your customer better than anyone

• Staff are your brand ambassadors to your audience and shoppers, by advising and also wearing products etc

• Keep staff up to date on relevant trends that will aid your audience

• Having an accessible app 24/7 means reaching all employees quickly

• Combine online and in store training to ensure easy reach of staff, accessibility and to keep things fresh and interesting!

Take a look at Hunkemöller

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- Sean Murray / Founder of The Retail Practice / Communication Specialist

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- Sean Murray / Founder of The Retail Practice / Communication Specialist

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