In the run up to Chief Customer Officer USA we were fortunate to sit down with Dave Nelson from Armstrong Relocation. Dave shares his thoughts on recruitment, people development and technology. His career has taken him to a number of interesting places too.

1. Tell us a bit about your background and how you ended up in your current role

Early in my career, I worked for Ford Motor Company, counselling dealers across five states in goals that included elevating the customer experience at the retail level. achieving Sales, Market Share, Profitability and Customer Experience goals. Having earned an MBA, I lead a team at US Surgical Corporation that sold medical devices across three states, working to elevate the standard of patient care in a hospital setting. In the past 20 years with Armstrong Relocation, we have grown from having moving companies 11 locations to now 30 cities, launching additional business offerings in the process. My responsibility for the Customer Experience has grown out of having stewardship over sales, marketing, quality and corporate culture.

2. What is the biggest challenge you face within your role today and how are you looking to tackle it?

My greatest challenge today is to maintain corporate culture despite mergers and acquisitions. We maintain alignment around seven fundamental “DNA” principles.

3. In what ways are you working with your business to help drive value and insights driven decision making? And in which business area, function or metric, has your team made the biggest impact?

In performing over 30,000 household goods moves and facility relocation projects annually around the world, we track performance data through the eyes of our customers. These data are distilled into a single metric known as CPA. We also use a Cost of Poor Quality metric to quantify the economic impact of our Customer Experience elevation efforts and investments.

4. In what ways have you notice a fundamental shift towards a more customer focused culture within your organization?

In 2002, we were recognized as the top-performing agent in the entire United Van Lines’ system of 600+ moving companies. In 2012, scoring at that same level, we were ranked near the middle of the pack. Since 2013, we have made a purposeful shift in elevating the Customer Experience, achieving and maintaining positive movement. These actions follow a three-pronged effort: 1) Providing a vision to generate positive movement, 2) Enlisting the hearts of team members through the sharing of compelling customer stories, and 3) Aligning the entire enterprise on a foundation of seven fundamental DNA values.

5. What strategies do you employ for keeping current in a technological environment which is rapidly changing and developing. How do you determine what technology to invest in, and how can you stay current without tonnes of investment?

Our approach to current technology is to utilize it only as it elevates the customer experience and delivers positive economic impact. If it doesn’t work for the customer and the company, it doesn’t work; period.

6. When it comes to recruitment, what approach do you take to attract and keep the best talent? What do you feel they value? And in what ways do you partner with outside entities such as academia to help you in this endeavour?

We recruit, retain and develop talent around our seven DNA principles. If there is lack of alignment with these fundamental values, we do not go forward. Our DNA principle of “Generosity: We succeed greatly so we may share generously” seems to resonate strongly. We also utilize StrengthsFinders to put team members in position to succeed. We have partnered with a few external consultants in this regard.

7. In what ways do you feel that the type of talent you are looking for within your teams has evolved over the past two years? 

We are looking for the same type of individual we were seeking two years ago. What has changed is not what we’re looking for, but want potential hires are looking for.

8. How do you see demand for particular skill sets changing in the future? And what impact do you feel this will have on your business and the industry as a whole?

As we focus on high-demand clients with uncompromising standards, both hard- and soft-skill requirements continue to rise. This drives up our costs tremendously while creating the opportunity to earn premium compensation from the right client partnerships. By comparison, low-margin business has reduced the number of US-based competitors from 10,300 to 8,800 in recent years.

9. Do you participate in any open data or philanthropic initiatives, either personally or professionally?  What are your views on resource sharing and in what ways do you think it can help further the industry and shape the world in which we live?

Generosity is one of our core business principles. We are an unabashedly for-profit enterprise with astronomically-high performance goals our leaders are challenged to achieve. This level of success – sustained over 60 years – enables our enterprise and the team members in it to give generously to the philanthropic organizations they feel most passionate about.

Dave Nelson, Chief Customer Officer, Armstrong Relocation & Companies

Want to hear more from Dave Nelson? Join Chief Customer Officer USA, the most interactive discussion conference for CX leaders in America. Dave will be joining a panel on Employee Engagement and will participate on the Chief Customer Officer as Storyteller discussion group. For more information, visit our website.