Saint-Gobain
How to optimise customer experience and drive a customer-centric culture at scale
Rolling out a unified customer relations strategy across a global leader in building materials calls for deep shifts in mindset. To support its digital transformation and put the customer at the heart of its strategy, the Customer Experience Department at Saint-Gobain partnered with Arcane Experience to design “Pulse-up customer obsession”. This bespoke customer experience serious game was built as a digital transformation lever, designed to embed a customer-centric culture across all 160,000 employees of the group.
The challenge: aligning every employee with customer expectations
Customer relationship management (CRM) often runs into one major hurdle: how do you raise awareness among operational teams who never meet the end customer ? Marketing teams work with CRM software, customer data and satisfaction surveys (NPS) every day, but people on the factory floor or in logistics find it harder to see their impact on the buying journey.
For Saint-Gobain, the goal was to make customer needs tangible, pinpoint the sources of dissatisfaction and build customer knowledge at every level of the organisation. The aim was to link employee experience directly to an outstanding customer experience, leaving abstract theory aside to focus on the reality of each touchpoint.
Our answer: a learning tool to transform customer experience
To pull off this international challenge, Arcane designed an innovative omnichannel format. The concept combines the power of digital content (immersive video scenes) with the collective energy of a physical board game.
Moments of truth
Three true-to-life videos performed by professional actors stage the relationship between customer and company, exposing the limits of internal metrics alone.
The customer journey decoded
An interactive board pushes each team to map customer interactions, analyse deeper expectations and decode the biggest customer service frustrations.
Continuous improvement
The collaborative workshop closes with a collective and individual commitment, “My small step”, where every player pledges to improve the experience at their own level.
The secret behind the rollout: digital tools and local autonomy
To create this momentum without an army of external consultants, the programme was designed to run entirely in-house. Arcane developed a learning kit built for industrial-scale rollout. Text and graphics were set up so local entities could translate and print them on site, as close as possible to field teams. With an ultra-detailed facilitation guide, managers master the mechanics in minutes and become customer relations ambassadors within their own subsidiary.
The impact: putting the customer at the heart of the brand experience
By structuring the conversation between colleagues, the game gathers feedback from the field and surfaces concrete solutions for delivering an optimal customer experience.
Listening to the voice of the customer
Employees learn to read the buyer’s feelings and relationship needs, going far beyond the technical delivery of a contract.
Loyalty through closeness
By understanding the knock-on effect of every task on the buying journey, internal departments align to guarantee a memorable brand experience.
Standing out in the market
This active relationship marketing creates strong differentiation in an increasingly demanding competitive landscape.
FAQ: serious games and your customer strategy
Why is a serious game so effective at embedding a customer service culture?
Because it replaces theoretical processes with a vivid, memorable experience. A CRM system or a customer database gives you figures; the game is what makes it click.. By analysing concrete scenarios together, teams take ownership of the levers needed to deliver an exceptional customer experience and sustain the commercial relationship over the long term.
How do you adapt a customer satisfaction game to B2B or industrial audiences?
Our learning design turns your real-world challenges into universal game mechanics. Whether your teams deal with a B2B client, a distribution network or a customer in store, the game focuses on the fundamentals of human relationships: empathy, a personalised approach and responsiveness when complaints arise. If your priorities lie more with internal reorganisations, take a look at our change management serious game.
How do you measure the ROI of a customer experience serious game?
Return on investment shows up in both qualitative and operational terms. In the short term, it boosts customer engagement and employee experience by opening up frank conversations about internal blockers. In the medium term, aligning teams around real customer usage lifts satisfaction survey scores and drives positive word of mouth. Want to design a bespoke tool to enrich your customer relationships? You can contact us directly to shape your project.
