Anne Browaeys-Level, Director of Marketing, Digital and Technology at Club Med, oversees both the IT and digital departments, an effective operational option for supporting the digital transformation of the trident brand. On the agenda: agile method, feedback from the field and pragmatism on the ground.
The arrival of Anne Browaeys-Level, formerly of FullSIX and Amaury, at Club Med is part of a major reorganisation of the tourism operator. The new organisation is being driven by a new shareholder, increased pressure from the tourism market and the omnichannel consumer. The keystone of this revolution is Anne Browaeys-Level, who is orchestrating the transformation by overseeing marketing, IT and the digital department.
This triple role serves the same objective: to keep pace with customer usage and expectations, as the Marketing Director explains: "This organisation is a response to our Comex's desire to find a structuring solution to respond to the accelerating pace of digital technology and our key challenge of time-to-market. "
To keep pace with the accelerating pace of change, Club Med is aligning its various teams with the strategy, with synchronisation as the watchword. "Digital acts as a link between the teams. For example, on product information, which is at the heart of the customer journey: the ClubMed site and its village fact sheets are consulted by 9 out of 10 customers. Historically, the content has been prepared by the marketing teams (photos, videos, descriptions), but in response to our customers' growing expectations for information, we are working to feed them collaboratively, both internally (via our eGOs, for example) and by our customers (via social walls). This development of our product repository is a key project for the IT and digital teams, a project that brings together all the talents of the new unified team. The whole perimeter is changing... "
As are technologies and customer behaviour. To keep pace with these changes, we're seeing an increasing number of projects, from responsive websites to mobile applications and paperless HR processes. In other words, the roadmap for change in the digital age.
Agile for change
Club Med's secret to this change: the agile method. Initiated by the IT Department several years ago, the method has now been extended to the B2C teams. This is no mean feat, given that marketing serves independent and demanding commercial and operational units for which the idea of the minimum viable product (MPV) is not the most obvious. However, by dint of their results, the teams are adopting this way of working.
"With the agile method, constraints change. For example, we launched our site in China in December. We withdrew it 8 hours after it went online, re-optimised it and reopened it 7 days later", recalls Anne Browaeys-Level, who continues, "sometimes simpler is better, and we realise that we don't need to add functions to better meet our customers' expectations. By allowing us to take risks, this agile method is beneficial. It also changes the dynamics of the overall organisation, as evidenced by the fact that even HR has adopted the agile method.
The global village for a unique experience
The alignment of the teams, now agile, has a single ambition: to facilitate the customer experience, before, during and after the stay. To achieve this, all the teams are involved, and every idea, wherever it comes from, is studied, with management acting as a support and catalyst." In concrete terms, innovation often results in a service for the customer, like easy-arrival for mountain holidays. The idea is simple. Before setting off on their holiday, customers pre-register and enter their equipment requirements: boots, skis, etc. When they arrive, everything is ready for them. When they arrive, everything is ready and the GOs can concentrate on welcoming parents and children rather than supplying equipment. It's a useful way of dematerialising the process for anyone who has ever experienced the endless queues for ski pass and equipment.
As you can see, innovation is only worthwhile if it benefits customers and the organisation of the villages, the two resources of Club Med. "Added to this is the conviction that innovation cannot take place in just one place, but can be found everywhere in the company. This has led us to create extended tribes to identify and involve the people who are the driving force on subjects in each region. "
IT is a business partner and referee
In addition to Marketing and Digital, Anne Browaeys-Level also relies on IT to steer all the transformation-related initiatives. Anne Browaeys-Level admits that this operational triumvirate is working together under "healthy pressure" on issues that are "critical to the company's success". "The pressure of digital is not a brake, but a path for IT. IT staff have become true business partners in Club Med's success. Their contribution is essential to the processes, and very often they have a role in simplifying what we deliver. It's when a project reaches IT that we can measure whether or not it makes sense. At that point, I'm able to arbitrate and sound the alarm if necessary. "
In fact, projects abound and the roadmap is full: use of WeChat, Facebook Messenger, evaluation of the roll-out of a DMP... the list of projects abounds, with the emphasis on cross-channel, the major issue for the coming months [in addition to mobile, which is already the focus of attention]. "With 20 % of sales made via the digital channel, and 90 % of customers consulting our site, we have a plethora of behavioural data to exploit to better speak to our customers," insists Anne Browaeys, reminding us that Club Med is also an e-tailer with its own panoply of associated tools, just like a global village, federated by Facebook@Work to keep its finger on the pulse.