{"id":34342,"date":"2022-08-03T16:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T16:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=34342"},"modified":"2022-10-19T19:41:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T19:41:00","slug":"virtual-design-and-collaboration-in-lockdown-enhances-the-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/virtual-design-and-collaboration-in-lockdown-enhances-the-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Design and Collaboration in Lockdown Enhances the Customer Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-34346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cust-676789.jpg\" alt=\"Yorkshire Building Society employees wearing new uniforms designed by jSD\" width=\"597\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cust-676789.jpg 597w, https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cust-676789-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/>\n<p><strong>Yorkshire Building Society has a new look uniform designed to enhance<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>the customer experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was a challenge faced by most of us over the last two years \u2013 how to conduct business as usual when things were far from usual.\u00a0Technology became a vital tool in helping us all to communicate.\u00a0 London-based <a href=\"https:\/\/jsd.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jermyn Street Design (jSD)<\/a> was faced with a particular challenge \u2013 how to engage a client in the design process for a new uniform, when no-one could meet, no-one could see the designs or even touch the fabric and samples.<\/p>\n<p>Yorkshire Building Society tasked jSD with helping them move away from a uniform comprised of standard stock items into a custom uniform designed specifically to their brief.\u00a0 It was therefore a leap of faith to put complete trust in the jSD design team to come up with a range of clothing that worked across the entire Yorkshire Building Society team, without ever meeting a single employee.<\/p>\n<p>jSD Designer Nihal Selimi says communication was key:\u00a0 \u201cWhen we couldn\u2019t have face to face meetings we had to rely on other means of communication.\u00a0 We held regular online meetings to discuss the brief and then presented our designs using avatars.\u00a0 This enabled everyone to really study the clothing items, examine the fit, fabric, colours and trims and make instant changes to see what worked.\u00a0 It was a dynamic process that really engaged the whole team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Initially, four designs were developed and a series of focus groups met online to examine and discuss each item in a virtual environment.\u00a0 Forty network colleagues \u2018met\u2019 across four Microsoft Teams meetings and decided upon a final choice of items to make up the uniform range.<\/p>\n<p>Liz Booth, Business Support Adviser for Yorkshire Building Society, says staff were very excited to be getting a new uniform.\u00a0 \u201cWe had never had a uniform designed specifically for us before, so there was a real buzz around seeing the designs for the first time.\u00a0 Because we couldn\u2019t all meet in person we had to rely on viewing the designs virtually.\u00a0 But we really trusted jSD and they kept us informed of progress throughout, really listened to us and delivered a fabulous look that is incredibly comfortable to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The range includes a dress, blouse, skirt, trousers, cardigan, jacket, shirt, tie and jumper.\u00a0 While there are the traditional \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018female\u2019 items, everyone can mix and match items to suit their own body shape and identity.\u00a0 Liz explains:\u00a0 \u201cEveryone has an allowance and they can choose how to use it.\u00a0 They can select a more casual look, or mix with more formal items.\u00a0 Everything works together and there really is something to suit everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The uniform has been really well received.\u00a0 \u201cWe have had so many emails from across the region saying how much they love the uniform\u201d says Liz, \u201cpeople have even been sending in photos of them wearing their uniforms with such pride!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>jSD has also developed a bespoke website for staff to order their items.\u00a0 The website manages and logs everyone\u2019s uniform allocation and controls the budget for each branch.\u00a0 Liz comments:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to order through the website, and deliveries have a very quick turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liz concludes:\u00a0 \u201cjSD have been just wonderful to work with.\u00a0 They are a lovely, friendly team and make everything so easy.\u00a0 We have an excellent working relationship.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like we work for the same company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>About jSD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Susanne Malim founded Jermyn Street Design in June 1981. The multi award-winning company is an industry leader and remains independent and privately-owned.<\/p>\n<p>jSD offers a full range of services enabling the entire life-cycle of clothes at work, from design and manufacture to project management, logistics and responsible disposal.<\/p>\n<p>jSD clients include Eurostar, Nuffield Health, Ocado, Jet2, Holiday Inn, World Duty Free, Liverpool FC, Givenchy, Ascot Racecourse, World Duty Free, Lanc\u00f4me International, Dyson &amp; David Lloyd Leisure. Its designs are worn by over 200,000 employees across 85 countries. For more information visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220826074235\/http:\/\/www.jsd.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.jsd.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yorkshire Building Society has a new look uniform designed to enhance the customer experience.  It&#8217;s their first custom designed uniform and it was developed entirely during lockdown, when no-one could meet..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35831,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34342\/revisions\/35831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}