#Tink25 “Today’s companies want a listening ear and a customer-centric approach”

To celebrate Tink’s 25th anniversary, we will be sharing a series of testimonials from employees who have grown with us—over the past 10, 15, and even 20 years—in an ever-changing industry. Today, we hear from Frédérique Garzon, who’s been at Tink since 2006!

Frédérique Garzon will be celebrating her 15th year at Tink this summer. Tink first hired me as a web business consultant. I came to the role with a background in information management, a post-graduate specialization in e-commerce, and some client-side experience. In my early days, I worked a lot with small and medium-sized businesses to redesign their websites, focusing mainly on information architecture and user experience. Finished sites were integrated into the CMS that Tink (then called S2i Web) had developed. In the mid-2000s, clients’ needs were very different. Content wasn’t a priority and few sites were customer-centric. We worked mainly on brochure sites meant to showcase brands. Then, we were hired to build St-Hubert’s first transactional website. It was a large, complex project, and it gave me the opportunity to further develop user-centric practices. Since it involved online sales, a simple, straightforward user experience was key.

Over time, Frédérique’s main responsibilities have shifted to digital strategy and service design. We’ve become digital partners with VIA Rail and Metro, but also with quite a few clients in the banking industry: Desjardins, Ivanhoé Cambridge, the Caisse de dépôt et placement... I worked on a number of intranet projects, which at the time aimed to engage employees, provide them with tools, and facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices. With the arrival of social media, companies have sought to capitalize on the flow of information between their teams. The democratization of the smartphone has significantly impacted the industry and the role of UX design for businesses. For clients like Metro, we had to develop user-friendly interfaces allowing customers to do things like shop, choose pickup times, and provide their geolocation from their phone. These projects broadened Frédérique’s horizons, and she eventually turned her attention to user experience.

Frédérique remembers one recent project that she’s especially proud of. For the Fonds FTQ, we helped the production teams design a new omnichannel experience using a service design methodology. At the client’s request, we studied and mapped all the touch points, then defined the most optimal routes. This work was done in full collaboration with the Fonds’ teams. By sitting down with them and listening to their needs, we were able to identify challenges and opportunities that went well beyond the digital interface. Before going live, we ran a ton of analyses and tests with real customers and employees, using everything from regular mail to phone calls, and collected a lot of data and testimonials. This huge collaborative effort made it possible to align all channels and create new team processes, new scripts, new selling points, etc. In short, by incorporating a customer-centric approach, we took the project further than expected and delivered a well-crafted, customer-friendly omnichannel experience.

This is why Frédérique loves her job and can’t see herself working anywhere else, almost 15 years after joining Tink. Today, I help a lot of companies reach their business goals by leveraging digital technology, using an empathetic and customer-centric approach. It’s great! We meet so many company managers who tell us about the work they do, the challenges they’re facing, and their reality. They’re passionate people who love what they do. They know their field and understand their customers. We listen. We truly want to help and give them the facts on challenges and opportunities in the digital world. We talk, give recommendations, and guide their vision. We help them set priorities and get organized, always while respecting who they are. They know their business, but we’re the digital experts. We clarify subjects they’re less familiar with so they can make informed decisions. I love talking with company executives and helping them implement customer-centric practices in order to grow their businesses. It’s the best job I could ask for.

You can also read our interview with Philippe Girard, director of consulting services at Tink for the past 15 years.