Understanding the organisation from the inside out

Katja began by organising duo-interviews across levels and disciplines. Colleagues from different disciplines such as HR, Operations and Legal were brought together to reflect on customer experience strengths, blind spots and opportunities. These insights formed the basis for six CX pillars and a simple maturity baseline.

Giving every pillar clear ownership

Each CX pillar was assigned to a duo consisting of one tactical manager and one operational manager. Together, they were responsible for defining priorities and delivering concrete results. Regular cross-pillar sessions aligned decisions and strengthened collaboration.

Creating rhythm and speed

Katja introduced an agile light rhythm with stand-ups, short cycles and demos. This made progress visible, created learning moments and helped maintain momentum.

Activating the TOV team for quick wins

To show impact quickly, Katja activated the multidisciplinary TOV team. TOV began as “Terug naar het OV” (Return to Public Transport), a post-pandemic initiative, and later evolved into “Top in het OV” (Excellence in Public Transport). The team focuses on small, high-impact improvements in short cycles. One example is refining information at tram and bus stops to make routes and disruptions easier to understand. These practical adjustments helped colleagues see how small changes can immediately improve the traveller experience.

Growing customer focus within her own team

Her team, originally focused on marketing, communication and content, gradually developed a stronger customer mindset. They went into the field, spoke with travellers and brought real customer insights into meetings and decisions. One of the projects they delivered was mapping the journey of travellers who received a fine for not purchasing a ticket. This revealed unclear communication, gaps in guidance and a payment process that was difficult to navigate. The improvements that followed made the experience less stressful for customers and increased payment completion rates, which directly generated additional revenue for HTM.

Building a culture where everyone contributes

What makes Katja most proud is seeing colleagues from across HTM initiate improvement ideas themselves. People discovered that their input matters and that small adjustments create real value for travellers. This culture shift contributed to higher customer satisfaction, cost improvements and HTM being recognised as the best city transport operator for the fifth consecutive year.

Engage your executive team early and keep them close.

Leaders need a clear storyline and visible progress to stay committed and help drive the movement.

Choose the right name and identity for your programme.

Katja learned that naming matters. The first name she picked did not resonate widely. A strong, clear identity creates shared language and helps colleagues feel part of the initiative.

Work multidisciplinary and build shared ownership.

Combining perspectives leads to better solutions. Predictable working rhythms help colleagues contribute ideas and anchor CX in everyday work.

Share the results you deliver.

Show both the customer and business impact. Improved satisfaction, fewer avoidable contacts, clearer payment journeys that increase completion, and the value created by new propositions all help colleagues see why CX matters and why their contribution makes a difference.

Suzanne and her team created service standards and the SwapCares principles to guide employee behavior: Connect, Aware, Respect, Extra Mile and Smile

To make this real, she launched service masterclasses, mystery visits, Store of the Year Awards, service ambassadors and scorecards.

“You can’t explain it once. You need repetition. People need to see it, practice it, and celebrate it.”

By analyzing data, Suzanne discovered that many customer questions were preventable. Swapfiets built solutions such as a scheduling tool to plan appointments, clear invoice explanations, and product videos.

The result: 30% fewer customer contacts – without reducing human service.

• Start with consistency:
  Set the foundation before scaling. Clear service standards and behaviour guidelines ensure customers receive the same experience no matter where or when they engage with you. Structure protects your brand from growing “messy.”
• Involve frontline teams early:
  Your teams know which processes confuse customers and where friction actually happens. When they help shape the solution, adoption is faster and the fixes are more realistic.
• Follow-up matters more than launch:
  A CX change doesn’t succeed in a workshop — it succeeds on the floor. Continuous coaching, visual examples, and celebrating small wins keep momentum alive long after the kick-off.
• Self-service + human service must coexist:
  Customers want convenience and autonomy, but they also want reassurance that a person is there when needed. Offering both reduces contact volume and increases trust.

Crafting a clear customer promise

The first step was to develop a customer strategy with clear principles and emotions. Using workshops with colleagues across all levels, customer feedback, and data, the team defined three core principles—personal, clear, and alert. These principles became the guiding compass for all client interactions. “If you don’t have a customer promise, you don’t have a guide to steer customer experience in your organization,” Mustafa explains.

Embedding CX in culture

To activate the principles, Van Lanschot Kempen invested in training and inspiration. Every employee followed a four-hour mandatory CX module, followed by refreshers, e-learning, and regular inspiration sessions. This was crucial in helping colleagues translate abstract principles into daily behaviors. Mustafa emphasizes: “You can explain and train a lot, but you also need to show it in practice.”

Linking CX to business impact

To gain buy-in across the organization, the CX team linked customer metrics like NPS to business results. By proving that promoters deliver more financial value than detractors, they secured management support. “If you can show that customer experience also impacts the bottom line, it’s much easier to convince people,” says Mustafa.

From his journey, Mustafa highlights three lessons valuable for CX professionals:

• Start with a strong customer strategy. Without a clear customer promise, CX initiatives lack direction.
• Focus on culture change. Embedding CX requires training, inspiration, and constant storytelling across all layers of the organization.
• Show the financial impact. Linking CX metrics to business outcomes strengthens credibility and ensures executive commitment.

1. Anchoring strategy in purpose and data

She and her team revisited KLM’s customer promise, expanding the brand purpose to: Creating memorable experiences on the planet we care for. From that ambition, three differentiators were defined:

1. Convenient connections: KLM takes me to my destination using their wide network and convenient hub
2. Meaningful interactions: KLM genuinely cares about me, showing personal interest and  helping me when needed 
3. Peace of mind: Customers have total control throughout their journey, they rely on KLM and know what to expect

Through portfolio management and data analysis, the Center of Excellence now prioritizes initiatives based on potential customer impact. Each year, high-level key results are defined, representing the strategic areas where KLM wants to make the biggest difference for its customers. Underneath these results, clear KPIs are formulated to monitor progress and impact.

Jini explains, “We break the elephant into pieces each year. We define high-level key results and work with the teams to translate them into actionable projects.” These projects are aligned per domain and are supported by detailed analysis to ensure they directly contribute to the overarching customer goals. Quarterly, the teams review progress using performance data to track which initiatives are on track, identify impediments, and decide where adjustments are needed to stay aligned with the strategy.

What Jini especially appreciates about her role is the full-circle involvement: “Even though we’re a supporting department, we are also steering the organisation. I love that we are there right from the beginning—defining which topics deserve attention—and also at the end, checking if we’ve actually achieved what we set out to do.”

2. Building a shared CX way of working

The second pillar tackled inconsistency. Despite years of CX maturity, each team approached their work differently. Jini’s team co-created a framework with five core components:

• Processes & Methods: A shared development framework from startup to monitoring. This includes clearly defined phases such as startup, research, solutioning, testing, implementation, and monitoring. For each phase, the concrete steps, expected outcomes, and transition criteria to move to the next phase are documented.
• Tools & Systems: Clear overview of resources available and needed.
• Skills & Capabilities: Defined CX competencies and training needs.
• Mindset: A culture of ownership, challenge, and customer advocacy.
• Principles & Values: A shared belief system across CX teams.

Support by the Center of Excellence varies depending on complexity—from light guidance, to medium involvement, to heavy support for in-depth data consultancy or strategic initiatives.

To embed this way of working, an ambassador network was launched, assigning a CX Way of Working sponsor in every department. Next to that, continuous training is offered not only to Customer Journey Managers, but also to the management team. A highlight of this initiative was a two-day safari, where the full management team tackled a real-life CX case on hand luggage, applying the full CX methodology from research to solution.

To ensure the approach remains relevant and applied, best practices are regularly shared. After the initial kick-off, quarterly reviews are held where teams reflect on their use of the framework, exchange learnings, and identify phases where extra attention or support is needed.

Jini says, “We involved everyone within the CX organisation, from our EVP to customer journey managers. That was key to making it stick.” Their motto? “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.”

Jini’s journey at KLM highlights several key insights:

• Strategic clarity matters: “You can’t execute without direction. The strategy gave us a common North Star.”
• Consistency enables quality: When teams adopt the same approach, it reduces variability, strengthens alignment, and ultimately enhances the quality and credibility of what customers experience.
• Let data guide the journey: From setting priorities to tracking progress, data keeps you focused on real impact.
• CX is everyone’s job: CX shouldn’t be seen as just a department—it’s a responsibility shared by everyone across the organization.
• CX at the boardroom table: The elevation of CX within KLM is reflected in the appointment of a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) in the board, ensuring that customer impact is considered in all top-level decisions.
• Co-creation is key: “Build it together, make it fun, and don’t overcomplicate it”—Jini’s philosophy shows that engagement and simplicity are vital for lasting CX adoption.

Helga inherited two separate departments—Product & Loyalty and Customer Experience & Development—each with its own metrics and roadmap. Elsewhere in the organisation, operational and digital teams improved individual moments but not the end-to-end journey. Plenty of data was collected—NPS, CSAT, post-flight surveys—but teams seldom worked cross-functionally,  so insights rarely turned into coordinated action.

Helga followed a five-step playbook.

1 | Merge teams and clarify roles

• Consolidated the two separate departments into one team.
• Introduced a Customer Success Manager dedicated to measurements, KPIs, dashboards and post-flight surveys—turning insight into action.
• Established a combined role for each major stage of the customer journey (Digital, Airport, Inflight, Communications), pairing CX and Product responsibilities: each CX Manager/Product Manager is responsible for both driving customer strategy and insights (CX) and owning the development and improvement of their specific touchpoint (Product). This structure broke down silos and aligned customer strategy with execution
• Conducted workshops with other departments to clarify roles, responsibilities, and the best ways to cooperate and communicate.

2 | Build one overarching CX strategy

• Four workshops in two days gathered sixty colleagues—from cabin crew to C-suite—to fuse existing materials, research and brand values.
• With guidance from CX Unraveled, they distilled a single customer ambition and a set of emotional pillars that define the desired customer experience.
• The story rolls out through an internal video, e-learning, onboarding and regular refresh sessions so every employee speaks the same language.

3 | Create formal executive governance

• Helga established the Service Committee as the top-level forum for customer decisions.
• Meeting at least quarterly, the CEO, CFO, CCO, COO and other C-executives hold voting rights; directors join as advisors.
• Each proposal arrives with a pre-read covering costs, revenue impact and CX effect, giving customer topics real “seat-at-the-table” status.

4 | Activate a network of 40 CX ambassadors

• Volunteers from finance, operations, airport services and cabin crew form a cross-functional community.
• Kick-off sessions introduced the CX strategy, live projects and clarified exactly what was expected from each ambassador.
• They meet regularly online or in person to share updates, unblock small issues and cascade the bigger CX story to their teams.
• Quick wins—like fixing a boarding-gate pain point on the spot—keep momentum high.

5 | Turn measurement into action

• Beyond NPS, Icelandair now tracks CSAT at every touch-point (digital, call centre, airport, inflight).
• Post-flight surveys include questions on the emotional pillars (“Did you feel cared for?”) and progress on CX strategy is measured and monitored.
• Real-time dashboards flash across office screens; results feed straight into the ambassador network and the Service Committee.

Helga turns her experience into six practical lessons you can put to work straight away:

1. Customer Experience needs to be strategic, not just operational
   Moving CX from being a reactive function to a strategic pillar, overseeing end-to-end processes and aligning them with business goals
2. Secure executive sponsorship early—and keep it warm. A CX vision only flies when the C-suite supports it and allocates budget, resources, and airtime to it at every decision table.
3. Translate CX into business outcomes for each stakeholder. Speak the language of your stakeholders: rephrase “happy customers” into reduced call-centre volumes for Operations, higher ancillary sales for Commercial or lower churn for Loyalty.
4. Mix data with emotion. Track NPS and CSAT, but also ask feeling-based questions (e.g. “Did you feel cared for?”) and gather customer stories to surface gaps that numbers alone hide.
5. Grow an internal movement. Ambassador programmes, lunch-and-learn sessions and concrete “CX fixes” keep energy high long after the initial workshops.
6. Be stubbornly patient. Culture change in a complex operation takes years; celebrate quick wins, share progress and keep pushing.

“Sometimes you just need outsiders to spark new ideas—but it’s the insiders who must carry the torch.”

For Helga, the biggest challenge was that people often prefer the comfort of what they know. Change takes time, even when it’s built on solid knowledge and experience. Not every idea landed right away — some need simplification, others more time to gain traction. “You have to lead in a human way,” she says, “balancing structure with understanding so people feel part of the journey.”

It’s this approach that makes her proud of the CX foundation she built is“very sustainable” despite later organisational tweaks. Today, Icelandair has clear ownership, common metrics and an employee network that keeps the customer voice alive. Having recently moved on from the airline, she leaves behind a strong foundation of collaboration and clarity that continues to shape the customer experience.

Geraldine’s cultural shift began with trust. She started with a simple idea: bring the voice of the customer to every corner of DTC—visibly, tangibly, and continuously. Here’s how she did that, and more…:

✅ Quarterly meetings with real stories
Every quarter, Geraldine sits down with each team to share real customer feedback—both praise and complaints—backed by data and sprinkled with inspiring videos from CX thought leaders. “I want our people to feel proud but also challenged. The numbers and the stories make it real.”

✅ Toilet posters as micro-learning moments
One of Geraldine’s most effective (and famous) ideas? CX posters on the toilet doors! Each month, new posters explain NPS, share simple CX tips, or highlight real quotes from customers. “It’s small, but it keeps everyone connected to our customer mindset—when you least expect it!”

✅ Complaints training and a new mindset
Recognizing the power of complaints, Geraldine rolled out a training for all 130 colleagues, and it’s now a fixed part of the onboarding for every new employee. From recognizing the real problem to listening and resolving on the spot, the training helps shift the view of complaints from headache to loyalty moment. “You have to love complaints,” she laughs.

✅ Happy Calls to mark a life moment
Geraldine also introduced “Happy Calls”: personal phone calls to customers for instance after the lease delivery to ask how they’re enjoying their new car. These conversations are not about upselling or feedback scores—they’re about showing genuine interest in a meaningful milestone in the customer’s life. “It moves the experience from a lease transaction to a real moment that matters to the customer,” Geraldine explains.

✅ Staff empowered to surprise and delight
Perhaps the most powerful change? DTC employees are now empowered—and even have a small budget—to do something extra for customers with a special story. “That moment when a colleague feels: I can do this right now—that’s golden.” One recent example: an employee arranged a small gift and handwritten note for a loyal customer who’d just finalized her lease and shared how it changed her life situation. “It’s about making people feel seen.”

✅ Celebrate success—together
Milestones like the 3000th or 5000th customer review don’t go unnoticed. Geraldine makes it festive with balloons, treats, and personal notes: “I once put little stars (kids-fireworks) on every desk with a personal card that said: ‘You are our star.’ It’s about showing my colleagues that they make the difference.”

Geraldine’s story shows how to nurture a customer-centric culture from scratch—no fancy tools required. Her tips:

💡 Make the customer visible every day
Data is good, but stories stick. Find creative ways to make customers part of the daily routine.

💡 Empower staff to act on the moment
Trust your people with the freedom—and budget—to surprise customers. “They see things I don’t. Let them run with it.”

💡 Don’t underestimate small rituals
A poster on the toilet, a short video in a meeting—these micro-moments plant the seeds of new habits.

💡 Celebrate, even the small wins
Recognize effort and progress, not just big results. “It keeps the energy alive.”

In a sector where trust and transparency can make or break loyalty, Geraldine’s approach proves that culture change doesn’t start with a policy—it starts with people. And sometimes, with a simple poster on the bathroom wall. Her story is a reminder that embedding customer focus is a journey of many small steps—story by story, poster by poster, conversation by conversation. It takes patience, consistency and, above all, the belief that everyone can play their part in making customers feel seen and valued. Geraldine shows that real impact is built on trust, empowerment and the courage to face feedback—good and bad. As she says, “Lots of small things done with love—that’s what makes the big shift happen.”

• Establishing a network of allies: She connected with numerous key individuals across the organization who recognized the strategic importance of a customer-centric approach. These individuals, representing various business functions and regions, came together into a small steering group dedicated to building a case for this viewpoint and fostering a shared understanding that it wasn’t necessary for the focus to be an either or.
• Developing a strategic charter: This group collaboratively developed a charter that articulated their vision and impacts to be gained by elevating the customer to a level of importance comparable to learners. The vision clearly defined the involved parties, primary and secondary objectives, key performance indicators, project timelines, and the wider network of colleagues whose expertise would be essential to the initiative. The initial strategy involved a phased implementation, commencing with targeted pilot markets.
• Implementing a pilot program in a key market: Prior to securing widespread organizational endorsement, Vicky and her team successfully piloted a more customer-focused approaches within a specific market, as part of sale excellence goals. This pilot encompassed several key activities:
  • Assessing existing capabilities: Evaluating the current skill levels of the sales teams against the evolving demands of the transformed business.
  • Implementing capability enhancement programs: Delivering comprehensive training programs designed to reframe the team’s understanding of customer-facing roles and the critical importance of exceptional experiences. This included practical exercises such as journey mapping, to identify and overcome customer pain points and also to and reimagine overall service and solution provision.
  • Gathering customer feedback: Implementing targeted surveys with insight driven questions aimed at a specific segment of customers to gain valuable and actionable insights.
  • Addressing operational inefficiencies: Leveraging new insights to streamline decision-making processes and optimize the existing product portfolio,
  • Undertaking commercial analysis: Examining the product range to identify opportunities for significant cost reductions, thereby strengthening the business case for their approach.

The clear success in this pilot market, demonstrated by notable efficiencies to be gained, along with additional capacity and increased revenue. Importantly it also provided validation of the value of this customer-centric approach. The strong existing relationships with educators and partners in this market, who were already aligned with a focus on both the customer and the learner, were key to the positive results. Building on these learnings and successes, a clear action plan was then created.

• In line with her strong belief in an learning and iterating from an experimentation mindset, Vicky shared several important lessons learned from this experience, providing helpful advice for other Commercial Leaders and CX professionals:
  • Understand the prevailing priorities: Recognize the existing strategic direction and tailor your approach to complement, rather than contradict, it.
  • Speak the language of your stakeholders: Craft your value proposition from the perspective of those you are trying to influence, and what it critically important to them both rationally and emotionally. Understand what is close to their hearts as well as share prices.
  • Don’t underestimate the “why”: Be prepared to answer the fundamental “why” questions from stakeholders: In this instance Why Change?
  • The power of validation: Starting small and demonstrating tangible results, as they did in their pilot market, can build credibility and support for broader initiatives.
  • The importance of stakeholder engagement: Actively seek to understand your stakeholders’ goals and align your efforts with them. Map your ecosystem, understand what matters to each player in order to shift mindsets to full commitment and approval.
  • Conduct a “pre-mortem”: Before launching an initiative, proactively consider what could go possibly wrong and address potential objections in advance.
  • Step back and gain perspective: Regularly take a broader view of the CX landscape, innovations that are driving transformation and impact and seek diverse opinions, even from those outside your immediate field.
  • Focus on delivering great experiences: Make the case for measurable impact and outcomes. Frame your goals around creating innovative, seamless high-value experiences for customers and partners.
  • Embrace continuous learning: Stay curious, test your assumptions, and validate your approaches using diverse perspectives.

Vicky Hampson’s journey illustrates the complexities of championing a customer-centric approach within a large organization undergoing significant transformation. Her experience underscores the importance of understanding stakeholder motivations, crafting compelling value propositions, and strategically leveraging pilot programs and data-informed insights. While organization-wide adoption was not immediately achieved, the valuable lessons gained played a crucial role in shaping her leadership philosophy and approach to organizational transformation and change. Her story serves as a reminder for CX professionals to be exceptional casec makers, dedicated advocates and strategic thinkers in their pursuit of delivering exceptional innovative customer and partner experiences.

Christian gradually transformed the support-focused function into a  more strategic one. At the start of this transformation was a newly developed CX strategy, focused on four emotional outcomes Deliverect wants customers to feel:
empowered, thriving, supported, and trusting.

These outcomes were validated through customer journey mapping, followed by in-depth interviews with customers from key segments. The team used this process to identify gaps between intention and perception—for example, discovering that customers felt less supported during post-sales moments.

Several initiatives helped embed CX more deeply into the company:

• A company-wide refresh of vision, mission, and values, including a clear customer-facing value.
• CX masterclasses to strengthen internal skills and understanding.
• A flexible governance model using topic-based subcommittees, giving stakeholders a focused way to collaborate on current challenges.
• A clear follow-up process for customer research, with action plans owned by senior leaders and tracked over 3–4 months.

Christian’s team also uses AI to tag support conversations and analyze sentiment—both rated and unrated—to surface product issues and inform priorities. “We get a good report on what types of our product create the most support tickets. Then it gets interesting to deep dive into that.”

To support product development, feedback loops have been established between CX, product managers, and engineering. “We have to balance what our customers really ask for with the vision of where we want to go as a company.”

Christian is proud of how the team scaled support operations while laying a strategic foundation for CX. In the early days, complaints were high and expectations tough to manage. “The first two months that I joined this company, we received many complaints,” he recalls. “We are at a much better place now.”

The numbers reflect the shift:
“We had customer satisfaction trending at 78–79% and now we’re trending at almost 90. Our NPS was sometimes down to zero—now we’re at 30 to 35.”

Looking ahead, he sees great potential in AI—but only if applied responsibly. “AI is also less intelligent when it comes to sharing sensitive data. So a lot of guardrails—human guardrails—need to be in place in this evolution.”

His advice for others?
“Dare to take some calculated risks. Use technology in your customer-facing experience… combined with a human touch, it’s just amazing what you can do.”

Sirikit’s transformation approach rested on aligning the basics—shared customer profiles, a central feedback measurement framework, CX principles, and a strong internal network to keep things moving.

1. One shared customer view
   One of the early breakthroughs was aligning on a single set of customer profiles. “I found it incredible that people on the website team said they had a totally different customer than the service team,” Sirikit says. With the help of a research agency and colleagues from across departments, they mapped out overlapping insights in structured workshops. The result was a clear, shared framework based on the Mentality profiles, with simple names like the world-improver or the convenience-seeker.

“We introduced them in a big virtual session during the tail end of COVID—then played a round of petje op petje af to test the knowledge on the customer profiles and to make it stick.”

2. Fixing fragmented feedback
   Greenchoice had customer feedback pouring in—just not in a way that made sense. Sirikit brought all measurements into a single dashboard. That dashboard made it painfully clear: different scales, metrics, and formats meant results weren’t comparable. “That’s when I brought it to the leadership team. I said: we have a beautiful dashboard, but we can’t compare anything,” she explains.

With support from the C-level, she implemented a consistent KPI framework and transitioned from siloed reporting to one shared “meethuis.” The long-term ambition? “To report company-wide on NPS by 2026. Because with NPS, you can build real programs for improvement.”

3. Defining and activating CX principles
   Next came a set of four CX principles—simple, strategic guidelines designed to make it easier for teams to deliver great customer experiences. But rather than just share a slide deck, Sirikit turned the rollout into a game. “Think Pictionary, but with CX principles. It’s one big game board with questions designed to get teams thinking: what am I already doing? What could I do more of? What would I love to do in an ideal world?”
4. Building a CX team
   What began as a solo role quickly grew. As demand for CX support rose, Sirikit built a central team of specialists across loyalty, insights, automation, and employee experience. “There were so many good ingredients already—CX just needed a stronger central structure to support it.”
5. Growing a network of ambassadors
   Beyond the formal team, Sirikit nurtured a grassroots movement. “I collected CX ambassadors across the organization—people who were already naturally involved with the customer.” This was done through many network coffees, in company CX Masterclasses as well as a dedicated EX member in her team focused on improving the customer centric culture. These ambassadors became local champions for using the measurement framework and CX thinking. “That worked really well. In an autonomous culture, it helps to have someone in your own team who takes ownership.”

Sirikit leaves behind more than a strategy—she leaves behind a movement. A shared customer language, a common measurement framework, a growing ambassador network, and a CX game that will keep the conversation going.

Her proudest achievement? “That there’s a real CX department now. We started with nothing. And now it’s something that will last.

In May 2025 Sirikit started as Manager Customer Experience at UWV (the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency), ready to take on a new challenge.

Rather than grow by adding more of the same, FLOX focused on smart systems that preserve the personal feel. Here’s how:

• Customer-driven design: Customers now receive photo options of pre-designed bouquets—allowing FLOX to batch production while still offering personal choice if desired. Many companies actually enjoy being surprised and appreciate not having to think about it at all.
• Touchpoint refinement: A simple message after each bouquet swap—“Are you happy with the flowers?”—ensures quick feedback and continuous dialogue.
• Occasional extras: For new clients or special occasions, they sometimes add small gifts. “Nothing standard like wine,” says Madeleine, “but something special that fits.”
• Quarterly themes: Bouquets are updated every season, and FLOX leans into that rhythm. “Most clients love the quarterly switch,” says Marjolein. “They think it’s long in the beginning, but they’re always surprised when it’s time again already—it feels fresh every time.”
• Focus on B2B: Saying “no” was part of their growth. “We decided to focus on business customers only,” Madeleine explains. “That was a tough call, but it helped us grow smarter. We don’t offer subscriptions for B2C customers—still they can simply buy a bouquet (made to order) whenever they like

FLOX is now growing steadily, with a 45% revenue increase last year. And while they may not be the biggest in the market, they believe in the strength of their model. “We might not have the most bouquets,” Madeleine says, “but I think we have the best business model.”

Their proudest moment? That first delivery to a major canal-side office in Amsterdam. “We drove there in a rented van with coffee and snacks,” Madeleine laughs. “We looked at each other and thought—look at us now.”

As they scale, their north star remains the same: joyful, sustainable, and truly personal customer experiences—with a clear mission to make high-quality faux flowers the new norm for businesses.