Gowrie increased customer lifetime value by 25 percent over 9 month period

The client

Sourcing the best education for your child can be a daunting task and comes with a range of challenges.

Gowrie NSW is a non-profit organisation founded in 1940, providing diverse education and care, family support and professional development services to the early and middle childhood sector across NSW and ACT.

The team at Gowrie are experts in their field and provide support to families through every stage of their child’s development. However, as with any service, it is important that you as the customer feel confident and comfortable with the care your child is receiving.

Gowrie customer journey map artefact

The challenge

Gowrie doesn't need any help providing top-notch care to the children in their charge, but they want to make sure that the families of those children feel confident and comfortable with the service.

They came to us looking for a way to better understand the families they work with, and how they can improve their service to match the needs of those families.

An effective customer value proposition is critical to making any service provider stand out in a competitive market. And with the childcare industry becoming increasingly competitive, Gowrie wanted to make sure its proposition was as strong as it could be.

Proto Partners worked with Gowrie to develop a level of understanding that would help them understand their target market, and what they need from a childcare service.

The result is a customer value proposition that is clear, concise and tells the story of what makes Gowrie stand out from the competition.

Gowrie need states stack artefact

Insights today, confidence tomorrow

All customers have specific need states that they are trying to satisfy when they seek out childcare providers. And while some of these needs are universal (like safety and education), others vary depending on the customer's stage in their parenting journey.

We used these insights to develop a series of personas that represented the different types of families Gowrie serves. These personas helped us to understand the needs of each group, and how Gowrie can improve its service to match those needs.

Families want a childcare provider that will not only take care of their children, but also give them the peace of mind that their children are being well-cared for. Gowrie can provide this by communicating its unique strengths, such as its experience, reputation, and dedication to quality care.

By doing so, Gowrie will be able to attract more families and build loyalty among its existing customer base.

Gowrie CX principles artefact

Leverage the VoC to drive customer retention and growth

The voice of the customer (VoC) is a powerful tool that can be used to improve customer retention and grow your business.

Listening to what your customers are saying about your brand, product, or service can give you valuable insights into how you can improve their experience. Additionally, using the VoC to resolve customer issues quickly and effectively can show your customers that you care about their satisfaction.

Building a strong relationship with your customers is essential for retention and growth. By leveraging the VoC, you can create a better customer experience and develop a loyal customer base.

Redesigning with the customer in mind

Through our research, we were able to connect with Gowrie's customers and understand how they feel about their experience. We found that Gowrie's customers are highly satisfied with the service and support they receive.

However, they needed more support and reassurance to create the ideal customer journey. By offering the needed understanding, support, transparency, and assurance, Gowrie was able to continue to develop a loyal customer base that became advocates for its brand.

The VOC can provide valuable insights into what your customers think about your product or service, their level of satisfaction, and how likely they are to recommend you to others. These insights can help you make decisions about how to improve your product or service and the customer experience.

By amplifying the customer's voice, you can create a more loyal customer base and improve your bottom line.

Gowrie ideal journey book mockup artefact

The product is the story. The story is the product

Data might be the foundation of good CX design, but without effective interpretation, it's just a bunch of numbers on a page.

Gowrie has been collecting data on families and their childcare needs for decades. This wealth of experience, combined with our team of skilled CX designers, means that we are uniquely positioned to create products that meet the needs of families.

Rather than just data, Proto creates insights that are inspirational yet actionable.

We take a data-driven approach to customer experience, using it to identify key moments that matter and create experiences that are not only efficient but also emotionally resonant. Our team of skilled CX designers use their years of experience to create products that meet the needs of families.

This is the power of customer experience: taking data and using it to create insights that are inspirational yet actionable and ultimately resulting in products that meet the needs of customers.

Delivering phenomenal outcomes


“Working with Proto was a leap of faith, but they have become a major strategic partner in our CX evolution. The work they've developed and the way we've been able to embed it in the organisation has been absolutely phenomenal, and we're getting the outcomes we want.”

Felicity Clark
Felicity Clark Customer Experience Manager

Creating empathy to deliver outstanding results


“Proto were a pleasure to work with. They were adaptive and responsive, and developed a deep empathy for both the client and their customers. The quality of their products and services was outstanding.”

Michael Storey
Michael Storey Manager of Customer Research and Strategy at Sydney Water

Halving your customer churn


“Without the customer experience insights from the research program, we would not have been able to identify the acquisition issues that we had. Changes to the customer interactions that led up to financial protection have reduced the outflow rates by 50%.”

Felicity Rowcliff Dean
Felicity Rowcliff Dean Customer Centred Design Manager

Take your NPS score to the next level


“From an NPS perspective, I have gone Spinal Tap on you guys and gone to 11. I still think the work you did with us, the way you went about it and the deliverables amounted to one of the best pieces of consulting advice I've ever commissioned.”

Matthew Liebmann
Matthew Liebmann Former Chief Operating Officer

Enabling customer-centric design


“Over the last 18 months, we've constantly referred to the work Proto did for us when designing and developing all the improvements to the app we're making. We've found their work to be highly valuable and has resulted in significant improvements to the MyOptus App that, without their insight wouldn't have been possible.”

Lucy Turner
Lucy Turner CX Design Launch Manager

Exceptional prototyping


“The outcome of the prototyping has been exceptional and we continue to use the knowledge and expertise that Proto shared with us during their engagement. The icing on the cake for me was that Proto captured all of the insights from the customer workshops into an organisational asset that we now use as an integral part of our toolkit for training and briefing new team members.”

Sharon Nanetti
Sharon Nanetti Optimal Care Program Director

Prioritising what matters


“Proto's in-depth customer research helped us to uncover underlying customer needs that wouldn't have been possible without an 'outside-in' approach. The team identified the core customer problems and provided actionable insights that enabled us to remove key areas of customer friction and frustration and redesign a credit card experience like no other.”

Christian Johansson
Christian Johansson Head of Marketing, Customer Finance

Achieving a 20 point increase in NPS


“I have worked with Damian and the team at Proto for several years. In this time, they have worked collaboratively with us to build a roadmap of strategic 'outside-in' initiatives that ultimately resulted in a 20 point increase in NPS. They imparted a great deal of CX knowledge, approaches and tools that have been invaluable to the team and the business.”

Amanda O'Donnell
Amanda O'Donnell Head of Customer Experience

Insight driven, customer centric ideas


“Proto revealed and captured a ton of insights, putting Gumtree in a position where we can take our experience from good to great!”

Coen Horrevoets
Coen Horrevoets Head of Product

Award-winning customer experiences


“We won the AFR Smart Investor SMILES award for Best Online Broker. This award is based on customer voting and I believe this was as a result of a clearer focus on our existing clients which you helped us to understand.”

Arni Selvarajah
Arnie Selvarajah Chief Executive Officer

Design that reduces cost to serve


“The Proto team demonstrated flexibility in their approach which made such a refreshing change. They took the time to coach and mentor each of us in a highly creative and energetic environment. Furthernore, they helped us exceed our customer satisfaction targets, all whilst stripping out in excess of 20% of our service costs in under 12 months. Proto helped us to stay focussed on the customer which enabled us to win in the market.”

Matthew Anderson
Matthew Anderson Chief Operating Officer

Service innovation at scale


“We worked with Proto on an exciting & unprecedented challenge at Optus, to design the customer experience of the future. Damian & the team had high energy & together we operated as 'one team'. Proto worked hand in hand with us to bring the internal team up to speed, & also brought in global experts to work with us to take our deliverables to another level of quality & innovation.”

Dan Sunderland
Dan Sunderland Director of Customer Experience Strategy and Planning

Actionable Customer Strategies


“Proto developed a membership strategy that addressed points of friction along our members journey, identified opportunities to improve and clarified the types of engagement that our members needed at the different stages in their career. We were impressed with the depth of insight that Proto were able to bring to the project - as well as the energy and ideas that they helped to generate.”

Sarah Thompson
Sarah Prescott-Thompson General Manager Shared Services

A partnership for CX


“Working with Proto was very much a partnership. We worked hand-in-hand to put CX on the map within the organisation. The team are flexible, trustworthy and do what it takes to achieve the best outcome. If you’re looking for a quality agency, providing quality data and insights – Proto are your guys. We received over 90 initiatives from the project of which 79% have now been implemented and we are seeing the benefits flow through!”

Customer Experience Specialist

Unique Product Innovation


“Proto integrated into multiple simultaneous projects to ensure we achieved the best outcome. They brought real clarity around customer needs, the fundamental elements of our value proposition and provided a clear roadmap of where we're trying to get to. This allowed us to differentiate beyond the traditional proposition. As a result, one customer-informed initiative we developed was loanScore™. This unique innovation helps customers see how good their home loan is and evaluate their options for a better deal.”

Anthony Justice
Anthony Jusitce CEO