Delighting Customers Is a Strategic Imperative

The PPD Clinical Research Business of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 2025 BEST Award Winner, #12

Waltham, Massachusetts

5-Time Winner

A key business goal for the PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific is to enhance relationships with customers by taking a more proactive and solutions-oriented approach to customer engagement. That strategy was the focus of a learning initiative called Customer Delight.

The contract research firm provides clinical development and analytical services that enhance customer innovation and productivity. Using patient-centric strategies and data analytics, the business covers several therapeutic areas and includes early development, all phases of clinical development, peri- and post-approval, patient recruitment, investigator sites, and comprehensive laboratory services.

Customer Delight's goals include defining a consistent approach and common language to apply in the customer service moment and building an emotional connection between employees and the clients with whom they interact.

The shift and the training effort received support from the highest levels of the organization, with senior leaders and executives championing the work of trainers and reinforcing why the initiative was important to global business strategies.

Customer Delight is an initiative colleagues created for colleagues. For more than a year, a group of employees from different areas of the business worked on strengthening the program. The team conducted comprehensive surveys, individual and group interviews, as well as multiday development workshops. The goal was to establish a shared understanding and language among staff for Customer Delight. That development process itself was culturally transformative for the business, the company reports.

In the early stages of developing the initiative, the team agreed it was essential to embed and integrate learning into the flow of work. At its core, the program is about evolving the employee mindset from a process- or contract-centric approach to a customer-centric approach.

Much of the shift focused on the language, and the team integrated that language into onboarding and existing training programs. Incorporating the program into the workflow of employees included creative tactics such as a Customer Delight screensaver for company computers, which helped teach standards and behaviors to more than 35,000 employees and kept the concept front and center throughout the workday.

The team also created a website with a variety of resources and tools, including micropodcasts on service topics and interviews with key leaders, trainers, and colleagues. The language of Customer Delight became a staple in division town halls, department meetings, and team gatherings. The company published articles promoting the initiative's principles in business newsletters; consistent messaging through other business platforms helped reinforce concepts.

People leaders received additional training on leadership behaviors that support the program's focus: communication, role modeling, coaching, and recognition. Leaders also received conversation starters to use in one-to-one meetings with their employees.

Training effectiveness data shows that more than 80 percent of employees understand and are embracing the Customer Delight standards, which is yielding positive results with the business's customers.

View the entire list of 2025 BEST Award winners.