Paşabahçe
78% buy-in to a customer-centric shift. 2,564 comments shaping what came next.
Paşabahçe had decided to become a more customer-centric business. The question was whether its international distributor network understood the shift and was ready to move with it. Independent listening across annual meetings and trade fairs gave leadership an answer it could act on.
The question they came with
Paşabahçe is one of the world’s largest glassware manufacturers, exporting to more than 140 countries. To compete more effectively, the business had decided to shift from a product-led operation to a more customer-centric one. That strategy had to travel through its distributor network. Before it could succeed, leadership needed to know whether distributors understood the shift, where the information gaps were, and whether buy-in was real or merely polite.
What they were hearing: positive responses in annual meetings and trade events.
What they needed to know: whether that positivity reflected genuine alignment or simply good manners in the room.
What happened
Q&R designed an eight-question independent programme for Paşabahçe’s Annual International Distributors Meeting in 2019, reaching 45 distributors with a 46% response rate. The work was then extended to trade events in Europe and the USA, with surveys sent to customers before and after attending Ambiente and NY Now in 2020. Across those two events, 1,465 people were reached with an average response rate of 24%.
Quantitative ratings and qualitative comments were captured together. Across the full programme, 2,564 comments gave Paşabahçe a detailed picture of distributor sentiment, understanding, and readiness to change.
The outcome
78% of distributors expressed buy-in to adopting the customer-centric approach following the Annual Meeting. 2,564 comments were captured across the programme, helping to shape Paşabahçe’s customer-centric strategy.
What Changed Because of It
Paşabahçe gained clarity on two things a boardroom discussion could not have produced: how well its distributor network understood the new direction, and where the information gaps were that needed closing before the strategy could take hold.
The written comments were not supplementary data. They were the strategy material. Responses from distributors and customers across international markets showed leadership what was understood, what was not, and what needed to change in the way the company communicated its direction to the people responsible for delivering it globally.
That intelligence shaped the customer-centric strategy itself, not just the communications around it.
Proof Back
Participants were told their responses were being used to shape the strategy and the way Paşabahçe would work with its network going forward. That mattered.
It changed the status of the exercise from a survey to a genuine act of listening, and signalled that the company’s commitment to hearing its distributors properly was real rather than procedural.
The Method, in One Line
This followed the Listen Better Loop: independence, judgement, follow-through, proof back.
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If you are making a strategic shift and need to know whether the people who must carry it with you actually understand it, start with a call.