Igniting the Fire: How Plecto Changed Sales Culture at the World's Largest Security Firm

Company Background

With over 120 years of experience, G4S is Denmark’s oldest and largest emergency response company. Acquired by Allied Universal in 2021, G4S boasts over 800,000 employees globally and an annual turnover of 18 billion DKK ($2.6 billion). The security giant safeguards customers in over 90 countries, with the Danish branch headquartered in Albertslund, near Copenhagen. Since its inauguration in 1901, G4S has maintained its reputation for cutting-edge technology and unparalleled customer relationships for both private and business clients.

The Challenge: New Department, New Goals

Nina Michaelsen joined the Danish branch of G4S in February 2020 to assume management of the newly formed Sales & Retention department. Nina welcomed the opportunity to create a new team workflow by using Plecto’s dashboards and data visualizations.

Previously, sales agents “could talk on the phone with some of their clients, but they were not so used to getting measured on direct sales, on direct orders, and all the meetings that they booked,” Nina says. So the timing was ideal to restructure G4S’ approach to data and performance visualization.

But February 2020 wasn’t just Nina’s first month on her new job–it was also a month before the world turned upside down in the COVID pandemic.

How did Nina’s new department cope with these tumultuous changes? Turns out, Plecto played a major role in helping the Sales & Retention team get through those difficult times–and it’s remained a crucial component of the team’s toolkit ever since.

The Solution: Plecto for Team Motivation

At a time when so many aspects of work were uncertain and employee morale was often low, Plecto proved to be an invaluable resource to motivate G4S’ sales agents, boost their self-confidence, and even inspire their competitive drive.

“They got an immediate reaction up on the screens–you can put in a funny video or something if you complete an order,” Nina says. “They actually thought that was pretty funny and it just motivated them a lot.”

Plecto’s dashboards thus afforded G4S’ teams a sense of normalcy, a vital aspect of retaining the daily work routine while the world was shut down.

“Instead of having Plecto on the TV screen, you can have it on your computer, so that was business as usual for a long time,” Nina says. “So a normal routine when we were working from home during COVID times was that we opened our computers, opened our email, and then picked up the telephone.”

Now well into the post-pandemic world, Nina says Plecto has remained an integral component of G4S’ office culture.

“You just have the Plecto dashboard here for all your colleagues and your division, so it really is a part of the everyday routine. It’s pretty integrated right now.”

Growing with customers

Over the past few years, Plecto dashboards have played an important role in assisting G4S to develop its customer growth strategy.

“We are looking into the customer journey that we can create for existing customers to reward loyalty. Also, of course, it’s pretty exciting to sit and watch these kinds of projects,” Nina says. With this in mind, many of G4S’ dashboards are focused on meetings: booked, held, canceled, and postponed.

Dashboards can display G4S’ sales segmented by type and number of products, or any other criteria deemed relevant, so the sales team can have a better understanding of how to target potential customers.

Besides sales, the telemarketing and customer service teams are the biggest Plecto users. However, because Plecto is implemented through the entire G4S office, it allows for collaborative projects across multiple departments.

Data for dummies

Nina emphasizes one of the core aspects of Plecto usage is the ease with which it allows data to be accessed and modified. With a low barrier to entry, Plecto allows anyone to analyze and present data–even novices to data analysis.

“I’m not the best one in the company, but I think I can do something with Sheets and Excel,” she says. “What comforted me a little bit, when coding in another system and doing some formulas, was that Plecto reminded me so much of sitting with my Excel sheets.

“That felt pretty comfortable for me, because if you need to learn something brand new, and you need to code in a system that you don’t even know, and you’re maybe not a programmer or educated within IT, then it’s pretty difficult for a normal person. It can be quite overwhelming.”

Plecto’s customizability features have also made sharing data with stakeholders far easier, Nina says.

“The features when we have status meetings and project meetings, when we wish to put something out to the sales agents, or we need to look at the data sources or formulas–it’s been very easy for us to describe an issue we have if we can’t create a solution ourselves.

“So yeah, it has just been pretty easy to make adjustments along the way.”

Because Plecto allows reports and other data to be uploaded automatically, this has proven to be an important way to optimize operational efficiency, especially when uncovering particular data points, Nina says.

“Sometimes I use Plecto as an extra source, sometimes finding a solution to a problem, or it could also be for the management presentations when we have all the middle management together. So to have that automated is just such a time saver.

“Plecto has really helped me understand the importance of data,” she adds. “If you show employees or stakeholders an Excel sheet, then they’re just like, ‘Oh I'm so bored, yeah I’m asleep already.’ Actually, I understand that pretty well!

“But if you have a presentation mode, then I think Plecto is the perfect tool to use when you need to explain difficulties and to create an understanding of what’s important.”

The Results: Igniting Employee Performance

Plecto’s most important function in G4S, however, might be the same that so many other firms have praised it for: the ability to inspire sales agents to perform their best.

“It’s always easy to do reporting and crunch data in Sheets or Excel, but as soon as you visualize the sales agents’ results in the commercial department, there is this ignition that just sets the agents on fire–in a good way of course!” Nina says.

“We want them to increase their performance, and we have been using Plecto in the performance management dialogues we have had with our agents.”

Ultimately, Nina has nothing but praise for what Plecto has inspired within her sales team.

“I think Plecto managed to find some people with the ignition to make a difference for the clients, and I have the greatest amount of respect for the customer journey–from a small agreement to a bigger one, and the support and the help and all the deadlines I’ve been through with your customer managers. It has been very great and we are pretty satisfied with it!”

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Or get inspired by these dashboard examples:

Real-time KPI Dashboards for Security Firms | Dashboard Examples from Plecto

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*Disclaimer:
We are committed to data privacy. All dashboard images in this blog post have been provided by our customer, G4S. Names, identification photos, and some data have been altered for security. Plecto does not access customer dashboards without written consent.