Customer Connection Firm Mingle Launches in UK

In the UK, long-time industry execs Morgan Arnell and Craig Scott have set up a new company called Mingle, helping businesses connect better with their customers through face-to-face interaction.

Arnell began his career at Procter & Gamble, after which he served as Head UK Consumer & Channel Insight at Boots Healthcare International; and Research Director, Global Innovation at Allied Domecq. He then joined Kimberly-Clark, where he was European Insight Lead, and most recently he founded and ran ROI optimisation and customer understanding specialist IO Consulting. Scott also worked at Kimberly-Clark, where he was European MR Manager, and also served as European Insight Director at Johnson & Johnson;Marketing Capability Director at Brand Learning; and Head of Research, Europe at Pfizer. Most recently he founded MR consultancy Greensand, working with clients in the medical device sector.

The new firm's founders say customer knowledge often lacks 'cognitive empathy' - the human type of understanding that comes from direct, first-hand experience of spending time, face-to-face, one-to-one with customers. To facilitate this, the firm organises one-off events, designed to get an organisation out and 'mingling' with their customers. It also provides a longer-term programme made up of ongoing activities to help clients develop a customer-centric culture. Short training events round out the offer, to give employees the skills to get the most out of their 'mingling' - from interviewing skills to discussion guide development.

Arnell comments: 'Whether it's a one-off company event or embedding an ongoing programme of customer closeness, our clients have been consistently delighted at how much better customer-informed they are generally and how much better customer-informed their projects are specifically'.

Web site: www.mingleconnections.com .