At Cygnific, we believe that delivering great service starts from within. Exceptional performance is rarely the work of a single team, it is built through ongoing collaboration across departments. Learning & development (L&D), Recruitment, IT and Operations work closely together to ensure Brand Ambassadors are well prepared, supported and aligned with the realities of the floor from day one.
This article explores how internal collaboration shapes the training and development of Brand Ambassadors (customer service agents at Cygnific), highlights a practical example, and outlines the principles that make collaboration effective in practice.
A shared approach to onboarding
The onboarding of new Brand Ambassadors begins with close coordination between teams. L&D works with Recruitment to align intake timing and expectations, helping ensure that training programmes match both the recruitment flow and the profiles of new hires.
Operations and Quality contribute by clarifying what effective performance looks like in practice. Together, teams define the knowledge, skills and behaviours colleagues need to get started. IT supports this process by ensuring systems, tools and access are in place, allowing new starters to find their way quickly and confidently.
To support this collaboration, several structured touchpoints are in place:
- Intake conversations for training requests
- Reflection moments with planning and recruitment
- Check ins with Team Managers before and after training
These moments help keep learning aligned with operational needs and realities.
As Matthias Doorn, the Manager of L&D reflects:
“As I look back on the past year, the highlight I’m most proud of is how we collaborate as a global organisation. Onboarding our new hires is not just an L&D effort; it’s a shared responsibility across teams and countries. With the higher volume of new hires over the last couple of months, we delivered training together with colleagues from NL Operations and our worldwide L&D team in the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Manila. This global partnership has shown our resilience in how, despite challenging conditions, we help each other out and act as one connected team to keep onboarding new hires moving forward.”
This shows how onboarding is truly a shared responsibility, and how collaboration across teams and countries helps keep learning relevant and consistent.
Aligning teams to deliver effective ORC training
A clear example of collaboration in practice is the development of the Online Reputation Coordinator (ORC) training. This programme was shaped together with operations, knowledge management, quality assurance, training and the ORC team.
Feedback from colleagues showed that, after earlier training, practical questions remained around expectations, escalation and day-to-day decision making. This pointed to a need for closer alignment between training content, processes and documentation.
Through joint sessions, teams explored:
- What quality means in an ORC context
- Responsibilities across teams
- Gaps in system knowledge that affected learning
- Feedback from Brand Ambassadors, gathered through roundtables, to refine training content and materials
This collaborative approach helped create more clarity around roles, escalation flows and monitoring, while strengthening the connection between learning and daily practice.
Learning that evolves with practice
To keep learning relevant, L&D works closely with operations and performance coaches to gather insights from the floor. Reflection moments shortly after training help identify what translates well into practice and where adjustments are needed.
Feedback from coaching, quality assurance, floor support and training evaluations is reviewed on an ongoing basis. When gaps or mismatches emerge, training content is adjusted accordingly. In this way, learning programmes evolve alongside changes in the operation.
Collaboration as an ongoing effort
Matthias Doorn, L&D Manager:
“For me, collaboration isn’t something we achieve once, it’s something we keep building and strengthening together. Every moment of friction helps us understand each other better, align more closely, and grow stronger in how we communicate and plan. We still have steps to take as a global team, and what matters most is that we stay curious about one another’s needs, reflect on how we work, and remain committed to taking those next actionable steps together.”
This perspective underlines how collaboration at Cygnific is approached, not as a fixed outcome, but as a continuous process of learning, reflecting and improving together.
Using feedback to adjust and improve
Feedback reaches L&D through various channels, including:
- Surveys
- Evaluations
- Audits
- Operational input
Where relevant, this feedback is incorporated into training updates, while taking global guidelines for specific clients into account. Tools such as Airtable help structure intake, follow up and evaluation, making feedback easier to track and translate into concrete actions.
Working together, step by step
Collaboration across teams is supported by:
- Shared responsibility
- Clear communication
- Open feedback
- Simple processes
Flexibility and trust make it possible to respond to changing needs without losing sight of quality.
Rather than aiming for a finished state, collaboration at Cygnific remains a work in progress, one that helps keep learning practical, aligned and closely connected to the daily experience of Brand Ambassadors.
Conclusion
Collaboration at Cygnific is less about perfect execution and more about connection, alignment and shared responsibility. By working closely across teams, learning programmes stay practical, relevant and adaptable to the realities on the floor. Every reflection, touchpoint and feedback loop strengthens the way teams prepare and support Brand Ambassadors, ensuring that service excellence is built together, step by step, both locally and globally.
