A New Model for the Customer Experience Center

A fully-immersive experience to impress sophisticated, high-tech clients.

The heart of Celestica’s new customer experience center is a glass-enclosed, circular room known as the Gallery. When a client walks in, the lights are dimmed, the glass turns opaque and a high-end audio/video system turns the room into a form of theater-in-the-round, immersing them in Celestica’s customized presentation.

Toronto-based Celestica, a design, manufacturing and supply chain company, set a high bar for the center. Its clients are among the biggest technology companies in the world—a target audience that is not easily impressed. Celestica was rebranding, emphasizing its design and creative capabilities, and the team wanted the customer experience center to promote a new image and showcase their ability to work as a design partner with the tech companies. They wanted a space where they could present what they do and how they do it—transforming the image of the company in a dramatic fashion.

The new facility brings Celestica’s global business to its clients. Instead of making a trip to Thailand or Ireland, the client can tour a foreign operation through an immersive, 360 tour. And next to the Gallery is a space known as the Design Garage, an informal space where designers and engineers can come together and roll-up their sleeves to develop solutions for their business.

The design is all about serving Celestica’s very specific customer-centric approach. The entire center is customizable and easily adapted to the client. Colors and logos throughout the site can be adjusted, and all digital content can be programmed for a particular message. Celestica’s client meetings can last for hours. There needed to be spaces for people to lounge, socialize, build rapport and forge trust.

The final result is a space that meets the client’s goals, but goes a step further. It is a dramatic center, offering a completely different customer experience. But it is also efficient, emphasizing Celestica’s core values of collaboration and state of-the-art design. Each space serves a purpose toward the larger goal.

This story originally appeared in the first edition of Catalyst, a quarterly publication that takes a deep dive into the new ideas, industry leaders and cutting-edge initiatives changing lives by design.