Insights – Digital Customer Solutions
06 September 2024
Digitalisation is having a major impact on the entire business world today, especially on the way companies interact with their customers. For METRO, digital data and channels play a crucial role in achieving the goals of its sCore growth strategy. This is because digital solutions simplify the purchasing process for our professional customers both in-store and during delivery by streamlining processes and increasing customer convenience. But what data are we focussing on and how is METRO using these insights to make procurement even simpler and more efficient? Find out more in this issue.
“We want to reach our customers at the right place at the right time with the right offer”
As Vice President Customer Relationship Management, Tino Hölters is responsible for customer relations at METRO, while Roland Maisenhälder is responsible for the development of digital customer solutions as Vice President Customer & Sales Solutions at METRO DIGITAL. Ideal dialogue partners to talk about the role of data for METRO and digital applications such as M.Shop or M.Companion.
When it comes to digital customer solutions, what differentiates METRO from other companies in the trade sector?
Tino Hölters: First of all, METRO is a wholesale company serving B2B customers. Their purchasing needs and behaviors are very different from those of B2C customers, which are more driven by ads, discounts and special offers. This difference is certainly reflected in the design of our digital solutions. Moreover, compared with other players in the trade industry, one unique strength is customer data as all our customers purchase from us with their customer card. So we know our customers across all the touch points, online and offline. Naturally we benefit from such data as it allows us to understand our customer, their needs and behavior better. This creates a solid foundation for customized digital solutions.
How does METRO leverage such data to strengthen its customer relationship?
Tino Hölters: Customer master data, behavioral data, transaction data and other data such as from the Net Promoter Score all flow together into one central Customer Data Platform (CDP). This is the crucial data backbone and basis of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With the help of machine learning, the data is evaluated and analyzed, revealing insights on our customers across the entire customer life cycle. Thanks to this, we are able to acquire precise knowledge of our customers’ needs, their purchasing behavior as well as the challenges they need to cope with. Such insights in turn enable us to reach the respective customers at the right place at the right time with the right offer and to make the daily work of them much easier with personalized and automated solutions
What kind of customer insights do you particularly rely on in this process?
Tino Hölters: It is the customer purchasing behavior that we essentially focus on, because customer segmentation is no longer based on static segments, but on behavior. We don’t primarily look at the type of hospitality business, but we take a close look at their behavior across all touchpoints.
With this approach, customers are grouped according to their behavioral patterns rather than whether they run a pizzeria, or casual dining or a café, for example. This is because we can then better anticipate their future purchases and therefore provide better recommendations based on their purchasing patterns. The findings from these analyses are applied at all customer touchpoints – for foodservice delivery, for in-store purchase, but also in personalized communication.
Roland, can you explain how those insights help you to develop more effective digital solutions?
Roland Maisenhälder: At METRO DIGITAL, we develop digital customer solutions with the primary purpose to ease customers’ life so that they are more efficient in their operations. The expansion of digital order channels primarily features two key apps: M.Shop for ordering and delivery and M.Companion as customer app for in-store purchasing and experience.
We enable 24/7 online ordering via M.Shop or as a native mobile app. Those are the key digital tools for our Food Service Distribution (FSD). Currently, than 50% of all FSD purchases are made through M.Shop which makes it a very crucial gateway to our delivery business. The entire range of our FSD assortment is available through M.Shop, individual offers for respective customers are displayed and orders can be saved, repeated or adjusted on an individualized basis. This means that our knowledge of the individual customer, his needs and purchasing behavior flows directly into the app and translates into offers and functions.
The same applies for the native customer app M.Companion, which is already used by 1 million users every month and offers various features for purchasing at their local METRO store and enhancing their in-store experience. For example, the app allows users to check the latest offers, create their purchase list, check availability and stock of the concerned products and manage their invoices, among other functionalities. In addition, FSD customers can use the app to place personalized orders easily with the METRO delivery service.
Talking about personalized communication, does data also empower your sales staff when visiting the customers?
Tino Hölters: Yes, indeed! The sales team who visits customers on their premises also benefits directly from the insights: With the help of the digital tool called M.SAM, the sales representative not only finds out which customers they should specifically visit, but also makes individual recommendations and customer-specific prices for certain products or groups of products. This makes it much easier to identify and tap sales potential and those field visits become more efficient and targeted.
When it comes to in-store customer experience, what about features like self-scan or the digital shopping cart which are becoming more and more common in the retail business?
Roland Maisenhälder: We are experimenting with various technologies in order to optimize all customer touchpoints. As Tino told earlier, the processes in B2B wholesale are different to those in retail due to the volume of shopping baskets, the purchasing frequency, contractual relationships, etc.
We are already using Scan&Go via the M.Companion app in selected countries and markets with a very good usage rate. However, there are also limitations here, as scanning products by the customer themselves is only possible to a limited extent for bulk purchases by B2B customers.
For these bulk purchases, we are envisioning Supersmart validation stations, which use a combination of scanning, AI-driven image recognition and weighing the shopping cart to identify the shopping baskets.
Digital Customer solutions at METRO
Digital channels and solutions play a crucial role in METRO’s wholesale strategy and in practice across multiple touch points with customers on daily basis. As opposed to conventional print catalogues, the company increasingly relies on channels such as email, SMS or whatsapp to run its marketing campaigns with personalised offers and recommendations. In 21 countries, since the launch of digital marketing automation, a total of about 600 million emails and 120 million SMS have reached customers in targeted and effective manner.
METRO provides its own customer app “M.Companion” to enhance the purchasing experience and to provide more ease and comfort for its customers. The digital account is linked to the customer’s METRO membership, but the mobile app offers a lot more features than the plastic member card. For example, customers are able to create a purchasing list before the store visit, browse the assortment digitally, see the latest offers, check stock availability or self-scan the purchases for fast check-out (in selected stores) and have all invoices digitally saved. Overall, already more than 1 million customers use the app each month.
Moreover, customers who use METRO’s Food Service Distribution (FSD) can switch on the dedicated online ordering channel called M.Shop directly in M.Companion, with about 30% of delivery orders placed through the app. Alternatively, customers can log in to M.Shop on their desktop to access the entire FSD assortment, complemented by personalised prices and offers. Currently already more than half of METRO’s total delivery business is generated through the M.Shop channel, which processes 80,000 orders each week to ensure high performance of the delivery service.
M.SAM is the central sales management platform to support METRO’s sales team for both on-site visits and customer contacts from the back office. Thanks to M.SAM, METRO’s sales specialists are able to identify the potential of theconcerned customers and thus prioritise and support customer contacts accordingly. When they visit customers on site, empowered by the insights from M.SAM, they are able to provide high quality consulting with individual prices for products and based on specific channels such as delivery or in-store.
Facts & Figures
