SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Cloud for Customer, and SAP Marketing Cloud provide a 360-degree customer view at Plieger
Providing not only a pleasant, but also a personalized customer experience. This is not obvious when serving a very diverse business audience. Yet, Plieger Groep, a specialist in sanitary ware and heating, took important steps in this direction with SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, and SAP Cloud for Customer. SAP specialist Acorel guides them in this digital transformation.
Plieger Groep consists of Plieger, ThermoNoord, and Memodo. With 60 B2B locations and 20 showrooms for consumers, it is active throughout the Netherlands in sanitary ware, heating, installation, air & ventilation, electrical kitchens, solar panels, and energy storage. Customers are mainly installation companies, but also include project developers. In addition, Plieger is particularly known to consumers through its own Plieger brand, which is the third largest sanitary brand in the Netherlands.
The company aims to align the customer experience as effectively as possible with the individual customer through this wide range of distribution channels. This required a thorough revision of how customers interacted with the brand. Earlier this year, Plieger Groep began this transformation with a brand-new webshop based on SAP Commerce Cloud and a ordering app. "The webshop makes ordering faster and easier. And we continuously build on that in 3-week sprints. Ultimately, this webshop should evolve into a platform that can be used throughout the entire customer journey, for ordering, self-service, administration, and possibly even self-checkout in our locations," says Ids van Oversteeg, Director of Finance & IT at Plieger Groep.
One place for all customer data
The launch of the new webshop and app marked the beginning of a digital transformation. One that recently continued with the introduction of SAP Cloud for Customer. A welcome addition, but also an important foundation for optimizing the customer experience. "We now have an environment where all customer information will come together, instead of being scattered in, for example, email, calendar, and invoicing system. As a result, our account managers know much better what is happening with the customer. Moreover, this knowledge is no longer in the minds of a few, but we share it throughout the company."
In addition, Cloud for Customer provides practical applications. Plieger Groep records all interactions related to service requests and customer visits. Plieger also uses Cloud for Customer for managing prospects. "We now have much better insight into which customers have submitted which service requests," notes Van Oversteeg. "We didn't have that link with our previous ticketing system."
In addition to Cloud for Customer, SAP Marketing Cloud, Google Analytics, and Google Cloud were added to the application landscape. With these solutions, Plieger Groep can better align marketing activities with customer preferences and behaviors. "Based on data, we have defined a number of personas. Based on these personas, we approach customers directly if it is relevant to them: for example, offers in the product category they usually order in, alternative products, and related products."
360-degree view
The choice of SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Cloud for Customer as additions to SAP Commerce Cloud was not accidental. The solutions can be closely integrated and use a shared database. This creates a 'single source of truth', and all customer interactions on these platforms provide a 360-degree customer view. This comprehensive view is important for Plieger Groep. Based on that view, it can optimize the entire customer journey and better tailor it to individual needs.
Foundation for the future
With the three SAP solutions, there is a solid foundation for further future developments. Firstly, for further refining, automating, and personalizing the customer experience. But also for further optimizing internal processes. "We are currently looking at how we can simplify the onboarding of new customers with automation in Cloud for Customer. Also, approaching customers based on behavior and preferences should soon be done automatically on a large scale," says Van Oversteeg.
Trust
Since the beginning of the digital transformation, Acorel has been the SAP implementation partner, while the other partner, Dept Agency, takes care of more conceptual, design, and app aspects. "Working with Acorel is pleasant," notes Van Oversteeg. "Good knowledge of SAP technology, a true sparring partner, and always thinking in solutions."
Acorel and Plieger Groep deliberately chose an Agile-based approach where solutions and functionality were rolled out in phases. According to Joost Goudriaan, Account Manager at Acorel, this approach was even a key success factor. "We first laid a foundation, put it live, and then continued to build from there. This works much better in such a large-scale implementation than if you plan everything beforehand, develop it all, and then realize during implementation that the solution doesn't quite meet expectations."
The implementation was not without challenges; such a large-scale project always poses challenges. However, this did not hinder good collaboration. On the contrary, as Goudriaan points out. "It is an advantage that we have known each other for a long time. We can be open and transparent when it comes to expectations, and we trust that we will find a solution together in case of problems. We always find a way forward together."
