Acquiring new customers? Automatically!

Not all sales are directly between the manufacturer and the customer. In fact, a good 70% of products are sold by retail partners. One company that takes this approach is the Geberit Group, a global manufacturer of bathroom products who works closely with the specialist vendors who sell its products over several stages. As part of this relationship, the Geberit Group actively puts new customers in touch with its retail partners. Particularly in the age of digitalisation – with all of its new communication and consumer patterns – this leads to a rise in marketing requirements.

Geberit realised this early on and has been using new media for some time. As such, digital marketing is nothing new to the company. However, one area of uncharted territory for Geberit is the strategy of specifically addressing potential end customers throughout the entire customer journey and encouraging them to make a purchase.

But how should an increasing number of customers be attended to individually and economically in an ever increasing number of digital channels? The answer? Digital marketing automation. We created precisely this type of intelligent system for Geberit: it collects data from end customers on an ongoing basis, consolidates it into clusters, uses it and then performs automatic actions.

We developed this bespoke marketing automation solution for Geberit using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement platform as our basis with some complementary Azure components. So, what does this look like in practice? A typical example: A potential customer is on the Geberit website using the Inspiration Tool to find ideas for their new bathroom. Our system collects this data. Depending on which specific products or solutions they are interested in, our marketing automation solution then defines the next steps in their customer journey. This means that the customer receives further information in line with their individual preferences by e-mail or post, is called by one of Geberit’s advisors and finally is put in touch with the relevant Geberit retailer’s showroom. All of these actions are triggered automatically – depending on the end customer’s interests and preferences. During this process, the system continuously collects new data so that the advice given to the customer can be better tailored to their needs.

Geberit does not just use our marketing automation solution for current business; it also uses it to launch new products or run sales campaigns. Planning could not be simpler thanks to our solution. To achieve this, we developed a graphical interface that enables marketing processes to be designed as workflows in a few easy steps. This interface is made up of a front end built in Angular that serves as a workflow designer and a service for the workflow engine. Analysis and success monitoring are just as simple as planning. Everything is visualised in clear structures, which means that potential improvements can be detected straight away.

Our system not only enables Geberit to attract more end customers in what is known as a lead nurturing process, it also delivers genuine added value and customised information – all in a fully automatic process. Since it went live, our solution has sent as many as 40,000 customised e-mails in less than 6 months and prepared 200,000 equally customised letters ready for sending. We are also continuing to support Geberit because our solution provided the impetus for a new way of thinking and new marketing processes within the company.

The international Geberit Group is the European market leader for bathroom products. Be it complete bathroom suites or sanitary engineering and installation technology – customers always receive carefully tailored solutions. As an integrated group, Geberit has a strong local presence in most European countries, enabling it to offer unique added value in the field of sanitary engineering and bathroom ceramics. It has 29 production plants, 6 of which are located abroad. The group’s headquarters are based in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland.