Long-term customer relationships based on a spirit of partnership
We have structured our sales organization in such a way that we can serve our customers everywhere in the world at all times in a spirit of partnership.
Sustainable customer relationships are the basis for all our business, and have been for over 160 years. We employ a structured key account management approach throughout the company to look after our key customers. This means that our key account managers continually develop Siemens’ relationships to its most important customers and secure them over the long term, but we also ensure that our products and solutions are tailored to the size and regional site structures of our customers.
With our bundled industry know-how, our specialists can offer customers a comprehensive spectrum of solutions from a single source, taken from all the Business Units of our Company.
Worldwide customer support
Especially small and medium-sized enterprises and organizations – and they represent the majority of Siemens customers – benefit from our ability to provide local support through our large multinational sales force. Our Business Units around the world bear responsibility for their revenue and profits. They steer the national sales departments through regional Clusters and Regional Companies, thus ensuring that our business-specific sales strategies are implemented. Customers receive case-specific support directly from the headquarters of the respective units, particularly in connection with major contracts or large-scale projects.
This approach is supplemented by our Executive Relationship Program, in which all members of the Company’s Managing Board stay in direct contact with their allocated customers and maintain an ongoing dialog with them to ensure they are always familiar with customers’ needs.
Industry-specific support
In order to coordinate the worldwide, industry-specific management of key customers and take advantage of market opportunities, our key account managers work in cross-unit organizations set up in line with the different industries. In concrete terms, employees from a variety of Business Units come together here, concentrating on areas like the automotive industry, data centers or power utilities. With this approach, we can offer a comprehensive spectrum of products and services from a single source.
In addition, we regularly assess the strategic importance of the market opportunities available to our Company. The Siemens Sales Board determines whether the key account managers have met their targets and makes sure that within Siemens synergies in customer management are maximized.
Measuring customer satisfaction
Our business success is critically dependent on the satisfaction of our customers. For this reason, we measure customer satisfaction in every unit of the Company. During fiscal 2012, we used the Net Promoter Score (NPS) once again as a uniform standard for this purpose. This internationally recognized and commonly applied managerial performance indicator, which we determine annually on a worldwide basis by means of customer surveys, measures the referral rate of our customers.
Our internal NPS target system, which is based on business-specific, regional and industry benchmarks, is used to set target values for Sectors and Clusters.
The NPS for fiscal 2012 was based on the results of more than 24,000 interviews. We use the results to strengthen our customer orientation and develop concrete measures for improvement together with our customers, using their feedback as a basis.
This year, we managed to convert almost half of the customers who were dissatisfied in 2011 to "neutrals" or "supporters". When implementing measures such as these, we attach great importance to reacting to the information needs and comments of our customers. As a result, we have experienced an increase in the referral rate since the introduction of the NPS in 2009.
Our customer management system has also been recognized by outside institutions. In 2012, for example, Siemens once again held a leading position in Customer Relationship Management in the “Diversified Industrials” category of the SAM Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In addition, our customer management is also considered exemplary in the academic world – a position we have strengthened over the past fiscal year through four case studies with the renowned universities of Harvard, Columbia, Rotterdam and Mannheim.
2011-Feb-24 | Author
- Customers and portfolio - Management approach
- Overview
- Customer relationships
- Quality of customer support