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Customer centricity: Vision for a successful future

Interview with Jürgen Höfling

The CWS employee magazine
01/2021

The corona pandemic is changing the world – we are experiencing this in our private life as well as in the business environment. Many of these changes will continue determining business life after the pandemic as well, with customers expecting digital solutions, transparent offers and quick reactions. The megatrends of hygiene and sustainability are of greater importance than ever before. Now it is important to use this development as an opportunity for CWS and to focus even more sharply on current customer needs and requirements. Now for a look at some of the projects and initiatives that are in progress to this end – starting with an interview with Jürgen Höfling, CEO of the CWS Group.

What is customer centricity all about?
We aim to win and retain our customers as business partners in the long term. We will only succeed in this if we offer them excellent service, become more flexible and make it easier for them to access our services. This also involves pursuing new digital approaches.

Keyword digitisation: what has the COVID-19 pandemic had for an impact in this context?
The pandemic has boosted the trend towards digitisation, though this was of course already in progress before the outbreak. in the course of the lockdowns our customers have found that many processes require less time and costs when done digitally. They will not want to do without these advantages after corona. It is with this in mind that we already started giving our Sales department digital support and establishing new ways of working in mid-2020.

Jürgen Höfling, CEO of the CWS Group

In other words: we have to see the world more through the eyes of our customers?
That’s right. In contact with each of our customers we need to take their perspectives even more on board than we have done to date. Our customers expect reliable service, high quality and delivery reliability from us – and rightly so! This dependability must be and remain a top priority. We also intend to make better use of what we know about our customers and understand exactly what is needed. By these means we are then able to offer fully customised solutions with accordingly tailored service. The customers see that we know them, their needs and requirements and that we are there to support them.

What objectives does CWS have in mind with the new strategy?
As we see it, 2021 is all about customer centricity. That is our strategy and our vision for a successful future. We have largely worked through our list of necessary internal measures. Focussing our attentions entirely on our customers now puts us firmly on track towards expanding our international market leadership. I think this is an objective well worth going for.