In this interview, he is one of the top speakers to talk about what companies need to consider when it comes to customer integration and how they can learn from their customers through new technologies. This is the start of our annual theme for 2015 and, in an exchange of experts with our dialog and project partners, we discuss how the Internet of Things, together with touchpoint management, can create efficient product innovations and marketing-oriented services.
doubleSlash: As an expert in customer integration, you deal on a daily basis with how companies can integrate customers correctly and in a way that adds value. What is your personal definition of the term?
Nils Hafner: "I look at how we can integrate the customer into processes. On the one hand, this can be the sales process, e.g. by generating recommendations. The customer has a very strong position here nowadays. The better you integrate customers and their experiences into management, the more successful you will be. That is one definition. The other refers to generating information by involving the customer in the innovation and service process. This is a very important point—Keyword sales service or 'customers helping customers'. There are sectors where this works relatively well, e.g. computer hardware and software. But there are also some that tend to struggle, such as health insurance. With the term customer integration, we have opened up a broad field that is currently quite modern."
doubleSlash: So would you say that not every industry is suitable for customer integration?
Nils Hafner: "It depends a bit on the culture. In many companies, asking the customer and sharing processes with the customer is not part of the culture. You need a certain degree of openness. Most companies stand in their own way."
doubleSlash: We are looking at the topic of 'Internet of Things' as an opportunity for customer integration. Thanks to new technologies, companies now have the opportunity to get feedback on product usage from customers quickly and easily. Do you believe that networked technologies can make a meaningful contribution to customer integration?
Nils Hafner: "Definitely. The question is—as with every project in the direction of customer management and customer integration—what the added value is for the customer. We need to consider what information our customers also consider valuable. This can be purely factual information. But it can also be very emotional reactions, such as the car showing what the customer looks like in their car on the navigation system display when starting up. You can do great things there."
doubleSlash: So you agree with the theory that networked customer integration technologies provide a decisive advantage?
Nils Hafner: "Definitely. We can learn a lot more about our customers, but of course it has to work both ways. Over the last five years, we have learned at our university that customers are very aware of the value of their information. And if their data is now being collected everywhere, it tends to make them suspicious. They ask themselves: 'What's actually in it for me? ' Companies have to have an answer to that nowadays."
doubleSlash: So companies that collect their customers' information have to generate added value for them?
Nils Hafner: "Absolutely. I think that people are fundamentally afraid of asymmetrical power relationships. And it can be scary to imagine that—data is collected at every turn without informing the customer and then combined with their other behavior. I believe that one success factor is to show openly and transparently what the advantage of this data collection is, e.g. that the customer is addressed emotionally. But you also have to give them the opportunity to say 'no'."
doubleSlash: So the customer must have the choice of whether they want to be integrated at all?
Nils Hafner: "Of course. The aim is to have sustainably profitable partnerships with our customers. What we originally defined in customer relationship management must be the overall goal. The exciting question is how to achieve this—especially the trust component."
doubleSlash: There is probably no standard recipe for this. Every company has to find the right way for itself.
Nils Hafner: "Yes, of course. I have to ask myself the right question: What do my customers want? I have to be able to very systematically gather the customer's concerns and benefits. You can then align the customer integration strategy with this."
doubleSlash: Is there also resistance when a company decides to implement the customer integration model? How can these be overcome?
Nils Hafner: "The question here is not just whether the customer wants it, but whether the company is also in a position to handle the resulting complexity. Let's take the popular refrigerator example: We have a networked refrigerator. It automatically reports when which food has expired or is no longer available. It's not just the refrigerator that provides added value, but also the local retailer, logistics service provider and the customer, who has to establish access to this refrigerator. This brings us to three potential obstacles that show just how complex such considerations actually are. Customer integration usually has a lot to do with networks and the management of network capability. There are certain obstacles, or at least obstacles of a logistical, intellectual and partnership nature. So, as a refrigerator manufacturer, we will probably have to enter into many more partnerships in future in order to really deliver the added value to the customer that is associated with this."
doubleSlash: We have already mentioned this: There are numerous benefits for customers when they are integrated into processes such as product development or the Service Circle. Which do you think are the most important?
Nils Hafner: "That is relatively individual. If we stay with the refrigerator, it is of course convenience. With cars, it's an emotional advantage. It depends very much on the business model. The customer integration tools offer a wide range of advantages, especially when addressing target groups. Because I have more information, I can target my customer groups and systematically answer the key question: 'What's in it for me? ' I have to be able to answer this for each of my customer groups! If I can't do that, it automatically follows that the system I've come up with doesn't actually have any added value."
doubleSlash: How do you approach a customer integration concept like this? What are the key things that need to be considered? What questions do companies need to ask themselves?
Nils Hafner: "The key question is: What do I want to read about my customer service, my products or my sales team in the newspaper in five years' time—and in which one? I can then develop my ideas based on this question. It has to be something that really differentiates. If a newspaper reports on it, then it has to be successful. In other words, differentiation and commercial success are the starting points.
But you also have to think about other things: What do I have to do myself? What can I do through a network or what can my customers do themselves? In other words, you have to ask yourself who delivers what value proposition and, above all, what combination of value propositions? That is what will define the market position in the future."
doubleSlash: Does that mean that the success of companies in the future will depend largely on differentiation?
Nils Hafner: "Yes, of course. That is certainly the prerequisite for even thinking about something like customer integration. Unless it's just about making processes cheaper and shifting service onto customers. But we've seen enough of this in terms of 'self-service' over the last 15 years and customers are tolerating it less and less."
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