Michelin is the proud winner of a 2020 digital acceleration award Michelin has just received an award at the “Grands Prix de l’Accélération Digitale” organized by BFM Business in the “transformation of customer relations” category. An interview with the Group Chief Information Officer and the Group Chief Digital Officer. October 8 2020 Imprimer The “Grands Prix de l’Accélération Digitale” (digital acceleration awards) organized by BFM Business are intended to “put a spotlight on the best digital acceleration practices by recognizing the most ambitious, innovative and bold digital transformation projects. Frédéric Simottel - Editorialist, BFM Business Questions for Yves Caseau, Group Chief Information Officer and Eric Chaniot, Group Chief Digital Officer. You are Group Chief Information Officer, what does this award mean for the Michelin teams? Yves Caseau : Well, obviously we are very proud! Michelin kicked off a far-reaching digital transformation five years ago and this award recognizes the hard work put in by many teams worldwide. I can point to the fantastic collaboration between Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, IT, digital and many other departments. And I have to say it encourages us all to keep up the good work! We have seen the first results but the digitalization of our customer relations is far from over: a lot of great projects and successes still lie ahead. Yves CASEAU. Sequana le 3 mars 2011 As Group Chief Digital Officer can you explain why the arrival of digital technology is such a good opportunity to optimize customer relations? Eric Chaniot : In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, the world is fast tracking to digital. For example, in the past three months, e-commerce has grown the equivalent of 10 years! The younger generation cannot live without mobile devices and our B2B customers expect the same services in the workplace as they do at home. This includes amongst others: more self-service, availability of information in real time etc. Digitalization provides a unique opportunity for Michelin to get to know their customers better and provide them with customized support. Can you tell us about your “Engage” program which impressed the jury? Y.C : The name speaks for itself. We are trying to increase the intimacy between our sales forces and their customers via the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program. The slogan adopted is “make it better to work at and with Michelin”. This explains the success of this program: the symmetry of attention on both customer and employee experience. We have decided to use a modern cloud-based solution offered by the CRM market leader, salesforce.com. Our teams have created a digital ecosystem where everyone involved in customer relations (Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, the customers themselves whether they be dealers or end users) can have real-time access to the same customer data via smartphone/PC/tablet. Sharing and analyzing this data makes it possible to respond more efficiently to our customers’ needs and offer a more personalized response (e.g. Marketing Automation campaigns, Case management, cross selling). What do you think made all the difference between Michelin and its competitors? E.C : Our President, Florent Menegaux, and our Executive Committee decided to kick off this digital transformation five years ago which gave Michelin a head start over its competitors. As I often like to say, Digital Transformation is 95% people, culture and mindset and only 5% technology. Our ability to put people first in this transformation is one of our strong points and the key to our success. Engage is a customer-based approach allowing us to connect with them, linking up our various departments (sales, marketing, customer service) to offer them better overall service. Can you tell us what Michelin plans to do next to build on its customer relationship? Y.C : I would say first of all that we are stubbornly continuing to simplify our processes to offer better service to our customers and make life easier for our employees. Top quality service is the mantra we live by. Our goal - which we are doing our utmost to achieve - is to become a data-driven company, i.e. a company capable of making use of the data collected across all its activities (R&D, manufacturing, supply chain etc.). E.C : Yes, managing our data will bring its share of opportunities. For example, we are currently working on a method for optimizing our customers’ tire inventories. We are also speeding up our e-retail, e-commerce and cross-selling initiatives across our different business areas (Tires, Services and Solutions, Experience, High Tech Materials). It is already the case with Michelin, NexTraq and Sascar - soon to be joined by Masternaut. Michelin completes the acquisition of sascar 03/30/2023 | PDF - 167.83 Ko Michelin to Acquire NexTraq, a Telematics Provider, from FLEETCOR 03/30/2023 | PDF - 458.12 Ko Michelin announces its acquisition of Masternaut, one of the largest European telematics providers 05/16/2019 | PDF - 313.36 Ko Careers for women in industry Read more 3rd Quarter and 9 Months 2020 Sales Publication Read more
