Saint Gobain - Registration document 2016

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2 ONE AMBITION: TO IMPROVE THE WELL-BEING OF ALL
4. Proximity to customers
38 SAINT-GOBAIN - REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2016
The Group’s Activities have all strengthened their marketing
teams to organize these kinds of surveys and especially, to
respond to them. They have also created customer
experience manager posts whose role is to adapt the
organizational structure to make it more responsive to
address shortcomings.
LOCAL SERVICES 4.2
Using digital technology to increase 4.2.1
customer loyalty
development of the whole area of communication via the
Internet and social media.
Saint-Gobain’s interactions with its customers in the broadest
sense (direct or indirect, actual or potential) through the
Group’s different Activities number in the millions each year.
This number is increasing by 10% a year as a result of the
This provides a challenge for the Group: in many cases,
“contact” no longer takes the form of a scheduled, physical
meeting, but is made via the Group’s websites or via social
networking, at the customer’s instigation. In 2016 alone, the
number of contact requests via the web was more than
150 million!
commenced in 2016 and are ongoing:
individual contact requests. Two background tasks were
Clearly, in-person meetings with direct customers remain a
crucial form of contact, but there is a need to develop a
digital strategy that allows the Group to capitalize on all the
the Group;
updating the Group’s websites is crucial, to provide visitors ‹
using fixed or mobile devices with a high-quality
experience that they find useful and which encourages
them to extend their visit to the site. In this vein, the UK
site for Celotex and the majority of Weber’s sites have
developed content to drive sharp increases in the number
of visits and in the conversion rate from visit to sales
contact - the very purpose of the majority of sites that are
not online stores. This is the approach adopted throughout
the Building Distribution Sector has created ‹
better-designed, simpler websites to extend e-commerce
to all of its brands, in the majority of its countries of
operation.
In both cases, data analysis is fundamental in developing the
sites in the direction that visitors wish to see. A central R&D
team focuses specifically on helping the Activities to make
the necessary cultural adjustments.
helps the Sector to develop services, particularly digital
services, which support the customer in their journey. For the
Group’s most important market in terms of net consolidated
sales, residential renovation, a number of digital services have
been developed to streamline the experience for
professionals, but also for private individuals managing their
own construction projects:
This background work improves customer proximity and
sites with photos to inspire private individuals who are ‹
planning renovations;
such as Glassolutions’ LitePoint application and ISOVER’s
F4 configurator;
rapid diagnostics and layout tools for trade customers, ‹
Smartphone applications for professionals, for rapid ‹
ordering from distribution brands, such as the Point.P
application.
less costly than measures for winning new customers.
The ultimate aim of this work is to increase customer loyalty:
firstly, because a loyal customer spends more on average
than an average customer, but above all, because effective
customer loyalty and retention measures (regular interaction,
effective services, etc.) are acknowledged to be considerably
New concepts 4.2.2
This marketing strategy of customer interaction using new
digital and data analysis tools allows the Activities to develop
new concepts, either in market segments identified by means
of this strategy, or by improving customer satisfaction at
various points in the value chain.
renovation project in touch with professionals, with the aim of
improving the level of satisfaction on completion of
renovation works amongst customers who are “project
owners”.
For example, in July 2016, Saint-Gobain Distribution Bâtiment
France launched the omni-channel platform Homly You, an
intermediation service to put private individuals with a
system) and automatic ordering. The streamlining provided
by this approach (with a single point of contact and stock
management) means a considerable time saving for these
business’ owners.
In the automotive market, the Abrasives Activity offers a
package of services for garages and body shops in the US
under the name of Saint-Gobain Refinishing Solutions Group,
distributing a range of products and consumables in addition
to the products that it manufactures itself. The product line is
supported by automated stock management (via a barcode
Lastly, a “comfort package” was developed in partnership
with Norgehus, Norway’s leading builder of single-family
homes, under the name of MyComfort, by Saint-Gobain.
Norgeshus’ customers buying a house from the catalog have
the option of ordering a MyComfort, by Saint-Gobain
package, as priced in the catalog.
This pull approach, where the end customer is presented
directly with the value proposition from a group that is
focused on user comfort and wellbeing and sustainable
development, leveraging the Saint-Gobain brand, is set to
develop strongly in 2017.
and trade names, makes these new concepts more effective.
The complementary nature of the Group’s Activities, brands