Expert Interview with … Markus Widmer, Mondi Group

We had the pleasure of chatting to Markus Widmer, Head of Customer Experience at Mondi Group, about what an ideal omni-channel strategy looks like in a B2B setting, how to make remote interactions feel as intimate as in-person experiences, and his priorities and challenges for 2023.

What do you feel are the key challenges your company faces in 2022?

In the wake of the pandemic, our market is changing at an unprecedented pace. This leads to many challenges, especially on the supply chain side, but there are also opportunities for the businesses that are ready to face them. From the marketing and sales perspective, data integration across our marketing and sales platforms is an ongoing challenge, and this becomes even more pressing with the impending death of the cookie. Finally, we need to make sure that our digital campaigns are scalable and flexible enough for those changing markets.

What are your top 3 areas of focus in 2022 and why?

For my area of expertise, the focus areas are extending our voice of the customer programme, ensuring the flow of data across platforms to enable more teams across the organisation to make data-driven decisions, and finally developing customer experience from being the name of one team into a philosophy that drives the entire sales and marketing organisation.

What does an ideal omni-channel strategy look like in a B2B setting?

An excellent omni-channel strategy means that you can easily exchange channels. Think about your audience and your content first. If you have that perfect Venn diagram of the right content for the right audience on the right channel for your brand, that is when the magic starts to happen. Next to that, I think it is obvious, especially for B2B marketing, that we need to focus on first-party data. For us, it is not just about being ready for a cookie-less digital world, but also about being in touch with the people who use our brands, irrespective of where they are buying.

How do you make remote interactions feel as intimate as in-person experiences?

You have to talk to people as human beings, it is actually not that hard. Knowing your audience is a key factor, but also having a great facilitator who can keep a conversation flowing naturally. The problem with most webinars, as with most meetings, is that people think that clicking through PowerPoint slides is enough. In many cases, having a panel discussion with just the visuals of individual cameras is much more engaging. Finally, I think it is important we use the tools of a remote call to make a session as interactive as possible. Why even have a chat if you do not involve your listeners and engage with their questions? Also, please buy a decent headset.

How are you transitioning your sales team from order takers to value-adding order makers?

Thinking in terms of specific customer journeys of specific personas for specific brands instead of just the “sign the deal” phase has changed the game for us. We had to change or tools, processes and KPIs in order to learn more about our personas’ needs in the different phases of the customer journey, improve the flow of data in our organization, and make sure that everyone knows their contribution to positive customer experiences. That is a total transformation, and we are not done yet.

To find out more, view the full agenda here.