User centricity as a success factor at Festool
eStrategy Consulting Partner Cliff Pfefferkorn in conversation with Fabian Ertinger, Head of Online Marketing at Festool
User Centricity is a key factor for the success of almost all our projects and the cooperation with all our customers. In this interview, Cliff Pfefferkorn, Managing Partner of eStrategy Consulting, talks to Fabian Ertinger, Head of Online Marketing at Festool, about the strategic and operational implications of User Centricity for the online marketing of premium power tools.
What is Festool?
Festool is a German manufacturer of high-quality power tools for woodworking, painting and surface finishing. For more than 90 years, Festool has combined tradition, quality standards, and the ability to innovate, and has thus established itself as a top brand for professional craftsmen and ambitious private users, whose products are known for their high performance and reliability. Festool also lives up to this quality standard in omnichannel marketing and has achieved a top position in the industry in this respect.
Cliff
Hello Fabian, it’s great that you have time to talk to us about Customer Centricity. What do you associate with this term?
Fabian
Good question. The term is not easily defined. Aligning activities with the real needs of users, to start with the simplest of terms – but there’s a lot of complexity behind it if you want to do it right. To do this, you have to know your target group with all its needs: What do customers know about using the products, what is their daily work routine like, and so on. Only then can we continuously improve their customer processes through the right online initiatives.
Cliff
That’s right. Consistency is certainly a key concept here. What does customer centricity mean for Festool?
Fabian
Yes, this topic is essential for us. Online and omnichannel marketing has long been of central importance to our marketing, sales and service organization; “online first” has long been established. This has already led to significant successes; within the industry, for example, we are one of the leaders in terms of the digital transformation of marketing and communications. This is only possible if we put the customer at the center.
Within the industry, we are among the leaders when it comes to the digital transformation of marketing and communications. This is only possible if we put the customer at the center.
Cliff
We’ve spent a lot of time together over the past few months as we’ve helped you develop your long-term online and omnichannel marketing strategy. Let’s reflect once again on what you were initially concerned with.
Fabian
Festool’s aspiration has always been to look ahead, drive innovation and use it properly, with a very high quality standard. Quality is what our customers are used to from our tools, of course they expect the same from all online experiences they have with Festool. Omnichannel marketing, however, is not only becoming more dynamic and innovative, it’s also becoming broader. We needed a clear target picture to align our activities and also our investments, but also an elaboration of all facets that are necessary to implement and achieve the target, for example prioritization processes or the derivation of requirements for our IT and infrastructure planning. After a careful selection process we chose eStrategy Consulting for this task, you had the best approach for this task.
Festool’s omnichannel marketing portfolio has long included various service apps. A merchandise web store was also recently launched.
Cliff Pfefferkorn
Managing Partner
eStrategy Consulting
Fabian Ertinger
Head of Online Marketing
Festool
Cliff
Together, we very quickly developed two ideas that are the foundation of the strategy: Omnichannel marketing is about long-term, loyal relationships with leads and customers, along the entire lifecycle. And: knowing and serving the expectations of users, i.e. leads, buyers and users of Festool products, is a key factor for success. To that end, we walked you through a sophisticated process that allowed for granular and structured identification and prioritization of user requirements – the “Moments of Matter” – and enabled you to derive the right capabilities to build for operations and systems. What did that feel like for you guys?
Omnichannel marketing is about long-term, loyal relationships with leads and customers, along the entire lifecycle. And: knowing and serving the expectations of users, i.e. leads, buyers and users of Festool products, is a key factor for success.
Fabian
Very good! Of course it was very complex, but the fact that it was easy to grasp made it very manageable. In particular, we recognized which gaps we still need to fill. Because as a top brand, our relationships with our users really have to be about all the moments when our users expect support from us, from building the relationship to product advice, to service for owners and – very importantly – preventing problems. What was key was that we did this exercise cross-functionally, across all digital channels. This has made us more efficient; previously, we often dealt with our users’ requirements in a channel-specific way. But, of course, it can only be done cross-channel. Our customers don’t think in terms of channels either. What’s more, their customer journeys are always individual and situational. That’s why the operations and systems behind them must be designed in such a way that they can support all relevant channels and all individual customer needs.
It is also important that this user-centric process has also enabled us to derive for each identified customer value what business potential it holds for us as Festool. This enables us to increasingly view our necessary investments from the perspective of complex business cases.
As a premium brand, our relationships with our users must be about all the moments when our users expect support from us, from building the relationship to product advice, to service, and – most importantly – preventing problems from happening in the first place.
Cliff
As you mentioned earlier: If you deal intensively with your users and their requirements, the long and short list of projects naturally tends to become larger. This also applies to the underlying operational and technical infrastructure. What are your views on this topic?
When you are intensively involved with your users and their requirements, the long and short list of projects naturally tends to become larger. This also applies to the underlying operational and technical infrastructure.
Fabian
That’s true, of course! To overcome this challenge, it’s mainly about two things: clarity about what exactly it’s about and what you would need to build for it. And the ability to prioritize quickly and frequently, because of course you’ll never have the budget and capabilities to do everything – and you shouldn’t have to implement everything – and you shouldn’t. We have also laid a good foundation for the ability to prioritize in our project. Now we have to implement it consistently, which, as with any strategy implementation, will be a longer process.
Cliff
Prioritization is also something that thrives on the ability to measure success and on monitoring. Together, we have expanded our understanding of how we look at monitoring: What do you need to measure to know if you’re successful? What do you need to measure to understand what you need to do more or less of.
Fabian
Absolutely. The right focus is also important here: It’s not about measuring more and more, but measuring the essentials from which the important recommendations for action can be derived. This also helps us with the overarching goal of becoming more data-driven. Again, this is dependent on the operational and technical infrastructure, otherwise you can’t use data the way you would like to.
Cliff
For implementation planning, we used OKRs together, a method that you have been using in Festool Online Marketing for quite some time. We always like to work with it because OKRs help to clarify the necessary meaning and purpose behind a strategy and because you can track long-term goals, but at the same time create the necessary flexibility for adjustments, e.g. based on current project learnings and the corresponding standard reports.
Fabian
And because we naturally live the idea of “ownership”, which is so important to us at Festool in online marketing. We have a highly qualified team that finds good solutions very independently. Another good thing about OKRs is that they are very well suited for managing cross-team initiatives – this management is a particular challenge.
But to return to the topic of “user centricity”: After all, we first need to know what we want and need to implement in order to be successful for and with our users. That’s why the first step of requirements elicitation, which was as user-centric as possible, was actually a very good starting point.
Cliff
Fabian – thank you for the interview! I think all Festool users and fans can look forward to what you have in mind. Wishing you all the best!
Fabian
Thanks Cliff.
Short profile & contact – eStrategy Consulting
eStrategy Consulting helps clients to use digital innovations to further develop existing business models and to create new business opportunities. We support the retail industry in its further development towards omnichannel and connected commerce and count manufacturers, classic big box retailers, the retail real estate industry or digital marketplaces and platforms among our clients.
eStrategy Consulting covers the entire lifecycle of digital innovation, from analysis to ideation, solution development and market launch. We work as strategy and concept developers as well as seamlessly integrated and pragmatic implementation managers. To do this, we rely on a mix of methods from the world of digital business and classic management consulting. The focus is both on our client’s applying customers as well as his organization and skills necessary to operate.
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