Establishing a lead generation and customer experience unit at Geers (a Sonova brand)

Working closely with the team at Geers, a brand of Sonova, the leading manufacturer of hearing aids, we set up a company dedicated to digital customer experience in just six months. Today, Sonova Digital is responsible for the entire digital experience – from the data-driven acquisition of customers to supporting all channels up to the POS – and has created the blueprint for the international omnichannel set-up.

Customer
GEERS/Sonova

Industry
Hearing solutions/MedTech

Portfolio
#Organizational Development
#Pilot Testing

Challenge

As a Sonova brand, Geers aimed to become the leading digital player in hearing solutions in Germany and the blueprint for Sonova's global omnichannel set-up

Digital channels are becoming increasingly more important in the customer journey – and in analog products like hearing solutions. New digital-first players are now designing the customer journey almost entirely digitally and therefore meet the requirements of an increasingly younger customer structure. 

Our goal was to establish a unit that is unique in Europe and that would position Sonova and its brands as leaders in the area of customer experience for hearing solutions, in order to therefore guarantee and build on the existing market positioning and to implement new business models.

Solution

We digitalized the entire customer journey within six months: we established skills and infrastructure and founded a separate company.

In collaboration with the team at Geers, we defined the most important areas of activity based on an analysis of the customer journey and the system, to be able to map out all the customer touchpoints.

We digitalized the entire customer journey within six months – from customer acquisition and qualification to implementing a comprehensive omnichannel strategy, in which all touchpoints and systems in the customer journey are linked. To achieve this, essential skills were brought in house and a separate company with 22 digital experts was set up in addition to the necessary infrastructure, with the aim of being able to serve all the European markets. As part of the project, we were responsible for setting up the marketing, CRM and tech teams for the new digital unit.

We coordinated the IT integration and technical installation of a data warehouse, dashboard and direct booking tools. This gave the new unit transparency thanks to real-time KPI reporting throughout the entire customer acquisition process. We also took care of setting up the staffing. In six months, we recruited and trained more than 22 employees. While at the beginning, we filled interim roles from our own team, the new team gradually took over operations and designed/facilitated/implemented/took responsibility for the handover during the scaling-up phase.

„TLGG has done a great job of building up our digital business in just a few months. In January 2020, we started from scratch, and just one year later, a relevant share of our customers comes to our specialist shops via digital channels. We are now leading the German hearing care industry in implementing an omnichannel strategy and setting standards for the entire Sonova Group.“ Andreas Schmidlechner, Managing Director Sonova Retail Deutschland & GEERS Deutschland
Results

12 months after the launch, Sonova Digital is now the leading team for customer experience management for hearing solutions and has created the foundation for the globalization of the omnichannel set-up for Sonova and its international brands.

In collaboration with the Geers team, we defined the most important fields of action on the basis of a customer journey and system analysis to be able to map all customer touchpoints.  

Within 6 months, we digitized the entire customer journey – from customer acquisition and qualification to the implementation of a holistic omnichannel strategy in which all touchpoints and systems are integrated into the customer journey. To this end, important competencies were internalized and, in addition to the necessary infrastructure, a separate company with 22 digital experts was founded to serve all European markets. As part of the project, we were responsible for setting up the marketing, CRM and tech teams for the new digital unit. 

We managed the IT integrations and the technical setup of data warehouse, dashboard and direct booking tools. Thus, the new unit enabled transparency thanks to real-time KPI reporting along the entire customer acquisition process. We also took care of the personnel setup. Within six months, we recruited and trained more than 22 employees. While we filled interim roles from our team in the beginning, the new team gradually took over operations and managed/enabled/implemented the transition to the scaling phase.

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