Case Study: Brenntag

When Brenntag approached us in 2016, they had an aspiration to change the way they carried out their business.

Products were becoming more and commoditised, and the role of distributor was increasing squeezed between manufacturer and customer.

Chemical distribution was and still is a very traditional B2B market, but as with most markets’, expectations were starting to change. Brenntag wanted to be at the forefront of this change and for the very first time in its one hundred plus years history started to think about Service Excellence as an opportunity for differentiation.

The chemical distribution market is very fragmented where Brenntag is one of only a few major players. Whilst this has its advantages, it meant Brenntag could not offer the same level of personal service as the smaller players in the market. This, and operating in a market where the afore mentioned commoditisation was occurring, was making it more and more difficult for Brenntag to be commercially successful.

Brenntag’s overarching aim was to develop an insight program which put the customer at the heart of everything it does, by providing Service Excellence to every customer, every day. As part of the insight program, Brenntag also required a research partner to ensure all customer feedback was collected in an independent and impartial manner.

We needed to understand the business as a whole and understand which customer interactions (or touchpoints) really were making the difference. Following a Pan-European customer journey mapping workshop, a set of overview questions were put together to get a true benchmark of how Brenntag were meeting expectations. Over the 4 years, not only has the initiative evolved from telephone depth interviews to more pulse interviewing around specific touchpoints in the customer journey, but together we’ve developed dashboards and closed-loop systems that allow the Brenntag CX team to quickly keep their finger on the pulse of customer sentiment and act quickly on any customer feedback that is gathered.

Acting on customer feedback which we collated is where Brenntag’s CX programme has truly been innovative and creative, as the CX steering team have coordinated various internal working groups to continually review the data and make any necessary changes, be they small or large. The company has changed the focus of the business from being a product-led business to a solution led business, developing sector propositions specific to material science, life science and the environmental sector.

On-time and in-full deliveries are one of the most important ‘moments of truth’ for customers and so from the customer feedback Brenntag invested in their Mobile Delivery Management System, which gives a fully transparent digital view to customers, giving real-time feedback around the delivery and collection process.

One of the key drivers of customer loyalty is the technical knowledge of individuals. As a direct result of customer feedback, Brenntag Technical Services department was launched and has made a massive impact on customer loyalty and thus their NPS scores.

Finally, with environmental and sustainable issues being at the forefront of all businesses; Brenntag used the voice of the customer to understand what was important around their packaging and developed the returnable packaging option to all customers.

Specific to the UK, the NPS has risen from a score of 7 in 2016 through to a score of 63 in May 2020! This is not surprising based on the fact that Brenntag continued to invest in their CX program during the COVID-19 crisis with a view on the long-term service strategy whilst others in the sector cut back to protect short term profits. This decision to focus on Service Excellence during the pandemic was not only noticed by customers but the CX industry itself with the Service Excellence initiative winning a UK CX Award in 2020.

Due to the success of the CX programme in the UK and Ireland initially, we continue to work with Brenntag, and the research programme has now been rolled out across more than 40 countries.