Case Study: Republic Services (RSI)

Republic Services (RSI) is a US-based waste management and environmental services provider that has expanded through acquisitions over the years. The company serves a wide range of commercial customers spanning small, medium, and large organizations across various industries.

Republic Services recently embarked on a digital transformation journey to improve process efficiencies and create greater value for customers. The organization sees an opportunity to transform its business to provide a unified and enhanced customer experience by delivering a best-in-class digital experience for B2B customers based on current platforms. The primary areas of focus are around self-service & support, ecommerce, guided selling, and the onboarding experience.

Republic Services engaged Merkle B2B to establish and define an actionable future state roadmap for enhancing the digital experience based on current technology and data stack, but also considering planned initiatives. The Merkle B2B team will provide recommendations for prioritization of web and mobile self-service and B2B eCommerce content and features including definition of feature roadmap for future releases.

To achieve the overarching goal of customer experience transformation, insights gathered by B2B International were required to obtain a deep understanding of the current and desired future state of the customer experience from both and internal stakeholder and external customer perspective.

A collaborative effort between Merkle B2B’s different solution teams was employed to deliver an end-to-end solution for RSI. This included teams from digital solutions strategy, digital transformation, digital experience and activation, all underpinned by strategic research and insight delivered by B2B International. Each Merkle B2B team played a key role while also working closely together to provide RSI with a robust, tailored, and unified solution.

B2B International was responsible for infusing actionable customer intelligence into the program. The insights objectives were to establish a clear view and deep understanding of the customer journey by mapping out:

• Key touchpoints in the customer journey across physical and digital channels
• Moments that matter and pain points
• Informational needs at key stages of the customer journey
• Areas in which digital solutions could enhance the overall CX

To provide a holistic view of the b2b customer experience, we engaged with both internal (stakeholders) and external (customer) audiences:

• Conducted internal stakeholder interviews across several functional groups such as sales, digital, customer support, and operators to provide an updated view on changes to the CX over the last 3-years

• Facilitated a customer journey mapping workshop with the core client team to identify and prioritize which
  touchpoints to focus on

• Conducted telephone interviews with small, mid, and large commercial customers to help bridge the gap between the current state and desired future state of the CX

The joint effort between Merkle B2B’s different solutions teams enabled RSI to continue pursuing its digital transformation strategy to enhance the customer experience. Insights from B2B International added value to the overall program by providing VOC (voice of the customer) insights into the design and development process ensuring digital solutions are meeting customer needs, improving upon the customer experience and differentiating from competitors.

This integral research step in the overall workplan ultimately helped the Merkle B2B team and client align on areas to prioritize for the CX/DX redesign which would lead to the development of wireframes and a roadmap for digitizing key touchpoints of the customer experience.