How can an industrial giant, known for its quality products position itself more as a service provider and effectively promote its service portfolio?

Situation

ABB is a pioneering technology leader, operating in more than 100 countries and employing around 147,000 people. According to its heritage and as 81% of revenues were still generated through the sale of products in 2018, ABB is both by customers and by employees mainly seen as a manufacturer of high-quality products. In the future, the importance of service is however rising, especially due to ABB’s increasing focus on digital solutions: With new digital offerings around ABB Ability™ great potential for additional service sales is created and ABB clearly wants to use the portfolio shift to position itself as a digital leader. To fully leverage this potential, ABB wanted to better understand its current service customer experience (service CX) and related issues.

Action

In collaboration with ABB managers, Globeone defined key touchpoints and the most important customer journey phases for the ABB service CX and verified them in an employee online survey. They then developed Frames of Reference that would help ABB employees to answer interview questions from a customer’s point of view. To get a thorough understanding of current issues and future potential, the consultants conducted a significant number of interviews with employees. Especially the importance and the effectiveness of current touchpoints within the existing customer journey was evaluated. Assessing also the challenges within the ABB service CX, specific hypotheses were formed and later verified in interviews with several customers across the world and across ABB businesses. Based on all insights, Globeone developed strategic recommendations to strengthen the service CX, but also developed hands on advice for improvement at every important touchpoint. To implement the recommended changes within the four ABB businesses, business specific insights and recommendations were developed to directly address relevant stakeholders and their needs.

Result

Based on the extensive amount of insights, various functions across ABB can benefit from the conducted research. Across the different businesses and in corporate functions, the insights can now be used to improve the future service Customer Experience across the customer journey. Additionally, Globeone’s recommendations can help to rethink ABB’s offering structure and to establish a clearer value proposition with service as an integral part to support the digital leadership promise.