“The partnership between Salesforce and CMA CGM, two leading players, grew naturally. Our journey began five years ago with an initiative on the Customer Experience program. The first step was to familiarize ourselves with the business lines, processes and solutions in place. The Group had a very low level of digitalization at the time – customer requests were managed primarily by email. Covid-19 highlighted the urgent need to digitalize our Customer Care processes, for example by making it possible to respond to customer requests from home, and giving managers a clearer picture of what was going on during that unprecedented situation.” Julien Lombard, Senior Account Executive at Salesforce
Better way story
A more modern customer experience: customized digital solutions at every step in the supply chain
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Digital technologies are a powerful driving force in preparing for the future of shipping and logistics. At CMA CGM, we offer our customers #betterways solutions to help them on a daily basis at each stage of the process, for a smoother, more intuitive customer experience. By listening more closely to what our customers have to say and instantly taking their feedback on board, we develop solutions tailored to their needs while expanding our range of services offered online. A revolution for the industry!
A number of digital innovations have been rolled out over the last five years, allowing for considerable progress to be made and establishing the CMA CGM Group as one of the leading names in digital technology in the shipping and logistics industry.
While customer experience was already a key issue before the Covid-19 pandemic, the health crisis has undeniably acted as a catalyst that brought it to the fore in digitalization processes. As a result, the need to offer a seamless, end-to-end digital experience has become a priority for CMA CGM.
We believe in “Taking care of our staff members so that they take care of our customers.” By focusing on this symmetry of care, we are able to offer more ever effective and higher-quality interactions. For example, we have launched concrete initiatives concerning our employees (new working methods, new tools, etc.) and our customers (joint design of products and services, etc.) to pave the way for new developments, address the challenges that lie ahead, and improve the shared experience.
#1 The early stages of the CMA CGM Group’s digital transformation
A complex and under-digitized environment historically focusing on commercial activities
Shipping and logistics play a significant role in our day-to-day lives: 90% of goods traded are transported by sea.
However, the industry has long been complicated and under-digitalized, with a focus on commercial booking. This is because of the vast amount of goods being transported around the world, the growing number of parties involved, traditional customer service being limited to long exchanges by email, and paper-heavy customs procedures with little or no operability. Things are now changing in line with customers’ expectations and needs, which are no longer what they used to be. We are witnessing major technological shifts in the industry and the emerging standards are closer to B2C.
Against this backdrop, CMA CGM stands out as a pioneer in terms of digitalization. Since being appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group in 2017, Rodolphe Saadé has made digitalization and digital transformation one of the core aspects of the Group’s strategy. Over the last few years, we have made considerable investments to accelerate our digital transformation and achieve our main goal: ensuring customer satisfaction.
Putting ourselves in the customer’s place to optimize the CMA CGM experience
Five years ago, we carried out a general review of our customer experience, which identified the steps where expectations are highest, as well as pain points and areas for improvement. That led us to launch the Customer Experience program, which aims to reduce the customer effort required for a more user-friendly experience.
From their log-in area, our customers use filters that make searches easier and mean they spend less time navigating.
The omnichannel strategy implemented fosters better customer service, smooth interactions and end-to-end interconnected intelligence.
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#2 The CMA CGM x Salesforce partnership: it’s a match!
CMA CGM has chosen to work with Salesforce as part of its Customer Experience program. The journey began five years ago, but the health crisis has accelerated the digitalization process and customer care has become a top priority for the Group.
We have defined a comprehensive approach centered on the voice of the customer and an end-to-end solution spanning marketing automation and analytics. Surveys have been conducted to measure satisfaction with our Customer Services. We have brought every department on board around engagement and the customer experience, familiarizing them with the different physical and digital channels and guiding them through all steps in the process.
CMA CGM has undergone a major transformation and is continually looking for innovations and improvements to its customer and employee experience.
CMA CGM offers its clients a personalized digital journey
#3 Seamless logistics solutions: the need for an improved customer experience
Supply chains have been particularly strained over the last two years, leading to major shifts in consumer patterns. We have seen e-commerce take off on a global scale, which only confirms the need to digitalize our interactions through to the end consumer. Our customers now demand instant, high-quality information and personalized customer care. The CMA CGM Group led the way with the rollout of its Customer Experience program, which is based on six pillars specifically designed to optimize the experience of our customers and staff members.
This trend has cemented the Group’s digital ambitions and confirmed the value of the NOVA project launched with Salesforce before the pandemic. A 360° approach to customer needs has become essential, and data quality and accessibility are key.
“The NOVA project allows for all our business activities to be integrated into a single platform, with an approach centered on both users within the Group and our customers." explains Laurent Bernardin, Vice President, Head of Digital Transformation & Digital Customer Engagement.
#4 From NOVA Care to NOVA Business: a customer-centric strategic move and more!
Focus on the NOVA Care project
The NOVA Care project was initially launched with the aim of better handling interactions with customers across all channels. Users are demanding greater transparency and more information about their bookings – prices, an overview of the transport solutions available, various documents, etc. It’s essential to provide clear answers to their questions. And with good reason. More than 240,000 customers use our website every day.
They need to be able to track their bookings and progress in a way that makes the experience more user-friendly, which we have achieved by revamping certain features. A few years ago, all contact was by telephone or email, which made it more complicated to accurately track bookings. Thanks to NOVA Care, our customers can now access their personal online area and chat directly with the right person. This saves time and improves efficiency like never before.
“NOVA Care allows us to offer both our customers and our staff members a smoother, simpler and faster experience. The main aim is to create a chain that allows for symmetry of care: we offer our customers a better experience because they don’t have to worry about going through a complicated process (who should we call? which country?), with a single chat window that lets you talk to the right person, the right agent, who in turn enjoys a smoother experience than without the software.” Nicolas Manjarres, eCommerce & Business Data Management, Digital Agency.
From NOVA Care to NOVA Business
The CMA CGM Group recently launched the NOVA Business project to take the transformation of customer relations even further. The aim is to gain deeper overall customer insights to improve quality of service. NOVA Business puts the customer at the heart of the sales strategy, through a 360° view and prescriptive analytics. The results of data analysis are used to improve performance beyond the booking process and optimize how selling time is allocated through automation and digitalization. CMA CGM takes care to guide customers through the entire sales process and boost its lines’ efficiency through simpler interactions. With this new project currently under development, the Group has demonstrated its dedication to offering its customers #Betterways solutions.
“NOVA Business allows us to offer our teams a collaborative sales platform that gives them a 360° view of customer activity and enables them to manage their day-to-day business. It digitalizes the customer relations process from end to end, interconnecting different Group business lines such as CEVA and CMA CGM AIR CARGO. The NOVA Business project involves 4,300 people.” Laurent Bernardin, Vice President, Head of Digital Agency & Digital Customer Engagement.
#5 Co-developing a digital solution: it’s a match again!
It’s good to listen to the customer, but it’s even better to incorporate them into your digital strategy. While CMA CGM has long taken the approach of listening to customer feedback, our vision has evolved considerably over the last five years. Having been too far removed from a customer-centric approach, a change of tack has been taken, to work with customers from the outset. It is with this in mind that the Group’s e-commerce teams launched the digital joint development project.
The methodology consists in bringing customers on board as stakeholders in a unique project. The aim is to create an active customer community focused on improving the user experience by giving them the chance to test out features that could be implemented in the future. The prototype is currently being tested in their log-in area, where they can judge ease of use, correct use of options, etc. It enables them to play a part in the process of making corrections and changes. This interactive platform was created to improve the customer experience and provide a venue for customers to share their views and feelings: Is the experience straightforward? Will the new features lead to efficiency gains? The main goals of this digital solution are to optimize time spent on the platform and enhance performance. These objectives drive the entire process from end to end. At each stage, from navigation to confirming a booking, has the customer enjoyed greater efficiency and saved time? That’s the question!
Interview with Julien Lorenzo and Marc Folliot
“During the initial test phase, we carried out a major recruiting campaign. The Group recruited customers who wanted to work with CMA CGM to develop the features of the future. A large number of customers quickly put themselves forward. We had more than 21,000 clicks on the recruitment pop-in to test out the interactive platform and around 1,600 applications in the space of two weeks. In the end, 800 customers were selected representing all types of user profiles: importers, exporters, shippers, etc.” Julien Lorenzo, eCommerce Manager, Digital Agency UX
“Our customers have been incredibly enthusiastic about this project. Their level of involvement has been both a pleasant surprise and a challenge. The first step is to bring customers on board, but then they have to pinpoint what they find useful and continue to collaborate with us over the long term. We now need to build our community to ensure that this co-development culture remains active.” Marc Folliot, eCommerce Senior Manager Digital Agency Product Line
#6 Symmetry of care: our watchword
“NOVA has helped us a lot and changed how teams work, but most of all how teams are managed. NOVA has provided benefits for customer but also for managing teams within the company.”
Peter Smidt-Nielsen, General Manager Spain.
A win-win approach for employees and customers. What could be better?
CMA CGM has completely overhauled its customer relations by offering new means of interaction and developing new products and services, with symmetry of care taking pride of place.
But what does that expression really mean? Symmetry of care is by definition a mutually beneficial customer and employee experience. It is a way of moving forward together in a way that benefits both those inside and outside the company.
The CMA CGM Group is an exceptional entrepreneurial venture that began 43 years ago in Marseille. With operations in over 160 countries, 400 offices and 750 warehouses, it was essential for us to roll out more agile working methods and develop effective, user-friendly software that employees can learn quickly.
At CMA CGM, we work on the principle that a happy employee means a happy customer. Employee engagement is therefore an important and ongoing priority for the Group. Digitalization also helps engage our employees by simplifying how they work and automating some of their tasks. Employees also have access to a wide array of training programs offering personalized career pathways for sales and customer services teams.
Symmetry of care is essential to the success of a digital transformation project. The NOVA program has enabled us to revolutionize the customer experience to better understand their needs and ensure customer satisfaction, as well as to improve the user experience of the Group’s 160,000 employees by involving them right from the design phase. The process needs to be simplified and intuitive, while also encouraging people to work together. Silos are a thing of the past, which is why the NOVA program makes so much sense – it interconnects the Group’s business lines, such as CEVA, CMA CGM AIR CARGO and Colis Privé.
Making things easier for our staff allows them to focus on their value-added tasks for customers, develop customized solutions and offer ever more innovative services. This symmetry of care is therefore key to CMA CGM’s strategy and the Group’s core values. Employees’ professional development and growth are one of the cornerstones of the strategy led by Rodolphe Saadé.
“We have really made a quantum leap in how we communicate with our customers about these digital solutions. It’s a major change that has unfolded over the last two years. We have created human value within our teams, whose work has more meaning from both a professional and personal standpoint. Customer value and employee value co-exist. We create value for the customer and also create value for our staff. I think that everyone who has been involved in this process is really pleased and other employees working on other projects want to contribute. We’ve truly achieved symmetry of care.” Nicolas Manjarres, eCommerce & Business Data Management, Digital Agency
In a world where supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and customers’ standards are rising, it’s crucial to simplify routine tasks in order to better anticipate customers’ needs and offer them real added value. It therefore seems essential to digitalize the process for everyone involved – in a sector with many stakeholders – and adopt systems for sharing data with ease between partners, customers, local authorities, etc.
CMA CGM has set concrete goals and has already launched structural transformation projects (methods, tools and technologies) in line with the new standards, which address the challenges of tomorrow and improve the customer and employee experience. A great example of this is the current initiatives involving customers beginning in the design phase of digital services. By creating a real user community, the Group is charting its own path and showing its determination to refocus its strategy on its customers. We can’t wait to see the results!
Exploring the digital transformation of the CMA CGM Group with Laurent Bernardin
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