Global Companies discuss delivering great Customer Experiences

Over the last months, SDA Bocconi’s Digital Strategies Soundtable (DSR) has addressed a number of topics whose importance has grown enormously during the pandemic, with none more pressing than the topic of “Delivering Great Customer Experiences”.

During a two-day online session, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and their executive sales, marketing or commercial colleagues from the Airline Reporting Corporation, the American Bureau of Shipping, Chevron, Conagra Brands, Eaton Corporation, Owens Corning, Tenaris, Tetra Pak and US Foods met to discuss the challenges of providing superior customer experiences in today’s environment. They were joined by Associate Professor of Practice, Hans Brechbuhl, and Professor of Management and Rector of Bocconi University, Gianmario Verona.  

As we know well by now, the pandemic has accelerated all aspects of corporate digital transformation along. In the ongoing quest to understand and get closer to the end consumer and drive purchasing behavior, finding creative ways to influence the customer is essential. Both B2C and B2B customers are in search of, and expect, rich digital content, and customers arrive at the first real interaction with a company much more knowledgeable than in the past. The need for marketing and sales to work together seamlessly is therefore paramount, as creating a consistent online experience is more essential than ever to building trust with the customer. Constantly monitoring and redefining key customer touchpoints, whether physical or digital, is key to understanding your “moments of truth” and staying at peak performance.

“We’ve all found we can do much of what’s needed online,” summarized Chris Skinner, VP Strategic Marketing for Composites at Owens-Corning. “So now we’re staring into the chasm of what the world looks like post-COVID. How do we start to bring relationship-based processes into an environment where we can leverage the whole capability of the company through digital engagement on a digital platform?”

 “That reinforces how important consistency is, because it’s so critical in driving trust with customers today,” pointed out Zari Venhaus, Director of Corporate Marketing Communications for Eaton. “The message we are sending digitally has to be the same message that’s sent in person or delivered face-to-face, even if those interactions are more virtual than they were before. And then we have to fulfill the promise that we’re putting out there in terms of their commercial expectations”.

“It’s going to be really interesting to watch what happens when we open up again,” mused Tracey Gardiner, Chevron’s General Manager of Global Customer Experience. “There’s a level playing field right now: None of us are traveling, none of us are seeing customers. There’s always a swing back the other way. I don’t think everybody’s going to step slowly together into whatever the hybrid model will be. There’s going to be some chaos when we re-open, that’s for sure”.

For more insights, anecdotes and quotes from the discussion of the executives from these global companies please read the overview here.

The Digital Strategies Roundtable (DSR) delivers an ongoing series of business dialogues for chief information officers (CIOs) and top-level executives of large global corporations to share insights on the enabling role of digital technology in meeting business challenges.



SDA Bocconi School of Management.