Almost Half of Chemical Companies Fear Losing Markets Due to Not Meeting Customers’ Needs, New Research from Accenture Shows
August 12 2020 - 7:59AM
Business Wire
But two-thirds say getting customer centricity
right can boost profits by more than 10%
Despite seeing customer centricity ― i.e., the ability to
anticipate and meet customer needs ― as a top priority, nearly half
(46%) of chemical companies/suppliers say they’re struggling to get
it right and fear competitors will take their customers, according
to new research from Accenture (NYSE: ACN).
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200812005056/en/
Chemical companies see the upside of
being customer centric, but many struggle to get it right (Graphic:
Business Wire)
At the same time, two-thirds (66%) of chemical suppliers said
using new technologies more extensively to get customer centricity
right could help them boost profits by more than 10%, and
approximately one-third (35%) said it could help them increase
profits by more than 20%.
The Accenture Global Buyer Values Study ― based on surveys of
2,205 materials companies, industrial buyers, retailers and
consumers ― found that chemical suppliers’ fears about losing
customers to competitors are well-founded, as most buyers have
options. Just over half of buyers (55%) said they could switch to
alternate materials, including materials from providers outside the
chemical industry, for example using metals instead of plastic.
According to the study, the risk of customer defection could be
compounded by differences between what buyers and consumers want
and what chemical companies think they want. For instance:
- When asked to rank the most important product characteristics
related to sustainability, consumers and buyers cited safer
materials and durable products. But chemical companies thought
these stakeholders would say that renewable energy and recyclable
products were most important.
- Chemical companies ranked “value-added services” higher than
buyers did, which suggests they are prioritizing services that
buyers don’t fully value. This is particularly troublesome for
chemical companies, since they see value-added services as a path
to differentiation.
- Buyers and consumers ranked logistics and delivery reliability
of higher importance than chemical companies expected they
would.
“We also found a notable difference between how chemical
companies and buyers evaluate relationship building,” said Bernd
Elser, a managing director at Accenture who leads its Chemical
industry practice globally. “Buyers placed a higher value on
digital interfaces and experiences that make it easier and more
intuitive to interact. This implies that chemical companies have an
opportunity to improve customer relationships through the effective
use of technology.”
The findings reveal that nearly all chemical companies (99%) are
using at least one new technology, for instance, analytics or
robotics, to be more customer centric. However, doing so requires
good data, and approximately three-fourths of chemical companies
(74%) said they face data-related challenges — either too much, too
little, unusable or poor-quality data. These insights and others on
customer centricity were corroborated during a virtual panel at
this year’s American Chemistry Council Annual Meeting.
“As part of our customer-experience efforts, we use data to help
us establish correlation and then ultimately causation between the
services we want to invest in ― and evolve ― and the financial
outcomes of our customers,” said Dan Futter, Dow’s chief commercial
officer, who spoke on the panel. “We have put in a lot of work on
that at Dow, trying to understand those correlations. We hope to
bring much better data into discussions around prioritizing
investments in customer experiences over more traditional
investment areas.”
Sucheta Govil, Covestro’s chief commercial officer and another
panelist, noted that being a product-centric company is no longer
enough and that driving a customer-centric culture is key.
“This enables you to better map decision journeys, build
stronger relationships and work with customers to identify joint
outcomes for which you want to solve,” Govil said. “Circularity is
a case in point in the chemical industry, as are emissions. The
value of customer centricity is clear. However, it’s up to us to
structure, document and make the benefits easily digestible and
available.”
Research Methodology
The purpose of Accenture’s Global Buyer Values Study was to
evaluate customer centricity within the chemical industry by
identifying what customers need and how well chemical companies are
meeting those needs. A two-part methodology was employed that
included 1) a preference analytics tool that ranked 74 buyer values
across 14 defined attributes and 2) a standard survey. The study
comprised two separate respondent groups: one of 345 executives at
materials suppliers (approximately 100 of which were
chemicals/plastics suppliers), 760 industrial buyers (across 15
sectors) and 100 retailers; and another of 1,000 consumers to gain
insight into end-user buying preferences that could ultimately
affect the chemical industry. The 12 countries represented in the
study included: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India,
Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the
United States.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting,
interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities
across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and
specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered
by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and
Intelligent Operations centers. With 513,000 people serving clients
in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation
to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value
across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200812005056/en/
Guy Cantwell Accenture +1 281 900 9089
guy.cantwell@accenture.com
Matt Corser Accenture +44 755 784 9009
matthew.corser@accenture.com
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024