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CEMEX, the leading cement manufacturer, bonds with customers.

Last September was a momentous time for me and my SAP (News - Alert) colleagues, Reza Soudagar and Volker Hillenbrand, as our book, The Customer Experience Edge, was published by McGraw-Hill.

In the book we pulled together the best practices and lessons learned from the top practitioners and experts in the field of customer experience.

Readers have told us some of the useful parts of the book are the practitioner profiles – portraits of companies on the leading-edge of superior customer experience. These companies set a high but achievable bar for everyone else using technology to deliver a delightful – and profitable – customer experience. This post will introduce you to CEMEX, one of the leading lights in the b2b space, from our book.

When people think of excellent customer experience, most imagine companies and products that typify a kind of glamour that wows consumers. Porsche, Nordstrom, Apple (News - Alert) – names that are synonymous with irresistible quality of design and high-touch service. And these companies do a great job of it.

But the truth is the most prosaic products imaginable can come with a holistic experience that propels their companies far ahead of competitors. In the case of CEMEX, purveyor of cement, the company has excelled by providing a customer experience that elevates its humble offering to world-class status.

In 2003, executives from Houston-based CEMEX USA, Inc. realized they needed to do a better job of connecting with customers. Why? Because cement is, well, cement. Simply providing a good product at a fair price was not yielding any differentiation in the marketplace.

“Anyone can make cement or concrete. Any of our competitors can do that,” said Ven Bontha, customer experience management director for CEMEX USA, a business unit of CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. of Monterrey, Mexico. The inescapable truth, Ven knew, was that cement was a commodity. He would need to bring something more to the table if he wanted a chance at greatness. That something extra was to make it as easy as possible for customers to interact with CEMEX.

Before it could do that, though, CEMEX needed to make sure it had its priorities in line with those of its customers. An outside research firm helped Ven realize that quality and on-time delivery headed the list of customers’ priorities. It immediately was clear that relying on a third party to deliver their products was not going to cut; there was not enough visibility into deliveries.

At the time the company launched its customer experience initiative, CEMEX USA did not track metrics like on-time delivery, as this information largely resided with third-party logistics providers. But in 2009, the company implemented ERP and CRM systems from SAP, which created visibility into all of its processes. The company installed video cameras at its largest cement terminals, letting members of the CEMEX USA customer service team literally see in real time how things are going. The team can often head off a delay or alert customers if a delay is inevitable.

This is key. If you can resolve a problem in collaboration with a customer, you wind up having more loyalty than if there never was a problem to begin with. The experience of being notified of an issue proactively creates a more memorable customer experience than if all had gone smoothly. CEMEX customers feel the company is on their side. This drives real loyalty.

The world has taken notice. CEMEX’s multi-year effort has paid off handsomely in terms of better order accuracy and shipment visibility, leading to improved customer satisfaction.  In March 2011, CEMEX USA won a Gartner (News - Alert) and 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Award in the category of Customer Experience.

When Bontha received word that CEMEX USA had received the Gartner and 1to1 Media CRM Excellence award, he went to each person in the Customer Care Center and thanked them individually. “I could thank them in a group, but that’s not personal. Our people are very proud of this award. It belongs to them,” he said.

With a major award in hand and key customer experience indicators looking good, CEMEX USA is nonetheless not resting on his laurels. They understand, better than most, that customer experience is an expedition rather than a destination. Said Bontha: “We are still on the journey, still going through this process.”

Inspired by Ven Bontha and his story? Watch this space for an update on how CEMEX has been honing its customer experience edge since the book came out. 

In the third post by the Customer Experience Edge book co-authors, Vinay Iyer describes how the B2B companies can be more competitive by focusing on customer experience. One of the examples is CEMEX, a global leader in the building materials industry. In the past years, the company transformed itself into a customer-centric organization to differentiate itself in the marketplace. CEMEX’s effort has paid off handsomely in terms of better order accuracy and shipment visibility, leading to improved customer satisfaction.