BrazilHorváth & Partners launches Customer Relationship Management arm
Horváth & Partners has expanded its services portfolio with the launch of a Customer Relationship Management practice. Thomas Hamele has been hired from PwC to establish and lead the new wing.
With around 850 consultants and staff, Horváth & Partners is one the larger consulting firms in Germany, and the fourth largest player of German-origin. The management consultancy serves clients across a wide range of areas, including organisation, finance & risk, operations, procurement and supply chain, human resources, innovation, digitisation and research & development.
The firm’s portfolio has now been expanded with the establishment of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) arm. “A new team of consultants advises companies on optimising their customer relationships, improving their digital customer approach and increasing sales efficiency,” said Thorsten Lips, who leads the sales-related consulting offering of Horváth & Partners.
Asked about the importance of the topic to the firm’s customers, Lips pointed at the changing sales landscape. As seen elsewhere, digitisation is the main instigator. “Digitisation is leading to more competition and altering expectations,” he said. The rise of digital has powered the rise of the 24/7 economy, and as a result, customers in practically any industry expect a digital-powered around the clock service offering. Meanwhile, the shout for customer centricity has reached record heights, amid the emergence of more agile players that have customer-driven thinking at their core.
For organisations seeking to lead with future-proof sales strategies, excellence in customer relationship management is paramount. “Organisations realise that they need to do more to retain customers and gain new ones,” highlighted Lips. Getting this right is, however, no sinecure. Lips: “The transition to a customer-centred operation requires a real paradigm shift. Improving customer relationships requires rethinking and transforming processes, systems and governance. For new ways of working to be embedded, change management is key.”
Horváth & Partners’s CRM practice focuses on clients with successfully embarking on such transitions. Propositions include digitising and simplifying CRM processes, enhancing online sales and after-sales capabilities, improving customer experience through a better customer journey and an enhanced customer service, and optimising the degree of client tailoring through personalisation and channel optimisation.
The launched wing is headed by Thomas Hamele, who brings nearly two decades of experience to the German consulting firm. After working in banking for a few years, Hamele gained extensive consulting experience at among others Infosys Consulting and more recently PwC, where he was a Director in the firm’s Customer Relationship Management practice. “Better customer relationship management is win-win for both clients and organisations,” commented Hamele.
Alongside serving Horváth & Partners, the Munich-based senior advisor is a visiting professor for CRM, marketing management and market research at the International School of Management (ISM) in Dortmund and Munich.
