Fujitsu’s CX Transformation: A Blueprint for B2B Success

As a global B2B technology and services company, Fujitsu has long recognized the importance of customer experience (CX) in driving business success. But a few years ago, the company’s European division decided it was time to double down on CX as a strategic imperative. It saw an opportunity to differentiate with CX, especially in B2B, and aspired to become a long-term, trusted digital transformation partner to its customers. The results have been impressive.

Fujitsu needed a tailored approach to scaling CX

This tailored approach was needed because of Fujitsu’s culture, ways of working, and customer relationships. To find out more about the team’s approach, we spent time with some of Fujitsu Europe’s CX team members. A big thank you to Ben Phillips for generously giving his time, together with Avril Durnan, Mercedes Cáceres Garmendia, Katie Stabler, Leila Clare, Roel van der Heiden, and François Caffi.

We published the insights in the report, Case Study: How Fujitsu Europe Scaled Its CX Transformation. Find a summary of key points below — more details are in the report.

Fujitsu Europe’s CX transformation was built on four key pillars

1. Ensuring CX expertise, business alignment, and accountability. Fujitsu brought in seasoned CX professionals to lead the charge, forming a customer experience performance center. It created a dedicated “CX community” that worked closely with business experts to ensure the CX approach was practical and effective. The CX team also established clear CX accountability across the organization.
2. Making CX “real” for leaders and account teams. Fujitsu knew that “change happens where top-down and bottom-up meet,” so it focused on showing leaders and account teams how CX could make them more successful. The team created success stories, developed frameworks to communicate the “why and how” of CX, and worked to understand the challenges faced by account teams deeply. A crucial framework was a CX maturity staircase that showed leaders and all employees where Fujitsu was and where it wanted to go (see below).
3. Using a standardized but customizable approach to scale CX. Fujitsu knew a “one size fits all” approach wouldn’t work, so it developed a common process, tools, and templates that could be tailored to the needs of specific account teams and customers. This allowed it to scale CX transformation across the region.
4. Focusing on value by co-creating improvements with customers. Fujitsu moved beyond just conducting annual Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS) surveys; instead, it worked closely with customers to understand their evolving needs and co-create solutions. This helped it uncover actionable insights and build stronger, more valuable relationships.

The results speak for themselves

Fujitsu’s CX transformation shows that B2B companies can drive significant business impact by elevating the customer experience. From 2020 to 2024, Fujitsu Europe saw a nearly 30-point increase in NPS for its core ICT business and a 42-point increase in NPS for its digital transformation services. It also experienced strong account performance, contract renewals, extensions, and growth.

Takeaways for other B2B organizations

Fujitsu’s approach provides critical learnings for other B2B organizations:

1. Invest in CX expertise and make it a cross-functional effort. Bringing in seasoned CX professionals and embedding them across the organization is crucial for driving real change.
2. Engage leaders and frontline teams alike. CX transformation requires buy-in and ownership at all levels, from the C-suite to the account managers.
3. Balance standardization and customization. Develop a common CX framework, but empower teams to tailor it to their specific customer needs.
4. Put the customer at the center. Go beyond just collecting feedback to truly understanding customer needs and co-creating solutions.

The original article is here.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends. Image credit: iStockphoto/Korrawin