Success factor: Master data

What is METRO’s objective in the area of master data?

The quality of our customer and product master data will be a crucial success factor going forward. Especially if we want to digitalise the HoReCa sector and become an integrated provider of solutions and services. It’s essential to have clean and reliable data. The MenuKit, for example, makes a restaurant’s menu transparent to us. We know what items are most critical to our customers. With structured, correct data, we can use analytics and draw up amazing business cases for our sales force managers. In turn, they can better advise the customer on profitability. For instance, optimising the menus, or using certain own-brand products of METRO instead of brand products that have the same ingredients but a higher price.

Let's focus on customer master data for the moment. We're talking about 16 million METRO customers (companies) and around 21 million cardholders. Which customer data do we already collect, at which touchpoints and how?

First of all we collect identification data: first name, surname, address, contact channels. It starts to get complicated already with the address. Which addresses do we record? There are several address types for one company: address of the legal registration, address of the restaurant, address of the warehouse, etc. If we mix them up, the customer cannot be satisfied. After the basic identifiers we collect information about the business and about the person who has a METRO card. We collect as much information as possible at the first customer registration. After that we collect customer data through our sales force managers, at the customer reception in our stores or via call centers.

With regard to customer master data: Where is METRO already good at and where does it need to improve?

We are in a process of transformation from a pure customer/cardholder concept to a concept where we focus more on the person with their needs and wishes. What we need to develop is a new omnichannel customer strategy. We need to define the benefits our customers will have if they provide us with their data. The objective is to provide a better tailor-made offering and services that are truly relevant to them.

On the subject of quality: how does METRO ensure that customer data are correct and regularly updated?

This is a challenge associated with the fact that our offer and our communication must be relevant to our customers. If they are, the customer, who is the only one who knows when something changes, will keep their data updated and share them with us. New channels, such as the METRO Companion, offer us with further great opportunities. It allows us to communicate directly with customers, ask them for information and make relevant and personalised offers in a new way.

Last but not least, let's take a look at the product master data. There are several GS1 initiatives dealing with this topic. What are they all about?

There are three initiatives of the global standardisation organization GS1 that have been triggered by Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and METRO was one of the companies leading them. The CEOs, that participate on CGF agreed that there has to be a dramatic change in the way suppliers and retailers exchange data. The first project demands that each product should carry a unique global ID, the so-called Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN). The second verifies this GTIN with six further attributes of products (name, image, brand, global product category, net weight/net content, country of sale) to ensure uniqueness. And the last project deals with attributes which would be mandatory for each product category and would be globally called the same – so called global data model. Attributes vary from product to product. An orange has different attributes than a t-shirt or can of tuna. Through this global standardisation, we will make product information exchange simpler, faster and cheaper.