Customer interviews
Three questions to our customers
Three questions to our customers
Where is the business heading? What megatrends are waiting for us? How can we cooperate better? We had seven of our Hager Group customers provide answers.
The consultant
I envisage three megatrends: urbanisation, smart buildings and digitalisation.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
As a Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) consultant, we support China’s top 100 property developers with services such as M&E systems design, Vertical Transportation Analysis, Fire Services Consultant, total solution engineering, and project & construction management. The current changes in society and the economy are also transforming our customers’ businesses. Property developers are now exploring new construction markets such as healthcare, retirement homes, schools and universities, cultural centre complexes and exhibition centres, and that means we are, too.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
I envisage three megatrends: urbanisation (which is promoted by the Chinese government and generating huge demand for commercial and residential buildings), smart buildings (which are becoming noticeably standard in commercial buildings) and digitalisation, which we are able to use to derive very effective customised developments for individual customers from standard designs.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
In the current extremely competitive environment of radical change, we need differentiated solutions for each customer’s specific issues and business objectives. Hager is able to work together with property developers in this market to develop innovative, intelligent & sustainable solutions and help them maintain the upper hand in these turbulent times.
Alan Wu
Managing Director China Team
Engineering Consultants
Shanghai, China
200 employees
The panel builder
This requires connected products and solutions that deliver better network quality and performance enhancements through reduced power consumption.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
Our customers are MEP, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing service providers who work on highly demanding technical projects. According to the regulations, only certain manufacturers, those who are able to deliver the highest quality together with the installer, are permitted to work on this kind of project.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
The United Arab Emirates and Dubai in particular are noticeably switching to smart cities, which also place special demands on electrical systems. This requires connected products and solutions that deliver better network quality and performance enhancements through reduced power consumption. Of course, we are working hard to make all this a reality.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
There are a lot of things we can achieve by working together to expand our market share and grow our business with Hager. This includes making the effort to offer comprehensive solutions rather than individual products and expanding our solutions portfolio in those areas where there are still gaps to be filled. Improved marketing will enable us to achieve higher market visibility among our top customers. And finally, the Hager brand should become a recognised provider in the premium market segment in order to be automatically considered for appropriate projects.
John Mani
General Manager Switchgear Division
Faisal Jassim Group
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
1,100 employees
The architect
Today, many customers no longer want to be valued as customers, but as partners. Simple consumers become prosumers who themselves (co-)produce something.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
I run a non-governmental organisation, so I don’t have any customers in the traditional sense. Instead I have partners with whom I develop Tiny House projects. In the future, I would like to work more with governments, property developers and businesses. My core competence is developing concepts for unused spaces, something these customer groups have in abundance.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
We will encounter new technologies that will supply us with energy, water and infrastructure. It’s possible that we’ll see the development of cities where citizens exist completely independently of the street, where they fly to work by drone or send themselves to work by email and print themselves out. I am pretty certain that soon we won’t have to be physically present, but will have a kind of avatar of ourselves doing our work for us.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
Until now, this relationship has been very clearly structured with the provider of products and services on one side and the customer on the other. Today, many customers no longer want to be valued as customers, but as partners. Simple consumers become prosumers who themselves (co-)produce something. Companies such as Hager Group need to learn to think in terms of cycles of materials and creativity. Stop buying things and start creating meaningful stories!
Van Bo Le-Mentzel
Architect & Social Entrepreneur
Tiny Foundation
Berlin, Germany
Independent with 12 freelancers
The large installer
The circular economy means that we have to plan, construct and equip buildings to be more and adaptable than ever before. After all, given that use of a building could always change, an office building may become an apartment block.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
Our customers are primarily from the functional building sector and real-estate industry and we also work on public facilities, such as schools, universities, hospitals and care homes. In the future, we want to target customers more intensively by being able to offer everything from consulting and planning to installation and maintenance.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
For us, there are clearly two major topics to focus on: sustainability and the circular economy. In the Netherlands, we are currently switching from gas to renewable energy sources, which is of course very important socially. The circular economy means that we plan, build and fit buildings in a modular way to make them more adaptable than ever before. Ultimately, their use can always change as an office building doesn’t have to be used as an office forever and a piece of property needs to take this into consideration. In addition, the topic of digitalisation is of course everywhere you look. The latest focus is to put user data to work to provide state-of-the-art building management.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
Thanks to the multitude of user data available, we are already able to implement electrical engineering solutions more intelligently from day one. This means we will be needing even more solutions for adaptive buildings in future. I would like Hager Group to work even more closely with us on this kind of project development in future, perhaps even together with end customers.
Gerard Streng
Director of Project Development
Strukton Worksphere
Utrecht, The Netherlands
1,800 employees
The renewable energy specialist
More and more households will generate their own energy in the future. So topics such as energy management and energy storage will automatically come to the forefront.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
We have a broad customer base with a focus on private building contractors. We also work with small and medium-sized businesses. Public sector customers come along more rarely. They appreciate our interlocking energy systems from the planning by our own planning department to the execution from one source.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
More and more households will soon be producing their own energy. This is due to the fact that many energy providers have announced price increases. So why not generate electricity yourself? This automatically makes topics like energy management and energy storage increasingly current.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
The expectations that Amazon and similar companies have set with their customers when it comes to delivery times have also changed expectations of other products and distributors. This means the products and materials ordered will also need to be in the right place at the right time in future. It may be possible to supply full-range distributors to the electrical engineering industry in such a way that they have all Hager Group products available at any time. In addition, Hager Group needs to target end customers more effectively; its network of electricians is no longer sufficient as its only sales channel. Consumers need to really want a smart home!
Robert Soppart
Managing Director
Soppart – my green energy
Aicha vorm Wald, Germany
52 employees
The multi-residential home builder
A mega-trend is the growing interest in building automation and wireless solutions. Others are electromobility and the Internet of Things.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
Today, we supply systems integrators, switchboard builders, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and above all wholesalers throughout southern Africa, who in turn distribute our building automation solutions to general contractors. We work with consultants to meet special requests. We will soon be shifting our strategy to focus more on architects, interior designers and property developers in order to bring specific solutions to market with their help.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
One megatrend is the increasing interest in building automation and wireless solutions like coviva, which can easily be integrated into existing buildings. Others are e-mobility and the Internet of Things. With regard to the construction industry, we are seeing a growing interest in multi-purpose buildings containing hotels, shops, apartments and offices.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
Marketing materials, such as product samples, printed brochures and catalogues, are essential as customers want to see and feel products. Otherwise, it’s fair to say that our long-term relationship with Hager has always been very successful and they have offered us valuable support. So, above all, I would say keep doing what you’re doing!
Ryan Whitelaw
Product Manager
Home + Building Automation ElectroMechanica
Cape Town, South Africa
250 employees
The house builder
We will have to work together to optimise load management of our homes thus preventing peak loads without having to upgrade existing or new networks.
Who are your current customers?
And who will your future ones be?
Taylor Wimpey is a customer-centric home builder, and our focus is helping our customers, whether they are first time buyers, growing families or downsizers, on their needs and aspirations for their homes and the communities in which they live. We put our customers at the heart of what we do, ensuring that the focus of all our key business decisions is on identifying their needs and earning their trust by delivering our promises time and time again.
Are you seeing any megatrends that will affect your business or your customers’?
The UK is setting ambitious targets for the reduction of carbon emissions in the global move to combat climate change. This can be seen in recent government consultations around electric vehicle charging and the Future Homes Strategy for 2025, which includes a target to remove gas from newly built homes. This will increase the electrical demand in our homes and will pose many challenges for the business. We want to build a proud legacy for the future, and one of the ways we are doing this is by focusing on designing and building our developments in the right way. Our target is to achieve a 50% reduction in our direct emissions intensity by 2023 and we will need to review the electricity loads used in our homes as part of this.
How can we help you develop (better) relations with new customers? What expectations do you have of Hager Group?
We are constantly looking to improve the products we use in our homes for the benefit of our customers. We will continue to work closely with all of our suppliers to ensure we are providing the products that our customers want and need in their homes.
Dale Saunders
Technical Compliance Director
Taylor Wimpey
Buckinghamshire, England
5,358 Employees