CEO of Ivoclar Vivadent, Diego Gabathuler, shares his perspective on what it means to lead a customer-centric business. Diego and show host, Julia, discuss why he’s become such an ardent supporter of customer experience, how he’s moving the business from CX strategy to action and what CX professionals need to do to win over senior business leaders. If you’d like to know what drives an authentically customer-centric mindset at the highest levels of business leadership, then this episode is for you.






Insights from a senior business leader

Diego Gabathuler has been the CEO of the dental company Ivoclar Vivadent AG, headquartered in Schaan, Liechtenstein, since 1 July 2019. The Swiss native initially joined the company as a member of the Global Product Management in 2002. He then went on to work for Logitech and several other companies until he rejoined Ivoclar Vivadent in Schaan as Senior Director Europe West & South, Near & Middle East and Africa in 2016. Since October 2017, he has been a member of the Corporate Management. Ivoclar Vivadent is one of the world's leading manufacturers of innovative material systems for high-quality dental applications. The company has wholly owned subsidiaries in 29 countries, and it employs about 3,500 people worldwide. Diego views customer experience as a key strategic imperative for the success of any business today...and one that should be led by the CEO.

It's in my title. For me CEO means Customer Experience Officer. - Diego Gabathuler

Diego Gabathuler, CEO of Ivoclar Vivadent

CX as a differentiator

Diego has taken on customer experience as one of his core strategic imperatives. He sees a customer marketplace that is increasingly complex, both for companies and for consumers. With more technology and a faster flow of information, products can also quickly become commoditized. Amid this landscape, customer experience becomes one of the few ways that businesses can stand out. These changes haven't happened overnight, and Diego highlights that as one of the challenges. Without a "big bang" push towards customer experience, it means that many companies have been too slow to respond. 
Diego highlights that he sees customer experience and brand as one in the same. A brand, from his perspective, is the sum of the experiences provided by that brand. That's a progressive view on the concept of branding, and one that many CX professionals would like to be more widely used within the marketing community.

Customer-centric thinking requires understanding the customer

Early in our interview Diego pointed out the importance of understanding customers and integrating their perspectives into the customer journey, product innovation, and business planning. This is the foundation of customer-centric strategy. The dental industry has been largely product-led for many years, but Diego has pushed his team to actually listen to the customer, rather than relying soley on expert insights, which is often the default in his sector.
That said, not all voice of customer (VOC) insights are created equal. Diego spoke about the need to unify customer experience data from 3 different sources in order to provide a robust picture of customer needs: Field research, observation and big data. Asking customers what they want might sound like the best approach, but CX teams need to pair this with user data to see what customers are actually doing. For example, the Ivoclar Vivadent team conducted research to find out where customers wanted to get their product information. Customers responded that they referenced print materials (e.g. catalogs,