Challenge
As a broad-based trading and service company, ZG Raiffeisen found it difficult to maintain a consistent online presence due to the Group's decentralized structure as well as the time-consuming manual data maintenance.
Solution
The ZG Raiffeisen Group was looking for a software solution for efficient listings and review management with the aim to hand over data maintenance to the individual branches without losing central control.
Results
With Uberall, ZG Raiffeisen is strengthening its position in online searches. Thanks to a decentralized, but controlled data maintenance in the individual branches, location profiles are well maintained—and reviews are processed quickly.
ZG Raiffeisen transforms its digital shop window
Agriculture, technology, energy, building materials and markets—this is what the ZG Raiffeisen Group is known for with almost 2,000 employees operating in well over 200 branches in Germany. And the history of its origins is, in fact, just as impressive as its business activities today.
More than 100 years of growth in the region and beyond
The history of the ZG Raiffeisen Group is inextricably linked to the Baden region. The cooperative idea was born out of the hardship of the famine winter of 1846/47, and a few decades later, on 1 January 1911, the original version of ZG Raiffeisen began its work in Freiburg—as a self-help organization for farmers in the region. Being stronger together is still the motto today in order to defy the challenges of international markets.
From generalist to specialist
ZG Raiffeisen has developed from a pure cooperative into a modern trading and service company, balancing tradition and innovation. The cooperative origins are still alive in the corporate form today. At the same time, modern technologies are omnipresent, especially in the agricultural and technology business.
The core business of ZG Raiffeisen is traditionally agriculture, although around 50 percent of total turnover is now generated in the consumer business. In recent years, the Group has also specifically sought out partners in the cooperative environment for joint ventures such as LahrLogistic and Europe Crop Uniteds.
The partnership with Uberall is just as successful. But wait, how did ZG Raiffeisen find Uberall, and why was the company looking for the leading software provider for local digital marketing in the first place?
The desire for more online visibility and offline traffic
Though many consumers assume that only ZG members will have access to the branches, really anyone can shop at ZG Raiffeisen’s stores, petrol stations and technology locations. However, the group was barely visible in online searches before Uberall—and does not have an online shop either. This lack of visibility made it difficult to attract more customers to the bricks-and-mortar outlets.
At the same time, many company entries in the most important online directories were outdated, with false opening hours leaving customers waiting in front of closed doors. But the desire for change has grown at the branches and company headquarters alike.
"Before our collaboration with Uberall, it was not uncommon that the opening hours on Google and the actual opening hours of our stores did not match; on weekdays as well as regional holidays, and the best example is carnival—because it's celebrated differently depending on the area."
Before working with Uberall, the headquarter in Karlsruhe maintained the data for all branches—and this was not only time-consuming, but also prone to errors. Moreover, ZG Raiffeisen had no review management strategy in place: they hardly ever responded to them with a response rate less than 10 percent.
All this called for change, and Uberall is the ideal partner to optimize both listings and review management.
ZG Raiffeisen creates a consistent online presence for 200+ locations
When looking for the right location marketing software solution, ZG Raiffeisen opted for Uberall—against two direct competitors—because of the user experience with the platform and the team as well as outstanding data protection.
Once the decision had been made, the platform was implemented in no time:
With Uberall Listings, ZG Raiffeisen manages its business listings online and maintains daily updated location data to strengthen its online visibility.
With Uberall Reviews, ZG Raiffeisen responds to customer reviews to start a dialogue with customers and obtain important customer feedback.
With Uberall Locator & Local Pages, ZG Raiffeisen created a locator and local landing pages to guide customers directly to its branches.
First of all, Pelin Uguz and Katjana Wenzel from the company's headquarters submitted and entered the location data of all branches on the Uberall platform—and thus sorted the entire online presence of ZG Raiffeisen. The two experts then transferred admin rights to the local managers for them to take over all operational tasks in future. And in a monthly meeting, they provide information about the latest Uberall features and present particularly successful locations as pilot projects.
With Uberall, ZG Raiffeisen manages 11,751 company entries in 50 directories for 219 locations with 92 percent profile completeness; meaning that the NAP data (name, address, telephone), website, images, offers, services and more are maintained on almost all profiles.
Manual data management is now a thing of the past, as the Uberall platform automatically synchronizes location data changes with the entire directory network. Also noteworthy: ZG Raiffeisen used Uberall to detect and—more importantly—suppress 421 duplicates that would otherwise have impaired online visibility without their actions.
"Before Uberall, we maintained all profiles manually and we can't even imagine doing that anymore. We actually received lists with the location data of our 219 branches and entered them manually into our CMS. Today, this can be done at the touch of a button—and our branches can manage their profiles themselves, which saves us a lot of work at the company headquarters."
Thanks to Uberall, review management is just as smooth as listings management. The local employees at the branches use both response templates and automatic responses in the tool.
The ZG Raiffeisen Group also uses Uberall to build a locator and local landing pages for customers to conveniently search for their nearest branch and even filter by category.
By clicking on a branch, customers land on a separate landing page that provides them with detailed information, including opening hours, contact details, services and even job vacancies to address potential applicants.
ZG Raiffeisen creates more visibility and engagement on Google Search and Google Maps with Uberall
The ZG Raiffeisen Group has been working with Uberall since 2022 and the comparison with the previous year (2021) shows that the implementation of the platform was a real success: 12% more impressions on Google Maps, 12% more clicks on directions, and an average rating of 4.5 stars.
More visibility in online searches
The consistent presentation of NAP data in all connected directories ensures a better ranking. Thanks to the well-maintained online presence of all locations, the ZG Raiffeisen Group is particularly well represented in indirect searches (+30%). In addition, users click on directions with above-average frequency—which shows that they want to make their way to a store.
More reviews and significantly higher response rate
Proximity plays a central role for the ZG Raiffeisen Group; and thanks to Uberall, it has its customer dialogue firmly under control, reflected in the improved average rating of 4.5 stars and the higher response rate of 84% (as of November 2023). The template library and automatic responses ensure that reviews can be processed without additional effort but maximum added value.
"Since we handed over the operational tasks to our branches, I have never heard of any error message—or experienced one myself. The platform is intuitive and constantly evolving, and we are pleased to have such close contact with the Uberall team that has an answer to every question and also contacts us proactively."
But despite—or perhaps because of—its success with Uberall, the ZG Raiffeisen Group still has big plans. Firstly, it wants to connect the last locations to the Uberall platform and complete existing profiles that still have data gaps. Then the group wants to regularly publish posts on its landing pages to for example advertise open Sundays and other events; and finally try out our Messages chatbot, which we are looking forward to!
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