CUSTOMER SERVICE Focus:
‘We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence’
Angela Wallace from Haier Europe talks to ERT about the dedication of her customer service teams and how they strive to be the best.
C Q&A
Q: Tell us a little about you and the role you play at Haier Europe? Angela Wallace: Most of my working life I have spent in customer service roles at various companies, starting as an Advisor and working my way to now being Head of Customer Services. I have been with the Haier Europe business for five years and I absolutely love it; I’m hugely enthusiastic about making a difference for our customers. My days are spilt between supporting my operational team to deliver the best customer service we can and supporting projects that will deliver against our five-year service plan. This is
ustomer service is the backbone of every business, and satisfied customers become loyal customers that spend money and keep businesses afloat. Their experiences with a business help them form opinions about the brand that they may share with others. The increase of social media and review websites have made it easier to learn about most companies, and customers can use social media to talk about their experiences and how satisfied they are – or not. Here, ERT talks to Angela Wallace, Head of Customer Service Operations at Haier Europe, about her and how her team delivers customer excellence across the Haier, Hoover and Candy brands.
all about making it easier for customers to deal with us and get things right first time.
Q: What sets you apart in your customer service? AW: Service is the core of our business – rather than something to be done – and we are relentless in our pursuit of excellence. Every week we review and improve the service we offer to customers; sometimes that is a small tweak to make something easier for the customer or our people, or it’s a big step change like the launch of our online booking portal – making us accessible 24/7 so customers can book a repair at a time that suits them. We invest heavily in our people; it is important that they are the experts and that customers feel they can trust them. Our customer satisfaction score is 4.7 out of five, and our first-time contact resolution is 86 per cent. Our team motto is to be the number one trusted white goods manufacturer, showing passion and commitment to excellence in every customer interaction.
Q: Training is a vital part of any business, so how do you manage this? AW: We do our training face-to-face, so everyone feels part of the team from day one and every new colleague has both a corporate induction and a job specific induction; the latter is split between classroom learning and then practical experience. We teach them a skill, allow them to practice and then take them back into the classroom to learn the next skill. Our people’s ongoing development is supported with online
learning, classroom training, practical training, quality assessments, weekly coaching and feedback, and monthly performance reviews. In 2021 we invested in a new CRM platform – Salesforce – and a new omnichannel platform – Vonage. Since then, we have been developing and improving that system to enhance both the customer and user experience.
Q: Tell us more about your new Training Centre in Birchwood Park and how this integrates with your team? AW: Andy Lane, our Service Director at Haier Europe, comments on how it’s a fantastic facility where skilled engineers will be trained in the company’s latest products and technology, enabling them to provide a top-class service when our customers call us with any queries. This also follows our new Brand Activation
Centre which opened in 2020 – a deluxe showroom comprising separate sections for Haier, Hoover and Candy brands, a chef’s theatre for cooking demonstrations as well as 140 appliance models from our expansive portfolio.
Q: Does the business have any ambitions or targets for the Customer Service Team for the next three to five years you can share with us? AW: Our ambition this year is to increase our first-time resolution rate to 95 per cent, as well as increasing the adoption rates of our newly- introduced contact channels of WhatsApp, Live Chat and Customer Portal. Over the next three years we will be introducing Pro-Active Service for our connected appliances, where we will contact customers to advise of any errors that could result in a breakdown and book an engineer to pay a visit. We are also currently recruiting to extend both our Sales Team and our Omnichannel Advisors.
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31 May 2023
ertonline.co.uk
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