On the line

Putting your heart into it

The secret of a successful service desk
Kreuze Telecom: Be proactive!
Kreuze Telecom is the largest independent telephone provider in the south of the Netherlands. They focus mainly on business markets with their fixed line solutions and mobile support. Their customers range from small business units to large multinationals within the chemical industry. However, having a range of customers also means varying demands for the services that Kreuze Telecom provides.
Georg Jacobs has been working as a service manager for the technical departments for the last four years now. His experience has taught him that you shouldnt sit around and wait for things to go wrong. A service desk is usually reactive: you are called when a malfunction occurs and then you come into action, explains Jacobs. We, on the other hand, want to be proactive in the sense that we aim to call the customer before they even realize an error has even occurred. The most important aspect of a service desk is to show that you are proactive and to give the customer the feeling they are being helped.

TEXT: CLAUDIA FUNK

After suffering from some recent bad publicity, the time has come for service desks to go on a charm offensive. We spoke with three successful service desks that regularly receive positive feedback from their clients and we asked ourselves: Whats the secret of their success?
Service centres and help desks across Europe have been discredited for quite some time now. Why? Because help desks are beating each other at how customer unfriendly they can be. Complaints range from being too bureaucratic or the time it takes to respond to questions, to the lack of incentive or willingness to help the customer. Instead of focusing on the negative, however, we thought it was time to look at positive examples of help desks. Some people think that it takes a lot of effort to resolve something through a help desk; nevertheless there are enough organizations that know how to handle these situations well. They put the customer first and have continuous help desk employees ready to be of service. In the first part of this series of articles we will focus on three service desks from various sectors that all have on thing in common: happy customers. We were curious about what good service desks do differently from the much criticized service desks. How do they provide a good service? And what is their formula for success?

Listening to the customer

The demands of customers may vary over time. Not even five years ago, Kreuze Telecom worked with field staff. Customers then first had to make an appointment with them, after which they would visit the customer and resolve the problem on site. Now there is often demand for 24-hour staffing of the service desk and they can provide support from
Georg Jacobs has been the service manager at Kreuze Telecom for four years

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a distance, which enables the employees to tackle a problem immediately. We can easily resolve malfunctions by calling the switchboard, says Jacobs. This is quicker, more efficient and cheaper for the customer.

NEVER TELL THE CUSTOMER THAT SOMETHING IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM

Georg Jacobs, Kreuze Telecom

Taking responsibility
Kreuze Telecom does not receive many complaints and the feedback is usually positive. We are often told that we are professional and that we manage to reassure our customers that we can help them, tells Jacobs. In addition to professionally handling problems on a technical level, Jacobs illustrates an even more important issue. You should never tell a customer

that something is not your problem. Our aim is for them to only have one point of contact in the area of telecommunication: us. And even if the cause of a malfunction falls in a grey area, you should never put the ball back in the customers court.

ORGANIZATION: Kreuze Telecom TECHNICAL SERVICE DESK: offers companies within the chemical industry first and second line support with mobile and fixed line solutions

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EuroNed: Reduce waiting periods!

EuroNed develops IT applications and supports hard- and software for chemists, general practitioners and health care institutions. For example, glucose meters are linked to EuroNed software, which directly saves and processes the measured values in the correct patient file. The software can also help to send a doctors prescription directly to the chemist, aid medication control, order medication on time and create invoices.
We spoke with Natasja Lamers, whose infectious energy has made her team manager of about twenty service desk employees. Together they support between an ever-increasing number of 1000 to 1100 Dutch health care providers. According to Lamers, there are three important points that distinguish a good helpdesk: shorter waiting times, mutual respect between helpdesk staff and customers and helpdesk expertise. customer and try looking beyond the obvious, tells Lamers convincingly. And if that works, customers will let you know.

Helpdesk experts
The health care industry is always in flux and so EuroNed must anticipate continuous changes. A good service relies heavily on expert knowledge concerning everything that goes on in the health care industry. This does not only include IT issues; a help desk employee should also have substantive knowledge on current

THINK WITH THE CUSTOMER, AND TRY LOOKING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
Natasja Lamers, EuroNed

Shorter waiting times

Lamers is quick to the point when she says that the most important issue is shorter waiting times. Customers often deal with pressing issues and so they call in a hurry. Our average waiting times are currently between one and a half and two minutes. This wasnt always the case. A number of years ago, we reached an all-time low when the waiting times were up to 45 minutes, explains Lamers. Taking on more people and a thorough improvement on the quality of our services enabled us to reduce the waiting times to a minimum. legislation and other important issues regarding health care and health insurance. The help desk is required to have a lot of knowledge, and for this reason we regard regular schooling very highly, says Lamers. Experts provide support to the second and third line help desk employees in order to enable them to give professional answers. This is why the hiring procedure for new employees is quite strict. Despite regular schooling you should be aware that you can not always know everything, which is why you rely on other help desk colleagues. And because you need to lean on each other, it is also important that you have a mutual click. Applicants are required to join us first for a couple of days. In this way, both parties can get to know each other better before taking the plunge.

Mutual respect and understanding

Lamers and her team are very much valued by their customers and she does not shy away from possible criticism. I dont mind at all if customers are critical, because that only helps us improve, explains Lamers. Mutual respect and understanding support the collaboration between the customer and help desk employee. You should always think with the

Natasja Lamers is team manager to twenty service desk employees

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ORGANIZATION: EuroNed SERVICE DESK: offers technical support and answers legal questions for pharmacies, general practitioners and health care institutions

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Prnatal: Put your heart into it!

A car seat, bellybands, a baby phone, a bib when a baby is due, you need to tick off an entire list of baby things. This can overwhelm new parents. Besides shopping for these things at Prnatal, the staff can also help you with all your questions.
Wil Brouwer is Customer Care Manager at Prnatal. She ensures that customers get a good first impression of Prnatal. Her team is an important point of contact for customers with a question or

Through the eyes of the customer

The customers expectations and demands of our services are ever-changing. The customer expects a service provider to be available 24 hours a day, says Wil Brouwer. The results from a regular customer panel confirm this trend. The results also show that 46 percent of the customers would like to be able to contact Prnatal outside of office hours. For this reason, we opened a webshop and customers can now contact us by email at any time. Prnatals customers are already well informed when they contact the Customer Care department. The customers expect us to offer that final bit of expertise before they can decide on their purchase. This means that you should look through the eyes of the customer, which makes our job interesting and varied. It is your job to remain informed.

YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION AND SALES PROCESS WORKS
Wil Brouwer, Prnatal

Taking care of yourself

It comes as no surprise that the spearhead of the Customer Care department is a customized coaching programme. Every employee of this department, the so-called representatives of Prnatal, should have a broad knowledge of the software packages used; however, it is even more important to have knowledge about the product chain itself. You should know how the entire production and sales process works, explains Brouwer. Whats more, everyone should monitor their own stress levels. For a number of months, the employees have decided when they would like a meeting with their coach. This is not only more personal, but also more effective than a weekly team meeting. If you work for us, you need to be able to care for yourself. Only then can you also care for others. In order to fully help the customer, you should be willing to learn continuously and improve yourself. You should feel good about yourself, be self-confident and win the customers trust by taking them seriously.

request for Prnatal in the Netherlands. With 33,000 to 35,000 contact moments each year, the Customer Care department offers service in the broadest sense. We do not only speak to customers on the telephone, explains Brouwer, but we also support all our stores and our webshop. In addition, we function as an overflow for the switchboard when all the lines are busy.

Going the extra mile

For Brower and her team, personal attention to the client goes further than is required. Prnatal wants to capture the hearts of our clients with our customer endearment strategy in our stores, in the head office and on our website. You should always want to do your best to help the client. That is why customer endearment is a specific mindset which we expect from our employees. Its simply in your heart.

Wil Brouwer is Customer Care Manager at Prnatal

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ORGANIZATION: Prnatal Mother & Child.BV CUSTOMER CARE: answers calls from Dutch customers of Prnatal, supports the webshop, answers questions from staff and takes on the tasks from the telephone centre

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