Putting your heart into it: The secret of a successful service desk

7/31/2019 Putting your heart into it: The secret of a successful service desk

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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.

Taking responsibilityKreuze 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.

NEVER TELL THE CUSTOMERTHAT SOMETHING IS NOT

YOUR PROBLEMGeorg Jacobs, Kreuze Telecom

ORGANIZATION:Kreuze Telecom

TECHNICAL SERVICE DESK:

offers companies within the

chemical industry rst and

second line support with mobile

and xed line solutions


3/68 ON THE LINE

EuroNed develops IT applications and supportshard- 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 fle.

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.

Shorter waiting timesLamers 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.

Mutual respect and understandingLamers 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

customer and try looking beyond the obvious, tellsLamers convincingly. And if that works, customers will

let you know.

Helpdesk expertsThe health care industry is always in ux 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

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 eachother, it is also important that you have a mutual click.

Applicants are required to join us rst for a couple of

days. In this way, both parties can get to know each

other better before taking the plunge.

EuroNed:Reduce waiting periods!

THINK WITH THECUSTOMER, AND TRYLOOKING BEYOND THEOBVIOUS

Natasja Lamers, EuroNed

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, generalpractitioners and health care

institutions


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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 rst

impression of Prnatal. Her team is an important

point of contact for customers with a question or

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 overow for the switchboard when all the lines

are busy.

Going the extra mileFor Brower and her team, personal attention to theclient 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 ofce

and on our website. You should always want to do

your best to help the client . That is why customer

endearment is a specic mindset which we expect

from our employees. Its simply in your heart.

Through the eyes of the customerThe 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 conrm this trend. The results also show that

46 percent of the customers would like to be able

to contact Prnatal outside of ofce 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 nal 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.

Taking care of yourselfIt 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 packagesused; 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. Inorder to fully help the customer, you should be willing

to learn continuously and improve yourself. You

should feel good about yourself, be self-condent and

win the customers trust by taking them seriously.

10 ON THE LINE

Prnatal:Put your heart into it!

YOU SHOULD KNOWHOW THE ENTIREPRODUCTION ANDSALES PROCESS WORKS

Wil Brouwer, Prnatal

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 staffand takes on the tasks from the

telephone centre

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Putting your heart into it: The secret of a successful service desk