‘Before the current setup, we had a more traditional tech support and customer service team. We decided to change perspective and look more closely at the issues our customers ran into, and not only solve them, but also trace the issues back to make improvements within the platform and the business,’ explains Anika. ‘With our Customer Success Team, it’s more than just picking up calls, solving a problem and hanging up. We want to find out how and why we got to this issue and how we can make Netigate more efficient and user-friendly.’
Building real interactions
Working to solve problems is just one element of customer service. As Ben Touati, a member of the German and international customer service team, explains.
‘Of course, you need technical knowledge, but that can only take you so far,’ he says. ‘If you build a rapport with people, it takes you even further. It’s important to build this connection – it makes interactions special and feel worthwhile. I want to do everything I can for the customers, and be of value to the team, and this element is vital to me.’
Ben recently achieved the highest NPS score for two months running. The NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a number awarded to the Customer Success team members based on customer feedback scores. His helpful service and great rapport may have been the secret to his high score.
For Ben, being the voice of the company is important in his role. ‘We’re helping customers get the most from the platform, but we’re also helping them to get to know us,’ he explains. ‘You want to keep things serious but light at the same time. You want to do due diligence with your work, but you can also have that rapport at the same time.’
Feedback is an integral element in Netigate. Ben explains how feedback from customer support had lead to a change in the survey platform that makes it possible for customers to create a branded URL:
‘I used to get questions about this and would offer them what I could. Use a URL shortener, make a URL on their own server. Or create a QR code to provide a simple link to the survey. But this was never exactly what they wanted. Now it’s great that we can offer this service thanks to the feedback the tech team received about this.’
It’s not just external feedback – internal feedback systems allow teams to celebrate good work and successes. But unlike in other number-driven areas like sales, the quality and work of the Customer Success Team can be hard to measure. The NPS score allowed them to have the numbers to truly measure customer satisfaction with their support services. Additionally, using the program we offer ourselves, means we can be a true feedback company – inside and out. This way, we better understand our customers’ pain points, needs and challenges.
Going beyond the basics
Lukas Schmid is one of Ben and Anika’s colleagues on the team. Last month Lukas edged past Ben’s high NPS score of 85 with a new high of 86. Quite a feat, having started his role in the company only four months prior.
Lukas also finds the NPS score a useful tool. ‘It’s very motivating and always useful to have the feedback from customers to see what is working and what needs to be improved.’
So what’s the secret to Lukas’ new position at the top of the NPS score card? ‘It’s difficult to say! I’m very focused on making the customer happy and solving the problem,’ he says. ‘Every case is different, so there’s no single process or set of steps we can follow to solve something. That means when a case comes in, we have to find the problem and look for a way to solve it. If a solution can’t be reached right away, there can be something else that I can offer that can be helpful – even something small.’
Going beyond just what is required of him by Netigate and the platform means he can show how much they value their customers, and help build a better relationship. For example, Lukas recently found himself troubleshooting a quick extra issue for a customer in PowerPoint. ‘Of course it’s not our platform, but while we were problem solving. I can jump in and help them with something else. This is doing a little bit extra to make sure the customer knows we care about helping them.’
The Success Center for Netigate
In addition to the Customer Success Team, there’s a new service customers can take advantage of. At the beginning of the year, we had the idea to create a new environment where our customers can find the help they need: the Success Center. The aim is to offer a platform where the customers can easily find answers to their questions without needing to call the Success team. Today it features support articles, webinars, tutorial videos, workshop information, product updates and FAQs. Over the next few years, the service is planned to expand to include more customer-sourced inspiration together with an even wider collection of articles and videos.
Netigate is one of the leading European providers of cloud based services for online surveys that are primarily used for customer feedback, employee feedback and market research. We help organisations gain valuable insights, make better business decisions and improve processes. Our clients range from small organisations to global companies in all industries, including many leading companies around the world such as Electrolux, Ericsson, Vodafone and E.ON.
