A complicated winter is announced. The war in Ukraine and the energy crisis are making the supply of electricity and gas more expensive, to the extent that it could be compromised in Europe. From Brussels, the European Commission urges member states to apply measures that contribute to reducing energy demand. In Spain, the Executive power has approved its Energy Savings Plan –waiting for it to be processed as a bill– with which it intends to reduce energy consumption and, at the same time, the economy of consumers.

The text includes, among other measures, an extraordinary review of boilers and thermal installations before December 31, 2022 -if the last one was carried out before January 1, 2021-. In this way, it is expected to reduce the number of incidents during the winter, in addition to to do a stricter control over the demand for energy resources.

The winter looks uncertain in terms of energy. Consumers will feel the effects of this long-lasting crisis in their pockets. Any measures they can take to reduce their demand will also benefit their economy. Therefore, in case of having a gas boiler -or thermal installation in the communities of owners-, it is useful checking and cleaning while it is still warm and before its ignition, because when switched off it is easy to access and maintenance.

At MST Holding, we are experts in Customer Service for HVAC companies. Prepare your Call Center for cold season call peaks with our help. While handling a higher call volume can be hard, at MST Holding we arranged with keeping customers satisfied.

Even in the most stressful times of call volume, customers expect great service. At MST Holding we have specialized and trained teams ready to help customers when they need it most. These busy times will not disrupt your business, but will increase customer loyalty.

From MST Holding we also point out the importance of all these actions being carried out by an approved professional or a technician provided by the manufacturer, who follows the manufacturer’s specifications.

MST Holding has its quality division Consulting C3. This is a Business Consulting firm specialized in measuring and improving the customer experience, optimizing the technical and human resources of your organization.

The extensive experience acquired in the sector by C3’s team of professionals, after twenty years of professional development in the field of Customer Service Consulting, has allowed us to develop and apply quality solutions in various methodologies.

Below, we detail the great work that our specialist consultants are currently carrying out with an important client in the Healthcare sector. This project covers different aspects and methodologies.

Client’s problems and initial situation:

The Client’s Help Desk service attends to the needs arising from the use of machinery for clinical analysis, hematology, serum, etc… by different hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and medical centers around the world. The Help Desk service covers the whole of Spain and Portugal.

Customer problems are innumerable, but they are usually related to specific or hidden dysfunctions of the devices, errors in reading results, configuration errors, etc… The Customer attends incoming calls from customers who have these problems (doctors, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, etc…) through a call center formed by technical experts in different fields, from biomedical and microbiology to IT, who try to solve the incidents remotely. This team is reinforced by different field technicians who deal with incidents requiring on-site assistance.

ConsultingC3 obviously does not intervene in its monitoring work in the assessment of any technical aspect. The functions of Consulting C3 are focused on ensuring the internalization and continuous improvement of communication skills by Help Desk agents in order to achieve the objective of ensuring a high level of excellence in telephone customer service from this group, offering a company image in line with the values and quality level stipulated by the Customer.

Solution provided by MST

For this purpose, according to the standard (SLA) designed by the Client, ConsultingC3 has created a decalogue of competencies and communication skills through which the agents must structure and direct the interaction with the client.

To implement this solution, ConsultingC3 carried out at the time (and continues to do so every year, at least twice, with new agents) an initial training or onboarding, through which Help Desk agents are instructed both in the quality standard required by the Client, as well as in the specific skills and abilities described in the decalogue.

In addition (and this is the most difficult part), the teams are made aware of the impact that the mastery of these skills and competencies has on the quality delivered by the Organization and on the image offered by the company.

To ensure an excellent level of quality delivered by the agents, ConsultingC3 works with the Client at different levels. These are:

Three complete audits are carried out in the period of one year, through which we assess the level of excellence that each agent shows in each period (quarterly) with different objectives:

1. To know the level of each agent.

2.         To detect areas of improvement individually.

3.         To obtain traceability on the progress of each agent, of each technical specialty team and of the service as a whole.

To this end, a series of recordings of real calls attended by the agents (inbound) are listened to within each period, reporting the quantitative and qualitative assessment of each competency in each of the audited calls and in each of the agents, and producing a final quantitative and qualitative report for each agent in each period.

Once the audits and the quantitative and qualitative reports have been completed, and focusing on the objective of ensuring continuous improvement, we schedule individualized coaching and/or mentoring sessions with each of the audited agents to detect blockages and jointly seek or propose solutions to ensure the agent’s progress in each competency, also on a quarterly basis, accompanying each audit period.

Finally, the quantitative and qualitative results are transferred to the Line Manager or Managers of each line (teams) at three levels: individual (of each agent), team (or line) and global. It is also accompanied by a general analysis and a competitor-by-competitor analysis, as well as suggestions for improvement.

Quantitative and qualitative results after implementation of the MST solution

Since Consulting C3implemented these actions, the results have been improving progressively in the order of 3% to 5% per year in the perception of the quality issued; the agents have gained in competence level, increasing their quantitative and qualitative results annually (in the vast majority of cases) and gaining in security and personal satisfaction, especially through the coaching sessions, which are highly appreciated by all the agents.

Currently, the quality index issued by this service stands at 91.73% overall average.

Within the Call Center world, SEASONALITY is understood as those changes that a call reception service undergoes depending on the time of the year or period of time in which it is located. This variation in the volume of calls received is repeated annually, weekly or daily. At MST Holding, we are specialists in the planning of services with a high seasonality such as those of the HVAC sector.

Minimizing the inconveniences that can occur at times of seasonality in a service, always maintaining a channel of contact with the customer and ensuring their satisfaction, places MST Holding as one of the leading companies in the HVAC sector.

Knowing how to provide good customer service in the most difficult moments is to turn your customers into ambassadors of your brand.

More information at www.mstholding.com or marketing@mstholding.com

Any service that can be delivered online is technically a digital service. And banks have clearly not been lagging behind in the delivery of digital services. For some time now, they have started to respond to customer self-service demands as well.

But what exactly is self-service? Well, many customers prefer to carry out transactions and other types of procedures on their own, without the need to queue at the bank or visit during opening hours. That is why there are self-service models. A case in point would be ATMs, which allow cash withdrawals even when the bank is closed. But in the digital realm, self-service is somewhat different.

In addition to being able to make transactions at any time of the day, the goal of digital self-service is to answer queries or questions instantly. Artificial intelligence is one of the technologies that makes this possible. Therefore, it is a key element in the future of customer service and customer experience.

That is why chatbots have become an essential service.

Banking has undergone multiple transformations since the advent of the Internet. And chatbots for banks have been one of these instruments that have gradually transformed the industry.

The banking industry’s commitment to integrating technology has been clear:

– Automate simple tasks.

– Reduce service times.

– Facilitate customer self-management.

– Decongest the physical headquarters of banks.

This last point has become particularly relevant in recent months.

Chatbots in banking can help streamline transactions such as money transfers and account balance checks through a conversational interface that guides customers through their actions. On the other hand, they can also facilitate access to banking information and answer frequently asked questions from any page on a bank’s site, while providing personalized information as they leverage customer data to suggest recommendations and advice to customers in an automated manner.

With these features, there are many actions that customers can take without the help of a human agent, such as receiving bill and payment notifications, receiving fraud and suspicious activity alerts, transferring money, checking their balance, or reporting stolen cards, to name a few.

In addition, customers can instantly access resources and answers to their questions without having to wait for the call to be transferred to a representative. According to recent research, chatbots save more than 4 minutes per conversation within the banking industry.

Another function is to enable customers to manage requests quickly and efficiently while acting as a listening channel so banks can better understand user habits, anticipate customer actions, and provide personalized offers and services. By contextualizing products and services, banks increase customer loyalty.

Employees also benefit from chatbots, as they reduce operational costs, minimize human error and save agents time on repetitive queries so they can focus on acquiring new knowledge and skills. According to a Juniper study, chatbots will save banks up to $7.3 billion globally by 2023, allowing them to compete with other branches and implement a successful digital transformation.

In short, chatbots will not replace human agents. In fact, by automating standard procedures, human agents will have to focus on more demanding issues. However, chatbots can seamlessly escalate queries to agents and provide them with all the necessary data previously communicated by the customer for the agent to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and without asking the customer to repeat any information.

The banking industry is full of possibilities when it comes to incorporating chatbots to interact with customers and help them with their transactions. The different ways of using them in banking services represent a benefit for both you and your customers.

If you don’t already use chatbots, we invite you to test how they can provide a better banking service to your customers. Contact us at marketing@mstholding.com / www.mstholding.com