Exhibitions and congresses are back with a vengeance in Barcelona. After the MWC, the Catalan capital has hosted the third edition of the Forum of Installation Companies and New Technologies (EFINTEC), under the claim ‘Driving sustainable change’. The event, organized by the Federation of Installers’ Guilds of Catalonia, FEGiCAT, was held in Hall 1 of the Fira de Barcelona (Montjuïc exhibition center) on October 20 and 21.

This new edition of the reference event from the installation and energy sector has brought together some 8,000 professionals and 150 exhibitors.

EFINTEC’s main objectives are to professionalize the figure of the installer and generate business opportunities in the installation and energy sector. It is a key event to present the latest technological and training trends that will enable to face the energy transformation process.

In addition, the event was held at a key moment for the sector. Raúl Rodríguez, general manager of FEGiCAT, explains that “after the success of EFINTEC 2021 in which more than 6,000 professional visitors attended the event, making it a benchmark for the sector, EFINTEC 2022 has maintained the objective of strengthening and promoting business relations between exhibitors and professional visitors in a comfortable, innovative and committed to sustainability environment in which, at the same time, conferences have been offered on the latest technological developments and on the behavior and future of the sector”.

EFINTEC has once again this year opted for a face-to-face event with training meetings, workshops, lectures and presentations of products and services. This year the trade fair has gone from having a single focus in the last edition to the diversification of spaces with four main points destined to different events and which will facilitate mobility throughout the venue. EFINTEC has counted on the hall and the Forum to host 40 presentations, the recreation of an energy community and a village area.

The event has the institutional support of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Barcelona City Council. Efintec 2022 is also supported by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Foment del Treball, PIMEC and different associations and federations.

With more than 30 years of experience, MST Holding is specialized in HVAC sector services of Technical Support and omnichannel Customer Service in multiple languages. With high First Call Resolution ratios, we improve the customer experience thanks to our technology and our expert team in technical support, TSS and trouble ticket management, spare parts and incident tracking. We reduce costs through increased efficiency and productivity. We help our customers to improve their services.

If you want more information you can contact us at marketing@mstholding.com or through our web www.mstholding.com

Ecommerce has come to stay. As an innovative business model, it does not close the door to traditional channels such as contact centers, in the end, the telemarketing. However, even these more traditional channels have relied on new technologies to provide a better service. This is the case of multichannel call centers.

What can a multichannel call center offer to your ecommerce? And why is customer service so important in an ecommerce? We will try to answer these questions to help you understand the value of integrating a multichannel call center in your ecommerce.

What is a multichannel call center?

As e-commerce has developed, new needs have arisen to companies, with the customer at the center. By this we mean that the digital transformation of call centers has been necessary because consumers and users have needed immediate solutions to contact companies. Thus, the multichannel call center has emerged such as customer service solution with multiple benefits, especially for ecommerce.

To have a multichannel call center is to assume that there are customers who want to communicate with a company through different channels. A multichannel call center is a solution that encompasses multiple points of contact with the customer. For example, interactions by voice, by text through emails or messages, on social networks or on the web.

The advantage of having a multichannel contact center is that you can meet the increasingly complex needs of your customers. On the other hand, a multichannel call center puts the customer at the center of all operations. This means that agents serve them more efficiently, fluently and completely.

 Multichannel call center for e-commerce

If in a physical store telemarketing or call center services are already necessary to offer a complete service to customers, in an ecommerce it has become essential. The reason is that customers who buy online need a direct communication channel with the company. They need to know that there is someone behind an online store who can answer all their questions or complaints. As we explained above, the new consumer, who is looking for an omnichannel and personalized experience, requires new methods of customer service, something that only the multichannel call center can cover.

Some of the advantages of having a call center for ecommerce are: A better knowledge of the sales funnel with first-hand information, which can help us to know at what point customers abandon the purchase in order to follow the customer throughout the purchase process: from before making the order, to after-sales service.

In addition, by outsourcing the services of a multichannel call center, we can allocate the resources we use to provide this service in which we are specialists. Having ecommerce call center professionals will be an advantage over the competition. Among other things, because of the increase in the quality of customer service that it brings with it.

We know the value of good communication with customers. That is why we have specialized agents to provide the best customer service, supported by the most efficient technology to clarify any questions that may arise. Thanks to our specific software or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) with the integration of a CRM, customer contact can be increasingly personalized.

If you are thinking of outsourcing your ecommerce customer service and want a multichannel solution, please contact us at marketing@mstholding.com or through our website www.mstholding.com.

Only with Black Friday  in 2021 eCommerce sales were 18% higher than in the prior year, and small and medium companies made 28% more profit.

Online sales of at least 1.8 billion euros are expected this year. This is definetly very good news. And to prevent that the volume of work involved in the Christmas campaign does not become a headache, especially for the contact center, any advance organization that can be counted on is welcome. And at MST Holding we are already prepared to help you during those days.

1 – We start by anticipating the volume of transactions that our agents will receive, based on last year’s experience, but also taking into account the last months of this year. With these forecasts in hand, it will be easier to determine what the staff reinforcements should look like.

2 – We focus on the CX: although the end-of-year campaign is characterized by the attractive discounts, it is also a time when incidents, returns and complaints abound. For this reason, we take great care in training our agents and optimizing processes.

3 – Another useful measure we offer our customers is the option to call back, because users hate having to contact a company repeatedly and the waiting time for each call.

4 – On the other hand, for process improvement, MST Holding believes that automation is the key. The more efficient self-service options that can be offered, the more user satisfaction will increase. This in turn will result in time savings for the Contact Center.

5 – Finally, we also pay special attention to security in these last months of the year. Increasing agent training and keeping systems up to date are two fundamental steps for us in this direction.

If you want to know more about how to offer an excellent customer experience at Christmas time with MST Holding, please write to us at marketing@mstholding.com.

Customer expectations are bringing about a deep transformation of the financial sector.

Traditionally, financial institutions have had little attachment to risk; even more so after 2008’s crisis. After that, banks prioritized capital, liquidity and regulatory responsibilities more than ever, and that has remained the trend, even as the emerging fintech market has begun to gain a meaningful foothold.

But then COVID-19 came along and the epidemic became a pandemic causing an economic impact that will be a matter of debate for years to come. What is clear is that we are seeing shrinking capital and credit reserves in all sectors. As customers and small businesses seek loans and financial assistance, the phones are ringing at banks, while many employees continue to work offsite.

Several of the world’s largest financial services institutions have realized that when it comes to transformative digital players, the risk of non-adoption far outweighs the risk of adoption. Faced with this pandemic, traditional banks are looking for smart, automated solutions to reach their customers often remotely due to isolation.

Redesigning customer service centers.

No one ever thinks of call centers as a strategic point of business, but we fail to realize that this is exactly how customers see it. While every company offers a variety of channels for a customer to find it, including websites, mobile apps, etc., customer service centers are often the only place where to go when every customer need to solve a problem.

At MST Holding we are specialists in omnichannel customer care services for the financial sector with more than 30 years in the market. Our strength is based on an expert banking team together with innovation in technology, both of which are fundamental to satisfy customer needs and generate better commercial results and excellent experiences. Our banking clients achieve the highest customer loyalty and trust ratios with greater efficiency and productivity to reduce costs.

You can contact us at marketing@mstholding.com or through our website www.mstholding.com.

Customer experience (CX) management is the defining competitive differentiator in today’s banking industry, infact for good reasons: financial institutions that invest in customer experience have higher referral rates, higher share of portfolio, and are more likely to increase cross-selling of products and services to their customers.

From Consulting C3 (MST Group), we help our clients to increase profit ranges in such a demanding market as the financial one.

The challenges we have identified in the short term are as follows:

1. Focus on the human connection: Optimizing processes through digitalization puts at risk customer satisfaction in interactions with their bank. Although it is true that digital options improve the experience of a certain group of users, financial institutions should not forget the need for the human touch to positively impact customer satisfaction. The most appropriate communication channel to provide personal touch is the contact centers through which the human to human interaction is developed. During more than 30 years of experience in that sector, we have helped our clients to improve their satisfaction indicators, accompanying them in the processes of continuous improvement and to design based on a Customer Centric methodology.

• Big data in the customer experience: Customer intelligence combines technology, accumulated and ordered customer information and artificial intelligence. Information management and data interpretation is one of the greatest assets for making decisions about processes, products and communication channels to engage with customers. Customer intelligence allows financial institutions to anticipate needs and be able to predict the future behavior of their customers. From Consulting C3 (MST Group), we develop both the technology and the consulting support to guide our clients in the decision making process and in the investment of resources oriented to CX.

• Hyper-personalization: It has been noted over the years, in the Customer Experience trends, how hyper-personalization can also benefit banks. Thanks to tools like big data, the aim is to offer customers products based on their interests, through prior analysis and the use of predictive techniques. This approach makes it possible to increase the well-being of their customers. The analysis of correctly ordered and correlated data makes it possible to target each customer in a specific way. As well as to take action not only reactively but also to anticipate needs based on the socio-cultural characteristics identified. In summary, to create customized solutions that provides value for that particular client.

From Consulting C3 (MST Group), we have helped our clients to obtain important improvements in the main indicators such as NPS (Net promoter score), valuation of service excellence, loyalty, increase in turnover, cross-selling and recommendation (cost savings in marketing actions).

Consulting C3 (MST Group), provides the tools and the methodology to impact the quality indicators and the business ratios of our clients in the banking sector. This is possible through the projects of perceived quality and quality assessment issued. Hence, we give to our clients a roadmap with high impact actions verifiable in short periods of time. Finally, banking services should be geared towards improving people’s lives and, to this end, institutions should be open to active, permanent and high-value listening to their demands. Therefore, to know and understand the behavior and needs of their customers will generate, in the short and medium term, a competitive advantage in an increasingly demanding market.

The warranty period for products increases from 2 to 3 years for products sold as of January 1, 2022, and manufacturers will have to insure spare parts for their products for 10 years, and not for 5 years, as until now. This is to improve the useful life of products, by facilitating repair. This is good news for consumers.

Extending the availability of spare parts to 10 years is in line with the European Consumer Agenda and will facilitate the ecological transition to more sustainable consumption.

More warranty, more rights

All consumer durables had, by law, a two-year warranty. In addition, manufacturers were obliged to guarantee the existence of parts for repair for at least 5 years from the date on which the product stopped being manufactured.

The new regulation extends these periods:

• The legal warranty for products becomes 3 years.
• The obligation to maintain the existence of repair parts and an adequate technical service is extended to 10 years from the date on which the product ceases to be manufactured.

Other deadlines that have changed is when a customer will have the right to choose between repair or replacement of the product. The non-conformity period has been extended from 3 to 5 years and the period for proving non-conformity with the purchased product has been extended from 6 months to one or two years, depending on the product.

A three-year warranty for cell phones, household appliances, televisions and other electronic products… It remains to be seen how the market reacts and whether the extension of the warranty will have an impact on product prices.

This series of measures have been incorporated into Spanish law by the transposition of the European Directive (EU) 2019/771 of 20 May 2019, following the European Consumer Agenda’s commitment to sustainability and distribution of consumption.

Some of the affected sectors have the opinion that Spain has exceeded in the transposition of the Directive, especially in reference to repair parts because it has unilaterally established this excessive period of 10 years.

In the same vein, some critical opinions consider that these modifications have been considered only one component of the legal business: the consumer. Companies are forced to assume new contracting conditions with the consequent cost that this warranty period involves: having stock, repair parts and adequate technical assistance. Thus, with these new regulations, technical assistance services are now more important than ever and must be able to keep up with the new measures. This has a direct impact on the activity of Technical Assistance Call Centers (HelpDesk), which must ensure that they provide a quality service according to the circumstances.

At MST Holding we have been experts in HelpDesk services for more than 30 years. We are a flexible company with a great capacity to adapt to the needs of our most demanding customers.

For more information please contact us at marketing@mstholding.com or through our website www.mstholding.com.

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