On June 23rd, MST Holding, together with Consulting C3 and sponsored by GoContact and EPOS, and with the participation of Augusta Abogados, organized the first international event in Barcelona on the new Customer Service Law.

We had an interesting day of theory and practice discussing the possible modifications to the customer service law in Spain. Currently, the new Customer Service Law, which was approved by the Congress last April and pending approval in the Senate, is on hold due to the general elections scheduled for July 23rd.

The main presentation was conducted by Jaime Fernández, representing Augusta Abogados, where we learned about the creation of the law, its key points, its evolution, and whether it may be implemented in the future or not. Initially, this law was designed to guarantee basic consumer rights and establish minimum quality parameters in customer service.

The most important points of the law are as follows:

1 – Humanization: The right to speak with a person.

2 – Mandatory channels: In-person, mail, telephone, and online.

3 – Response time: 15 days / 2 hours (essential services).

4 – Availability time: Business hours / 24 hours (interruption of essential service).

5 – SLA (Service Level Agreement): 3 minutes – 95%, Reference tracking, Call recording, Language obligations, Disabilities and +65.

6 – Quality audits: Internal procedures and external auditing.

Given the current political uncertainty, this has led to a series of speculations about whether this law will eventually be approved, when, how, and to what extent.

In relation to this, the next presentation was given by Francisco Rodríguez, President of the Spanish Association of Customer Experience (AEERC), who explained that the AEERC has been involved throughout the entire process of drafting the law and submitting amendments through different political parties. He emphasized the significant impact that the law has on companies in terms of complying with the established parameters, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In conclusion, Francisco Rodríguez pointed out that the law lacks a proper structure and, therefore, a comprehensive reform is required for progress to be made. However, it is still possible to negotiate some terms and thus avoid the impact it will have on large companies and SMEs.

Next, Patricia Guerrero, Area Manager of Consulting C3, took the floor. She conducted an interesting analysis of a set of best practices, emphasizing the idea that our customers’ expectations are changing, which requires us to listen to them in order to take the necessary actions.

The best way to understand our customers is by measuring through the use and analysis of KPIs, such as First Contact Resolution (FCR), and having a ticketing system that provides us with a tracking number. Patricia also emphasized the importance of having well-trained teams of agents and team leaders, which allows us to identify any special needs our customers may have.

It is extremely important to listen to our customers, know every detail, evaluate and analyze this information, and consequently, implement corrective measures, optimize and personalize processes, and design a simplified and clear customer service system that drives us to improve customer satisfaction.

After all the presentations and a short coffee break, Jordi Miguel, Training Manager of Consulting C3, started an interesting workshop where participants had to apply the overarching theme of the event, “the set of best practices,” through a business case.

We would like to thank all the attendees for their participation and our sponsors GoContact and EPOS. Thanks also to Augusta Abogados for their unwavering support and to AEERC for turning this day into a very special event.

We look forward to seeing all of you again very soon!

www.mstholding.com

On June 22, the long-awaited presentation the First International Conference –Workshop about the New Customer Service Law  by MST HOLDING and Consulting C3 took place in Barcelona.

It was a success in attendance, with more than 60 participants from leading companies from sectors as heterogeneous as transport, telecommunications, industry, energy, finance, e-commerce, education, technology, healthcare, HVAC and tourism.

The event began with various presentations by Jaime Fernández from Augusta Abogados, Francisco Gutiérrez as President of the AEERC and Patricia Guerrero as Area Manager of Consulting C3.

The central theme of the event was to analyze the non-continuity of the Customer Service Law that just a few weeks ago was pending approval and due to the call for general elections has been affected.

Although initially this law did not clarify or many of its points remained open, controversies have arisen in some of them, which is why we are opening a period of reflection with our clients on issues such as:

– Reflections:

• In the future, the drafting of a new Law that does enter into force may occur again, depending on the electoral results.
• The importance of comparing and reviewing the basics and minimums that our customer service should have, incorporating a “decalogue of good practices” into the service strategy, comparing it with what has already been established in the law that will not see the light of day.

– The initiative of the Ministry of Consumption should ask us to be proactive and take advantage of the range of opportunities that we must review in our current service to improve the CX/UX.

– That each company can define or come as close as possible to the decalogue of good practices to align service with excellence.

The day ended with a workshop led by our colleague Jordi Miguel from Consulting C3 where the entire theme of the event had to be applied as the protagonist “the decalogue of good practices” through a Business Case. The objective and theme of this workshop was that this organization wanted to take advantage of this current circumstance to become a proactive company with its clients and not a reactive one waiting for a new law to make changes that directly affect the experience of its clients.

We want to thank all the team that has made the success of the event possible and also thank all the guests for their attendance and proactivity.

We hope to see you again very soon!

www.mstholding.com

Is it worthy to invest in a multilingual customer service? Of course.

In the nowadays global market, a multilingual service allows to the company and consumers to simplify the buying process of products and quality services.

When we think about a multilingual customer service, we see a clear benefit to the customer. That allows them to interact with the company in the language that they feel most comfortable with. But, what if we told you that a multilingual customer service also provides great benefits to your business? So that’s it. A multilingual customer service works both directions, offering personalized assistance to your customers and huge business advantages for your company

IMPORTANT ASPECTS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT

Before starting, there are some important aspects you must take into account.

NATIVE IS ALWAYS BETTER

If you are going to offer multilingual customer service, do it with native speakers. Native speakers have a natural command of the language that allows them to interact with your customers with ease and fluency. This simplifies communication between you and your customers, ultimately contributing to a more natural customer service experience. Buyers from certain cultures may also only be willing to deal with a native speaker, regardless of your non-native representative’s background.

In a conversation with the Harvard Business Review, Priceline CEO Darren Huston explained that the Japanese, for example, are very good at identifying non-native speakers, and simply prefer to talk to native Japanese. And the same is true in the UK and Europe. German-speaking Swiss, for example, often prefer to speak with other Swiss staff members than with German-speaking Germans or Austrians.

DON’T FORGET YOUR WEBSITE

 When we think about customer service, we often think of interacting with customers directly via phone, email, chat, or in person. But it is important to keep in mind that our website is also a powerful customer service tool. Internet is part of our daily life. Whether it’s looking for decorating ideas or finding a plumber, chances are we do it online.

And while many people like to interact with a customer service representative in person, others prefer to get their answers quickly and easily online. This is especially true among young people, as they are more likely to look for answers on a web page before contacting them by phone. Therefore, you will need to ensure that your website offers as comprehensive support as possible. And being multilingual is an important part of that support.

4 REASONS TO INVEST IN A MULTILINGUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

 Now that you know the importance of having native speakers and expanding the multilingual focus of your website, we are going to see 4 advantages coming from investing in a multilingual customer service.

1: CREATE LOYALTY AND CONFIDENCE

 One of the biggest benefits of investing in multilingual customer service is this: building customer loyalty. Statistics from a 2020 report show that 74% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a company that offers after-sales support in their language. The same report also pointed out that more than 58% of companies that offer multilingual support have customers who are more loyal to their brand for this reason. And if we think about it, it’s easy to see why. You just have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

When you receive assistance from a company’s customer service, you want to make sure you can communicate clearly. Whether filing a complaint or getting a solution to a problem, you want your concerns to be clearly understood and you want to understand the company’s response. Being forced to communicate in a language you’re not 100% comfortable with could result in an unpleasant customer service experience, no matter how good the service or representative is. By offering multilingual customer service, you can eliminate this problem and provide your customers with express support, making them more confident in your products, services and brand.

2: IT GIVES YOU AN ADVANTAGE AGAINST COMPETITION

It has already become clear that multilingual customer service helps build customer loyalty and trust. What if we went further and told you that it also helps you impose yourself on your competitors? Here we explain how. Customers value their transactions and expect the same from the company they are going to do business with. This is because buying is not only a logical decision, but also an emotional one. How many times have you chosen a slightly more expensive product than another simply because the salesperson or the staff gave you excellent service? And how many times have you chosen a product just because the company offered better support options than its competitors?

It is undeniable; customer service influences us as buyers. And by investing in multilingual customer service, you’ll gain a huge advantage over your competitors. This is especially sensitive for companies working in highly competitive or oversaturated industries. If you can offer your customers personalized support in the language of their choice, you will greatly increase the chances that they will choose you over your competitors.

3: INCREASE THE SELLING POTENCIAL

 Offering a multilingual service goes far beyond the relationships with your costumers. It can also expand your market opportunities. You wouldn’t open a shoe store for men with only 3 models of shoes in 4 different numbers, right? After all, you know that foot sizes and male preferences vary a lot. Instead, you will have to offer a wide range of models in various numbers in order to maximize your sales potential. The same goes for customer service. If you only offer support or information about your products in English, for example, you are seriously limiting your ability to acquire more customers.

But if you do some basic research on the language trends of your target and you use those results, you will have the opportunity to expand your business much further. This is especially interesting for European online businesses. In Europe, is very common to order products from neighboring countries and request home delivery. This means that even if your company is based in the Netherlands, for example, you can have customers from Germany, Italy, Spain and even the UK browsing your product pages at the same time. If you don’t meet the language needs of these customers, you’ll basically be saying “no” to a lot of potential sales.

4: BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY

 We have focused on the business benefits of offering multilingual customer service. Now we will see how you can make your business run more efficiently. Many companies rely on phone contacts for their sales, in addition to other forms of communication. And one of the main goals of telephone communication is to reduce the time spent with a customer. The faster you can close a sale, or provide support, and move on to the next customer, the better.

One of the best ways to maximize your time when dealing with clients on the phone is to speak their language. Something as simple as an accent or misunderstanding can disrupt the content and add valuable minutes to the call. By investing in a team of specialized multilingual employees, you will be able to minimize these types of errors and maximize the productivity and efficiency of the entire company. Note: This is not only applicable to telephone communication. It is also used for email or chat service, as well as for the content of your website. The faster you can communicate with your customers, the better.

START EXPANDIND YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE TODAY

 We’ve just looked at some of the ways your business can benefit from multilingual customer service. If you’re ready to take the plunge and take advantage of these benefits, contact us today.

At MST Holding we have everything you need to meet the linguistic needs of your clients.

www.mstholding.com

The traditional contact centers have become obsolete against the new reality in that customer-company communication is 100% digital, so half of it will migrate to the cloud for 2022. The same as that, the new reality has entailed an exponential increase of the use of the artificial intelligence in the contact centers.

The companies nowadays are much more focused into offering an interactive experience and an excellence customer service. This trend, added to the impact of the crisis that forced a lot of contact centers to migrate to the cloud and to offer the possibility of teleworking to their operators, has increased exponentially the market of the contact centers in the cloud, that is estimated to reach 50.000 million dollars in 2025, as the ResearchAndMarkets data says. Deutsche Telekom analyzes the trends and the principal evolution points of the contact centers for this 2022, where migration to the cloud, artificial intelligence, cost saving and database security, will mark the principal action lines.

Cloud-based modernization

Traditional contact centers have become obsolete for the new reality in which company-client communication is 100% virtual. The difficulties in offering an omnichannel service and the search for greater security have made cloud solutions the main technology for migrating traditional contact centers. Migration to the cloud will be adopted by 50% of call centers in 2022, but the main challenge for companies is choosing the right cloud solution and the strategic partner to achieve this goal.

Increasing automatization through artificial intelligence

The new reality driven by the pandemic and secured in the last year has led to an exponential increase in the use of artificial intelligence in contact centers. The AI ​​offers an immediate response in addition to a hyper-personalization of the message thanks to Natural Language Processing (NPL) technologies. In other words, the interaction with the virtual assistant is done in a natural and close way, which translates into a very positive customer experience.

The optimization of the call management process and the improvement in customer satisfaction will lead to an increase in the adoption of this type of application in the coming months, following the trend of last year, in which one in three companies implemented the interactive voice response, according to the latest data from “Statista”.

Data security and cost savings, a priority for companies

 Confidentiality and data privacy are two pillars of vital importance for contact centers. For this reason, more and more centers are seeing the technology in the cloud that guarantees compliance with security legislation, while allowing access to all information remotely without endangering company information and their customers. In addition, the flexibility and scalability of the cloud, which offers the possibility of adapting the capacity of the system according to the needs and the different existing cloud modalities (public, private or hybrid), allows to save infrastructure costs for the fact of not having either installations or personal staff for the management o maintenance.

Advantages of cloud telephony

 The market for cloud phone systems is constantly growing. From 2017 to 2022, cloud extensions will increase from 13 million to 26 million in Europe. Ease of use, total independence and reliability are the credentials of cloud phone systems.

www.mstholding.com