In today’s fast-paced digital world, customers expect more than ever from their crucial service providers. Telecommunications companies and technology brands need to ensure they can serve their clients on all of the correct channels without compromising on convenience.
At the same time, these businesses need to ensure they can securely collect valuable information about their target audience, to improve their chances of delivering high-quality personalised service. Fortunately, there are tools available to make enhancing CX easier than ever.
KPN, a Dutch telecommunications company, worked hand-in-hand with Salesforce to implement the innovative solutions they needed to better serve their community. Here’s what happened when Salesforce and KPN joined forces.
Consolidating Systems for Exceptional Customer Service
Dutch telecommunications company, KPN is committed to delivering future-proof and reliable services to both consumers and business owners alike. First launched in 2015, KPN has more than 10,000 employees, dedicated to supporting customers from all backgrounds in their quest for better communications and connections.
In recent years, the KPN brand decided it was time to transform its digital strategy with a focus on putting customer service first. The company wanted to align delivery, services, and sales operations in an all-in-one ecosystem, to empower staff and delight its audience. This meant finding a powerful tool for consolidating various business-critical systems into a scalable, stable environment.
After assessing the various options in the marketplace, KPN decided to turn to Salesforce as the ultimate tool for its new strategy. According to Arkaitz Jauregui Cremers, the VP of Customer Operations for the SME branch of KPN, the team had set itself the lofty goal of handling 1,000 new orders per week, without having to increase employee headcount.
Salesforce seemed like the ideal choice for the business, thanks to its state-of-the-art and highly flexible platform. The cloud-based environment allowed the team to create a custom strategy around Salesforce Sales Cloud, Communications Cloud, and Service Cloud. According to the brand, Salesforce has allowed the team to successfully reach its targets, while increasing customer satisfaction by 22 points for service, and 66 points for delivery.
Implementing Powerful New CX Tools
The first step in KPN’s strategy was to work with Salesforce Industries to implement the Communications cloud environment. This flexible technology is specially tailored to suit the end-to-end service process for telecommunications company. For instance, sales, support, and product management teams can all work within the same platform to create and deliver custom product bundles for customers, and draw up quotes and agreements for new customers.
The technology simultaneously accelerates the sales cycle for KPN, and helps the team to perform as productively as possible, driving better value for customers. The platform also supports the team in making better decisions about the future of the company, with insights into actionable data.
According to Cremers, visibility into how the company’s performance directly impacts things like NPS, the team is much more motivated to increase KPIs and hit their targets. What’s more, the dedicated insights are excellent for assisting the company in upskilling employees. By adapting a total transparency policy, the team can easily see their successes and mistakes in one place, which makes it easier to pinpoint areas for improvement.
Cremers believes Salesforce has helped KPN to create a more trusting environment, where people are more accountable for their actions, and able to work collaboratively on achieving goals. The Communications Cloud also allows staff to operate more effectively in an independent environment. Teams can generate quotes instantly, rather than waiting days to access useful information.
This means staff can target customers when they’re most interested in making a purchase. Plus, artificial intelligence ensures business leaders can check the solution quoted is viable for the needs of every customer. This is extremely useful when serving SME and enterprise clients.
Unlocking the Benefits of the Service Cloud
To increase potential up-selling and cross-selling opportunities, KPN has also enhanced its service agents with the Service Cloud ecosystem. This solution from Salesforce ensures businesses can handle cases and queries more conveniently, while empowering them with the skills required to help customers get the most out of their purchases.
The AI solution implemented by Salesforce (Einstein), provides guidance, and prompts to assist sales reps in identifying where they can unlock cross-selling opportunities. There are also knowledge articles available to provide insights into solutions and help agents solve issues faster.
Cremers noted the Service Cloud from Salesforce allows team members to easily see all the best opportunities for increasing sales. The team is thrilled with the functionality of the system, and they love using Salesforce to bring more value to customers. When it comes to handling cases, the team also has better insights into the background of each customer, so they can deliver more personal service.
On average, the team is handling around 6,000 cases per week, and only around 5-10% of these require expert support. Salesforce allows users to determine which cases need specialist assistance, and which can be solved immediately by any team member.
Better Work, Anywhere
With Salesforce, KPN has also been able to replace third-party engineers with an internal team of 200 professionals. User-friendly technology also ensures new employees can be easily onboarded and trained with minimal stress. In the past, the company had relied on expensive outsourcing strategies which only achieved up to 70% first-time resolution.
Now, the Salesforce ecosystem allows KPN to achieve up to 90% first-time resolution rates, and NPS scores have increased by a massive 66 points. What’s more, the whole department is running up to 88% more efficiently, so customers have access to better service.
KPN is well on the way to achieving its goals with the Salesforce ecosystem, and it plans to roll out even more advanced technology, particularly in the AI landscape. According to Cremers, the staff are currently using Salesforce data to look back over their strategies and learn more about each strategy. The team also wants to use Salesforce as a forecasting tool, so they can become more “proactive” in the future too.
So far, the team is thrilled with the results they’ve achieved with Salesforce, and they’re looking forward to seeing what comes next.
