We spoke about our planned Expansion in China in August. Today, we are delighted to announce the successful launch of the ‘Pre-Sales Enquiry team’ in partnership with our global automotive client in China. We were awarded the opportunity to bid for this piece of work due to our success in customer service operations over the last 12 months. Our successes include fantastic customer satisfaction scores which have helped us form a strong business partnership with our client.

The restructure provides an additional team to provide Front Office and enquiry response support as well as a dedicated team of specialists to respond to complaints and complex cases. The ‘Welcome to Brand’ service is now seen as a core service offering from our client who are embracing the premium brand service they can deliver to their customers, with our support and experience.

Over the past year, we have worked closely with our client to implement our global ‘good practice’ in a way that suits the business structure, marketplace and customers in China.  In addition to core customer operations, a number of specialist roles have been or will shortly be introduced that will support strategic projects such as investment  in aftersales customer goodwill and the careful management of cases where vehicles are off-road undergoing repair.  Our successful cost management process and expertise has already helped our client improve customer experience and manage cost in European operations.

This expansion marks a 41% increase to our staff in China, compounding the scale of the growth potential in the region. The team celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the customer services centre launch in October of this year.

It has been a great team effort and the experience of the team in China has ensured the launch was smooth and successful, the client has said “It’s really a great result and improvement, thank you and the team”.

Do know more about Percepta’s presence in China, read our older news articles:
We’re Still Growing
Percepta China Launch Runs Smoothly
Percepta Expands Operations in China

Overview

Our client partner, a global premium brand, wanted Percepta to help them replicate best practice and high customer satisfaction scores delivered in the UK to support this rapidly growing market. 

 To do this we agreed to provide three key services:

• Customer Relations – enquiries, case management & concern resolution
• Customer satisfaction survey and insight
• Welcome to brand - a personal welcome for new customers

This presented a number of challenges in terms of cultural barriers, language barriers, distance and time. The implementation process involved working closely with the client to gain an understanding of service level expectations, the recruitment of a new workforce and post project support. The project was delivered on time and within budget.

Challenge

The client had witnessed the positive results Percepta had achieved in helping them obtain their best ever customer satisfaction scores. Creating brand advocates had resulted in higher sales, and they wanted Percepta to replicate this success in China.

In order to achieve this, the decision was made to change from outsourcing to in-sourcing so more control could be kept within the client network. There were a number of challenges facing the client in wanting to replicate their current success in China:

• The client needed brand dedicated advisors who could provide clients with the optimal experience
• Rapid growth for the client had resulted in a need to quickly expand the workforce. A high number of new staff meant that not everyone had the required experience or skill set.

Having delivered similar successful operations for the client in Europe for over eight years, it was a natural progression for Percepta to help them deliver this strategy in China. However, launching into a new continent and completely new market presented a number of challenges for Percepta to overcome:

• Distance
• Time
• Cultural differences
• Language
• Building new relationships
• Legal & government requirements

How We Did It

It was decided that Percepta would implement 3 key services for the client partner in China:

• CRC – enquiries, case management & concern resolution
• Customer satisfaction measurement & insight 
• Welcome to brand

Stage 1 of the process involved working closely with the client in order to fully understand their needs and requirements. Similarly, Percepta had to communicate to the client what was required on their part in order to ensure this project was successful, for example, reaching an agreement on what would be the most suitable office layout.

Percepta went on to recruit a new workforce. Three key roles were filled first – HR, Operations Manager and L&D Manager, before Team Leaders and Customer Care Representatives were recruited.

Helping the Operations Manager and Learning & Development Consultant understand best practice, they came to the UK to gain a deeper insight into the Percepta way of thinking, with the new HR manager visiting Australia to understand operations there.

The implementation process of the new services was smooth. A fully UAT’d system meant that the CRM system worked effectively from day 1. The project was launched on time and within budget with a full team of specialists.

Full post project launch support was provided by the Operations Implementation Manager, who stayed on for two months after the launch of the project, ensuring all operational processes were in place. Any outstanding risks/problems were dealt with and systems were put in place for key processes such as performance management and quality assurance.

Post project evaluation has highlighted a number of excellent results, with all service level agreements being met. The client has achieved the highest ever satisfaction scores and even achieved the highest score across all global markets. Prior to the project, 80% of calls were queries with only 20% follow up, but this is now a 60/40 split as we have trained advisors to see a query though to closure.

Welcome to brand calls have provided the client with more detailed data resulting in enhanced reporting. This has allowed a more refined and tailored service to be offered to customers, heightening their overall experience.

Percepta has announced it will present its customer contact center and loyalty services in booth 319 at the ICMI’s (International Customer Management Institute) 2012 Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) May 7-10, at the Exhibition Hall in Seattle. Doug Van Leuven, Percepta vice president, sales and marketing, and Jim Marano, manager, corporate marketing, will represent Percepta at the event.

“This is a great opportunity for attendees to get to know us better,” said Van Leuven. “Many of the contact center industry’s professionals are not familiar with our capabilities, resources, and worldwide reach. We want to show them how we can help enhance customer loyalty through our highly effective programs and support services. I think many of the people at the exhibition will be pleasantly surprised to learn about what we do and how efficiently we do it.”

Percepta has been providing customer relationship services on a global basis to an international roster of clients since 2001. The company supports its clients through an array of proven programs designed to return positive results at cost savings of up to 20 percent.

“We cover the traditional contact center services, but we also do so much more,” added Marano. “We’re always looking at our clients’ specific situations and evaluating what they need to reach their objectives. And we’re very conscious of costs, so we’re always finding ways to make a client’s budget work harder and produce greater measurable results. ACCE is a perfect place to tell the Percepta story.”

ACCE has long been regarded as one of the contact center industry’s most important educational and networking events. The exhibition is designed for industry executives and managers to help them improve contact center performance and operations, better manage people and resources, and select and implement appropriate technology.

To learn more about Percepta, call 313.390.0157 or visit www.percepta.com.