Category: Service CRM

Roll out 24/7 customer service faster with Simply C2

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Providing 24/7 customer service across a large geography is challenging from even an operational point of view. It gets tougher when your customers speak many different languages.

The first contact our customers normally have with our customer support is with the call centre.

However, a call centre has significant disadvantages. Especially in a country like ours or a geography like Europe which speaks many languages. So running a call centre is expensive, across time zones and languages.

We understand; we are in India with more than 25 recognized languages. This is probably more varied than Europe! So, if your customers require 24/7 customer service, then you need to also plan for manpower that can handle all those languages your customers speak. 

We introduced Simply C2 to ensure that you can roll out 24/7 customer service without worrying about accessibility. It is an app that helps your customers log complaints any time of the day or night in their language of choice.

Simply C2 is available in 18 languages and in 55 countries around the world.

24/7 Customer Service

Using a mobile app like Simply 2 to provide access to 24/7 customer service can significantly streamline the process and improve efficiency. Here are some key advantages and considerations when implementing Simply C2 app for logging repair service requests:

Advantages of app-based 24/7 customer service:

  1. Accessibility: Simply C2 provides users with the flexibility to log service requests from anywhere, anytime. This is especially valuable for customers who may need urgent repairs or encounter issues outside of regular business hours.
  2. Real-time Communication: Simply C2 enables real-time communication between customers and service providers. Users can receive updates on the status of their repair requests and communicate with service personnel directly through the app.
  3. Photo and Video Uploads: Simply C2 can allow users to attach photos or videos of the issues they’re experiencing. This visual information can help service providers better understand the problem, potentially leading to faster and more accurate resolutions.
  4. GPS Location Tracking: Integration with GPS features can automatically provide the service provider with the customer’s location. This is particularly useful for field service technicians who need to reach the site for repairs.
  5. Push Notifications: Users can receive instant notifications about the status of their service request, appointment confirmations, or any updates from the service provider. This enhances communication and keeps customers informed.
  6. Integration with Calendar and Scheduling: Mobile apps can integrate with users’ calendars, allowing them to schedule repair appointments at convenient times. Service providers can also use scheduling features to optimize their workflow.
  7. Digital approvals: Customers can digitally sign off on repairs quotations or services through the Simply C2 app, providing a paperless and efficient way to close out service requests.

Our design considerations:

  1. User-Friendly Interface: Ensure that the app has an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Customers and service technicians should be able to navigate the app easily to log or manage service requests.
  2. Security and Privacy: Given the sensitive nature of repair requests, prioritize security features to protect customer data. Implement secure login procedures and encryption to safeguard user information. We ensured that we strictly adhere to the letter and spirit of the DPDP Act and GDPR.
  3. Integration with Saleswah CRM in the backend: The app should seamlessly integrate with the Saleswah CRM at the backend- ensuring that any customer service request is seamlessly logged into the Saleswah CRM account of your- the service provider.

Watch the video to see how Simply C2 mobile app for logging repair service requests can enhance customer satisfaction, streamline operations, and improve overall efficiency in the repair service process.

Set up 24/7 customer service channel for your business – in 18 languages. 

Flexible CRM report builder for your sales and service

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A case for a flexible CRM report builder for creating custom reports

When we built Saleswah CRM, first for sales and then for customer service– field service first and then for managing service centers handling repairs, functionality of our CRM reporting tool has always lagged the richness of the data that we captured.

We have been working over the past one year to change that.

The central nature of reports in your operations

Reports help you manage. They help you delve deeper into key metrics. They tell you what is working and what is not. How did our CRM reporting tool evolve with time?

Phase 1 of the CRM report builder: set of standard reports

We started with having a suite of “canned” or standard reports- reports that worked for some customers some of the time! Some measures are universal- they work for all businesses. But, most people want the reports to be tweaked, filtered and presented the way they want.

You see, reports are very unique. They are unique to your business. Because you want to measure what I in my business may not want to measure.

Our short term answer to this was simply build reports that anyone asked for. Even complex dashboards. Some times we built reports that made sense only to the person asking for it. But many times, the report we built on someone’s request, got added to our main product- and was available to all our customers.

Like the “Sales Dashboard” for instance.

Flexible CRM report builder for your sales and service 1
Sales key metrics

Phase 1 -a: CRM report builder driven by customer inputs

As the suite of reports grew, we organized them into folders – grouped around themes of leads, tasks, activities, deals, forecasts etc (for sales) and similarly for tickets (repair, maintenance, refuel, installation).

Flexible CRM report builder for your sales and service 2
Flexible CRM report builder for your sales and service 3
Flexible CRM report builder for your sales and service 4

But, we were aiming at a target that was moving. And, in our CRM reporting tool, the module specific reports tended to be inadequate for customers who were looking for more complex analysis- how did leads distribute among industries or customer profiles? Do you close more business from marketing leads or referrals? Is there a correlation between activities and sales? Which sales guys are more productive and why?

And, we hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities. It’s a complex world. Some outcomes are better explained with correlation with performed activities. It’s just that what works for you, may not work for me. Even within the same industry, metrics vary widely.

So, we started looking beyond standard reports. And, explored turning the reports function over to you.

Guidelines for a CRM report builder

About a year back, this is what we drew up as design guidelines.

  1. Must be simple to use.
  2. Should not require knowledge of database structure.
  3. Target a power user. We spent some deliberating on this; so let me explain:
    • A power user is someone who understands the full software, understands all the modules and their interplays. He also understands his own company’s business objectives, metrics and the kind of data that makes sense to senior management.
    • Why not a regular user? Because, we did not think the regular user makes as much use of the software to drive his decision making. Also, a company works with a shared set of metrics- individuals don’t normally drive their own.
  4. Focus on flexibility in report outputs. Let the customer have control on the columns she wants to see in her report and use powerful filtering to narrow down the scope of what she wants to see.

Phase 2: Unveiling the new CRM custom report builder

While we have kept the tool simple, it is no simpler than necessary for a power user! But, if you remember your basic boolean algebra and rudiments of set theory, you should be able to work with the CRM reporting tool and generate custom reports.

custom report builder of saleswah crm

The report building wizard will help you create logic of the following type:

{(A1 + A2 + A3) AND (B1 + B2 + B3)} – (C1+C2+C3)

The idea is to build a large set of targets (A), narrow them down by filter conditions (B) and remove specific items (C) from the result.

As an example, you can expect to see a query like this below:

[(Proposals.ProductCategoryId Equals ‘Sales CRM’ + Proposals.ProductCategoryId Equals ‘Service CRM’) . (Proposals.ActivityLoggedDate LessThan ’11 Aug 2022′)] – ()

No matter if you are using a sales or service CRM, you can use the custom report builder described above to extract just the information that you need.

Export the output of the custom report builder to Google Sheets

The output of the report builder can be sent to a .csv file or exported to Google Sheets (to your connected Google Workspace).

You do not need a call center

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Simply C2 app as a call center replacement available in 53 countries

Just an announcement.
The recent version of Simply C2 app is now available in Google Playstore of 150 countries.

You do not need a call center 5
Simplicity is the essence of design

If you are a manufacturer of products that require after sales service, and selling to one or more of those countries, this is what is means to you:

  • No need to set up a call center in any of the those countries.
    • Set up and enable Simply C2 for your customers in those countries.
    • Communicate to your customers and encourage them to download Simply C2 and register as a customer for your products. FREE!
    • Now no longer worrying about the timezone, the language your agents speak. Your customers can log a support ticket, any time in the day or night and receive an acknowledgement immediately.
call centre replacement

App design learnings: how simple should simple be?

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App design learnings from our experience

We are designing for truck drivers. Plumbers. Electricians. Mechanics. In addition to office workers, home-makers.

In fact we have no idea who could be the next user for Simply C2.

For those who do not know, Simply C2, earlier called Grahak Setu, is an app for customers to log complaints directly with manufacturers.

Our CRM users are sophisticated business users. Designing for them did not prepare us for designing for “unsophisticated”- yes, the quotes are deliberate- users.

Here are a few of our app design learnings.

Simple is beautiful

App Design Learnings - Simply C2
Make it simple to do his primary task

The number one on the app design learnings list.

Simple is minimal. Minimal is what you need.

Our target users are busy. They do not have the luxury of waiting to figure it out. Also, they come to the app to do one simple thing.

Make that task stare at them.

B2B is hard to design for

The same app can be used by multiple users at different levels. While the boss may want aggregation and reports, the traveling salesman/ service technician may just want to see tasks for the day.

What we worry about every day. Saleswah CRM tests our ingenuity every day.

App design learnings: how simple should simple be? 6
App design learnings: how simple should simple be? 7
App design learnings: how simple should simple be? 8

The solution is not to show the charts to the technicians or even the entire ticket closure workflow to the managing director sitting in the office. We must be able to present relevant and role-specific views and workflows to the users.

Doing that in the same mobile app, in the same UI and ensuring great UX is hard. Very hard.

Core set of target users with core set of functionality

Every app has a target persona. How you choose to define the target persona while designing the app and the workflows, will influence the usage and adoption.

We need a lot of users. But, first it needs to be useful to a core set of users and they need to find it useful. Really useful. And helpful.

App design learnings: how simple should simple be? 9
Simplicity is the essence of design

Some of the users will say good things about your app. And, maybe start a virtuous cycle.

Doing this in B2B apps is hard.

Because the boss decides. But he does not use.

Sometimes words speak louder than pictures

Sometimes as designers we get carried away. With icons, pictures, mnemonics. And we forget that we are part of an echo-chamber of app developers and software nerds.

App Design Learnings - Words Speak louder
Simple words like “Help” rather than big ones like “Complaint”

So, if that floppy disk sign for “save” does not make sense to your target audience, please use the word “Save” instead. Sometimes what you lose in “aesthetics” can be more than made up in comprehensibility.

Localize, localize, localize

Start with translating the menu and the instructions. If your app is targeting a diverse geography and demography not very fluent in English, you have to do this. The best example in the Indian ecosystem of this is KhataBook. They have used localization as part of their design strategy- from day one.

App design learnings localize

Clearly one of the most important app design learnings.

Saleswah CRM is in 4 languages. Simply C2 is in 2. But, we are expanding our repertoire.

Sometimes, customization is the only way

This is especially true in B2B. Because in B2B segment, each customer will have a different customer facing process.

Sometimes they are able to let their customer facing process work with Simply C2. It depends on their perception of the ease of adoption of their target customers.

But, many times they are not. We have no choice then to re-build the Simply C2 process around UI/ UX that speaks to their clients.

Like we built for Initiative Water, a pioneering company based in Pune, India. Initiative innovates in the space of Multi-port valves, Water ATMs and Dosing Pumps and uses Saleswah CRM to manage their customer service centres across India. Their version of the customer facing app, the Initiative Grahak Setu is custom made for their customers alone.

They use the data they log from the customer interactions to tweak and expand their service network.

Setting up a customer service management solution in 1 week or less

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How much time do you have or wish to invest in creating a customer service management solution?

Conventional wisdom

A Customer Service Management Solution implementation in your company will involve massive efforts over months involving

– Requirement gathering with a the help of a consultant/ system integrator

– Creating technical specifications for customization

– Implementing customized processes, UI for your unique needs.

And, we have not mentioned the time taken for internal adoption, people getting used to newer workflows etc.

It will cost you time, money and even peace of mind.

But it need not be that way.

Come to Saleswah CRM customer service management solution

Saleswah customer service management solution user hierarchy

A Saleswah CRM based customer service management solution (service CRM) implementation will take days- and will require no coding, no consultants and will be totally under your control.

Most customers get started in one week. If you need help; we are there. And most implementations are free.

What will you get?

Saleswah CRM customer service management solution software helps you automate your customer service function – in most cases out of the box. No matter if your customers come to your service centres or your service executives go to customer locations- we can cater to your service management scenario.

  • Track warranty or AMC of your sold equipment by serial number
  • Repair, PM, Installation, Calibration… all sorts of ticket types
  • User configurable tickets- total control on data capture from the field.
  • Divide territories by executive -for instant allocation of tickets to the queues.
  • Track technician on mobile app
  • Track spares usage and inventory at all levels
  • Repair estimates on the go
  • Collect payments on the app

And, many more.

A contact centre replacement for free!

When you set up and configure Saleswah CRM for your customer service, do not forget to set up Simply C2 mobile app. For FREE!

Simply C2 is a free to use mobile app on the Android platform for YOUR CUSTOMERS to log complaints which get instantly added to your service ticket list.

Saleswah Service CRM is a web and mobile based software that helps solve critical customer service issues.

Get your customer service streamlined. … Speak to us today.

Inaugural offer!

Enable Simply C2 for your customers for an irresistible offer of Rs 8000/- for a year. Follow this link to activate.

Grahak Setu is now “Simply C2”

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Grahak Setu is now "Simply C2" 10

We have now made Grahak Setu available to customers in the Playstore of 150 plus countries around the world.

And, along with that, we have renamed it. Grahak Setu is now called Simply C2.

Here’s the link in the playstore where you can download it. Please check that it is available for download in your country.

What is Simply C2?

Simply C2 is an app which is free for your customers to download and use. They can use it to log complaints and even track the status of their complaints.

Grahak Setu is now "Simply C2" 11

Simply Customer to Companies. Simply C2.

Why Simply C2?

Your customers want to reach you to report a problem with an equipment they have purchased from you. The conventional way is for you to set up a call centre and let your customers know the number to call.

There are problems with this. A call centre is not cheap to set up and run. Also, in many cases, you need to offer services in multiple languages. This is true in India, rest of Asia, Europe and Africa.

Grahak Setu is now "Simply C2" 12

So, if you are selling and supporting a global client base, you need to spend a lot of money.

Also, a call centre may even capture the details incorrectly. Leading to loss of time to respond and customer dissatisfaction.

Thus we thought of Simply C2. It is an app which allows your customers to log a complaint from anywhere in the world at any hour.

What do you get when you get onboard Simply C2?

When you get onboard the Simply C2, this is what you get:

  1. List your product/ brand on the platform
  2. Admin access to Saleswah CRM- that’s where the your customers’ complaints will be logged; automatically – without any intervention from your side.
  3. Your customer gets a simple way to log complaints and store his owned equipment details in one place.
Grahak Setu is now "Simply C2" 13

What do you need to do to get onboard Simply C2?

To summarize, if you are a manufacturer and need to provide after sales service of any machinery- for consumer or industrial use- then here’s how you can set up a way to log complaints at negligible cost.

  1. Ask to be listed as a service provider on Simply C2. Click here
  2. Once your listing is confirmed, simply let your customers know this new way of logging complaints for you. We provide a tool-kit for your customers to get started using it.

How do you configure Saleswah CRM?

Along with your listing on Simply C2, you will get an account in Saleswah CRM with admin access.

It will be partly pre-configured. Follow the basic configuration steps in the wizard for the rest. WhatsApp or email us in case you need help.

Track your spare parts usage with ease

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Spare parts usage
Image by Ingbert Merz from Pixabay

It costs you time, money and material to run customer service. Spare parts usage is among the first things you need to track.

Spare parts are expensive – tracking wrong use or misuse can save you money. 

Read more on how to save money using intelligent spares parts management

You need to ensure:

  • The right spare parts are used for the right equipment
  • The right amount of consumables are used
  • Spare parts availability with the engineers
  • Stock audit compliance

Spare parts management helps select right parts for the right equipment

In case of spare parts usage, we do not want the decision to be left to the technician on the spot.

As with repair, we want him to “follow the manual”.

We want him to follow the prescribed procedure. And, also to use the right parts. Because, if he did not, there could be bad consequences from machine health perspective.

spare parts management
Right spare parts for the right equipment

The simplest example is when you replace a “fuse” wire. The temptation to go over and under specification is huge- especially if you do not happen to have the right “fuse-wire” with you.

Of course this can lead to disaster.

Not all mis-use or wrong-use leads to disasters. But, should the technician decide? Let technology help him with suggesting spares that need to be used.

Spare parts management software- right amount of consumables

Spare parts management
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

Let’s say your car goes for servicing- and the lube oil needs to be changed. Of course different cars need different amount of lubes. And the software guides the technician on how much is right.

And the same software helps, if you are managing a team of technicians, to ensure that the right amount of lube is used for the right car.

Consumables or spare parts usage, technology helps.

Plan right stocking levels for optimum spare parts usage

spare parts management software
Saleswah CRM – how to manage stocking levels of spare parts at all users

You need to plan for the right stocking levels of spare parts- at all levels.

Plan for urgent and frequently used spare parts usage and availability with your technicians.

Plan for re-stocking based on spare parts usage.

A spare parts management software integrated with your service CRM will help you plan against nasty surprises.

Comply with stock audit for parts

Stock audit is an integral part of spare parts management. It happens once a year but when it does, your numbers should match the physical audit.

Saleswah CRM helps.

Since no parts are used without being indented for and approved. Since we track parts usage at the lowest point from the central stocking point and every point in between. Since we can produce reports for stock levels availability.

Physical stock taking of spare parts usage is a breeze.

10 point framework for flawless service CRM implementation

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service CRM implementation

Service CRM implementation check-list

A service CRM implementation is hard to do. Based on our experience, we put together this checklist. Hopefully this helps in your service CRM implementation.

No matter if you are designing a service CRM from the ground up or simply interested in an existing service CRM implementation, follow the framework below.

Type of service and deliverables

What are the types of repair/ maintenance activities that are performed?

– Repair

– Preventive/ scheduled maintenance

– Installation

Any other?

It’s absolutely necessary to have a clear understanding of all the reasons your customers need your service for. And, it is important to document your process for each of them for a successful service CRM implementation.

Service Venue

Where do you provide the service? Is it at the customer location or at your own service center?

Important question. While your own service center might provide a much more controlled environment, in most products, there is no option but to go to the customer location and provide service.

The challenges are different.

Company policy regarding after sales support

This differs widely from one company to the other. It’s important to know what your policy is.

Do you service only equipment which is under service contract/ warranty? Or you service equipment on an ad hoc basis (chargeable)?

Your service CRM implmentation needs that input for design.

What is your repair process?

Repair and Maintenance

In service CRM implementation, think long and hard about your repair process. Starting with logging a service ticket to the closure of the ticket. Break it up into smaller steps and document how you:

– log a service ticket, assign the ticket to someone, track the ticket to closure.

Logging a service ticket starts the process. Start my defining who can log a ticket- your reception/ dedicated call center/ any one in service function. Or, do you want to allow self service for logging service complaints: on your website or through an app?

You should also know what information about the repair do you want to capture- fault, repairs, spares used, physical condition of the equipment etc. Do you need to notify someone regarding the closure of the ticket? In what format and when?

How do you perform preventive maintenance?

Preventive maintenance is extremely important in many service scenarios, especially with equipment with mechanical parts. It ensures that the need for ad-hoc repairing is reduced.

How do you schedule preventive maintenance? Is it at fixed intervals? Or does the maintenance interval vary based on how much is the wear and tear based on observed/ projected run hour? 

After scheduling, does the customer need to be informed and his approval required? Does a manager from your side approve the visit?

Installation:

installation service ticket management
Installation

Does your product need installation at customer premises? Installation can be simple- like that for most home appliances or complex- like for large, complex industrial or engineering products.

As with the other types of tickets, document:

– who logs an installation ticket? With what information? How the ticket is assigned/ re-assigned to someone? How the ticket is tracked to close?

Sometimes sale and subsequent delivery can itself trigger an installation note. If that is part of your business process, make sure you document that as part of your service CRM implementation.

Warranty/ AMC:

Do you have a process for tracking warranty and annual maintenance contract (AMC) on serial numbers of equipment?

Do you have a process for chasing after renewals of AMC or converting warranty expiry into AMC?

Is your warranty or AMC driven by case to case basis depending on business requirements or is it the same warranty terms for each product type for all cases?

These questions are important for it is clearly needed for the service CRM implementation.

List of products under service and spares

– products you are currently selling

– products that you have stopped selling but will still service

Also, while some spare parts are used across all equipment, there are others that may be usable only with specific equipment. Careful mapping of spare parts with the appropriate equipment is of enormous help to your service personnel and is crucial to an effective service CRM implementation.

Defects/ suggested repairs

Do you have a list of defects and repairs for each of your products/ product categories? It really helps to map common defects and suggested repairs to products so that your field service people get prompted/ guided correctly.

Repair estimates/ Invoices 

If you get a service ticket from a customer whose equipment was not under warranty/ AMC- do you charge him for repair or simply refuse?

If you charge him, then, what is the process for- raising a repair estimate and getting it approved?

The above outlines a basic framework for service CRM implementation. After implementing this, you can think of advanced features like SLA management, flexible scheduling, mobile app for location tracking and so on.

Need a good reason to implement service CRM? Take 4

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I interviewed a recent customer about why he wanted to implement service CRM in his company.

What does he use Saleswah CRM for? They run a large number of service centers around the country which repair water treatment equipment of their own manufacture – dosing pumps etc. Their customers are spread all over India. They sell through a large network of distributors and retailers.

Here are his 4 top reasons to implement service CRM. In the order he narrated to me.

  1. Create a system for logging and prioritizing service calls- crying baby gets the most milk. Should NOT.
  2. Post facto analysis- Monitor targets/ efficiency. Compare across equipment, service centres, technicians
  3. Restore confidence in fairness of the spares usage/ requirement- not change them arbitrarily and ensure the genuinely required parts are used. Also ensure only genuine spares are used.
  4. Cut down on the time spent in communicating with customers regarding the stages of the service

Let’s dive in, im some detail.

First reason to implement service CRM: prioritize service tickets

He wanted some method – to restore order and a sense of calm. Too often, his service technicians would simply attend to those customers who were shouting at them across the counter or the phone line.
Frequently tickets logged weeks ago were pending. No one followed a system.

implement service crm to prioritize tickets
This is how his repairs looked like on his service notice board

“This was my top-most reason to implement service CRM- I did not want my technicians making these decisions under pressure”.

Now, after he has implemented, the CRM gives him alerts when a ticket is delayed beyond justification.

Second reason to implement service CRM: post-facto analysis

“I had no actionable data”- he says of his second reason to implement service CRM.

He wanted to monitor targets- and track if his team is meeting them.

How many repairs per day? Per week/ month?

getting insights is a top reason to implement service crn
Implement service CRM to get all sorts of data about your customer service

Now cut the data by service centre, by product type. You get all that now at your fingertips. Which equipment is failing more often? Is this a problem with certain batches of production?

Which spares are being used most often?

Now, he gets reports on all the above- which helps him identify areas for improvement. He has already identified that he needs a service center in a city he did not have one in.

Third reason why implement service CRM: spares management

“Using non-genuine spares is a sure way to kill my brand and goodwill”- says he.

He wants to be fair- why charge for spares when you don’t need to? But, if spare parts are used, they must be genuine and customers must have confidence in the repair process.

“The only way to ensure fair usage of spares and charge the customers in a transparent way was to implement service CRM. I track spares from my central warehouse to all my service centers – to the ultimate repairs done.”

He has already reduced his spares outgo over last year- even though he is servicing more equipment than last year.

Fourth reason to implement service CRM: streamline customer communication

Before they implemented Saleswah service CRM, his team spent a lot of time on the phone. Communicating or responding to customers.

Have you received it?

Have you started working on it? How much will it cost? What’s wrong with it?

Can you do it faster?

Or, it could be his team chasing the customer.

Please approve the repair estimate so we can start working. It’s repaired – come pick it up. Or, we have sent it- here’s the details.

Phone and whatsapp. It was all ad-hoc.

Now, those days are truly in the past.

Simply C2 app

He wants to specially thank Simply C2– the companion app- which we implemented for his customers.

All transaction communication is now automated. The moment the equipment reaches the service center- there is a ticket acknowledgement which is sent to the customer.

Customer gets the status update through the Simply C2 app, for ALL repair stages. Not just that – he can approve estimates and make payments through the app. And, download invoices.

Do you want to know how Saleswah service CRM and Simply C2 can work together to transform your service operations? Call us or sign up for our inaugural offer here.

 

Digitize customer service records at source

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Remove the pain of collecting and analyzing service data

When on a field visit to attend to customer complaints, a lot of data is collected. We will show that there is a lot to gain if you digitize customer service records right at the source- that is collect it in digital form rather than depending on someone to transcribe the form later.

Till recently, all that happened on sheets of paper- pre-printed stationery. The service technician would come to the site, and scribble something on the form at the end of the visit. The customer would sign off on the form and that would be that.

I often wonder, what happens to the data thus collected? Does the form serve any purpose rather than being a glorified attendance record?

It is not that the form does not collect any information. Depending on the company and the product being serviced, the form can range from the most simple to the most complex. Details of spares being used, time records, defects being addressed, fixes being applied etc. If you digitize customer service records, this data is available for future analysis, product imporvements, process improvements and coaching.

What you lose if you do not digitize customer service records

My scepticism is on account of 2 things:

  1. The field technician is in a hurry- he fills in the details but half heartedly. Sometimes I have seen them fill up the details only when back in office.
  2. And, even if one assumes the supervisor reviews the filled up service forms, for him to make sense of many a bunch of forms, brough in by the team under him, notye down learnings and apply corrections at the end of the day is perthaps expecting too much.

The above is a simple small organization- very flat. In the absense of transcribing the forms into digital, any attempt at lasting learning at an organizational level will be a failure.

Why digitize customer service records?

Capturing the visit details in service calls has several advantages:

  1. You can create as many forms as scenarios. Let us say your team services Elevators. You may have 3 main categories of elevators and about ten models under each category. You may have 2 service types: preventive maintenance, breakdown/ repair.
    • You can create, if needed, 3 x 10 x 2 = 60 different forms and push them to the technicians automatically. If the ticket is for preventive maintenance, and for model M3 under category C1, then the technician should only see the form for preventive maintenance which is customized for M3 and C1.
      As an aside, try doing the same in paper form. Or have your technicians carry each type and get confused.
  2. You can specify which are the data fields that are “mandatory” and which are not. Thus, ensuring we always get the important data across all tickets.
    You can of course specify which fields are mandatory to fill in a paper form- but, good luck trying to enforce it!
  3. Save the data in the server immediately- in a structured format and thuis have it available at all levels for future analysis, learning and product imporvements.
    You can send the customer, a summary of the visit- from the data captured from the visit- right then and there.
    Goodbye transcribing data from paper form to the computer and goodbye data inaccuracy.
  4. Pictures: using digital ensures you can capture photos- of the site, of thr equipment, of the spare being replaced.
    Pictures serve as proof, reminders of action to be taken por even corroboration of data.
  5. Signatures: you can get the customer to sign off right on the mobile screen – thus removing the last reason to use paper.

When you digitize customer service records, thus, the key benefits are:

1. Accuracy and relevance of data captured.

2. Use in future analysis and learning across the company.

3. Cheaper and faster.

4. Use the data for future analysis.

The roadblocks: the difficulties to digitize customer service records

There are essentially 2 ways to digitize customer service records. Scan a document or fill a form online. Not counting the 3rd one which is transcribing from the manually filled up documents.

Scanning a document gives very poor results. We have worked with OCR software and even the best of them do not work with the kind of handwriting that you see on a custtomer service record form.

See a real manual CSR below.

digitize customer service records

What can you make of this? Forget an OCR; even a human transcriber will not be able to make any sense of this. Add to that – many of the important and required fields are empty.

Fill a form online and onsite: the ONLY way to digitize customer service records

The only way to accurately record customer service experience is to digitize customer service records on the spot. So, we are talking mobile apps with structured forms asking to be filled.

And, remember these forms will be different for diferent products – sometimes even within the same product class. Take elevators (lifts): so many varieties of them, shapes and sizes.

So, here’s what we did. Download the Saleswah CRM app at the Google playstore to see for yourself. If you need a demo or demo account creds, contact us.

We enabled YOU to create your own forms for ALL categories of products

We now allow the customer to create forms for all categories and all types of tickets- after all, a repair ticket requires very different information to be captured than a scheduled maintenance ticket.

We allow you to define virtually any number of variations. Not just that.

Depending on the equipment for which the service ticket is created, we push the exact type of repair ticket to the mobile phone of the technician.

See below:

Digitize customer service records at source 14
Digitize customer service records at source 15
Digitize customer service records at source 16

The first 2 screens are for repair of batteries whereas the 3rd one is for a Generator set.

Same technician- obviously different tickets.

Similarly, you could create- without any need for programming, any number of forms catering to any need to digitize customer service records- on site.

Check out Saleswah CRM with a free trial. Absolutely free! And digitize customer service records, onsite, error free.