How One Innovative Telco Improves Customer Service With Its Own Customers
Simyo is an online-only telecom operator in the Netherlands. In a competitive telecom market, maximizing customer satisfaction is a priority for the company.
It’s for this reason that Simyo leverages its online customer community—powered by inSided—to serve as an online knowledge base.
The community enables customers to interact and share advice with each other. The high-level goal is to facilitate a great customer experience (one that doesn’t require more support staff as the Simyo customer base grows).
After proving the value of this approach by answering more questions on the community than any other channel, Simyo doubled down on its conversational service strategy. Today, the community is the No.1 choice of Simyo’s customers when they need assistance.
Here are 3 strategies Simyo employed to create and activate a thriving service community:
Go all in on online channels
Simyo was the first telecom provider in the Netherlands to operate completely online: No brick-and-mortar shops, television commercials, or top-up cards sold in supermarkets. For service, too, Simyo leverages the internet, directing customers to self-service options first and foremost.
Because its guiding principle is “customers in control,” the company built a customer community that empowers its customers to assist each other—and gives Simyo a simpler, more scalable support platform that can help out 24 hours a day.
Today, more Simyo customers get the information they need via the community (45%) than via calls (32%) or emails (23%). And there are major SEO benefits, too: 60% of the traffic to the Simyo community comes from web searches.
Implement a clear contact strategy
Simyo put a new customer contact flow in place and made the community the preferred contact channel. With this they were able to significantly reduce calls and emails to the contact center.
When visiting the service webpage, the customer is directed to search for the information they need. Running a search will show answers from the user community, next to FAQs produced by Simyo’s support team.
Furthermore, if the customer doesn’t find what they’re looking for, the community is the first contact channel that is referenced—with a promise that customers will get an answer within one business day from the Simyo social team or other dedicated community members.
In addition to $1 million in call-deflection cost savings, this strategy has led Simyo’s customers to change their behavior: 70% of them now visit the community before any other channel when they need help.
Create a positive atmosphere
Building a positive vibe is key to customer satisfaction at Simyo. The brand is known for its friendliness, a value that’s reflected on the Simyo community.
In the community’s off-topic section, moderators and customers can get to know each other better, play interactive games, and share personal stories. There’s actually a business case to be made for this kind of casual engagement. When community members can bond, they’re much more likely to become return visitors.
Members who interact freely are also more willing to help each other. On the Simyo community, thousands of customer questions have been answered by other customers. Seeing that their peers are active and involved gives community users more confidence in the community as a valuable resource—while freeing resources for Simyo’s support team.
