Connecting with customers, and driving customer-centric initiatives, are central to customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Pre and post-sale customer service, plays an important role in generating a loyal customer base, that then itself becomes an extension of the brand, as association longevity is achieved and customers become brand ambassadors; advocates for our organisation, our products and solutions.
But how do we stand ourselves apart from our competition and ensure that we are connecting with our customers at a deeper level, in a manner that secures their loyalty, manages their expectations, and integrates them into our company-culture?
KUKA’s cross organizational mind-set puts customers at our core; Customer services are a fundamental solution within our broader portfolio of solutions and, rather than an add-on, we like to consider our customer services provision as value-add; a service that amplifies our customer’s experience with KUKA, when embarking upon their automation journey.
We are an ‘enabler’ for our customers, that is what drives us; empowering them to become more flexible, more productive, and last, but not least, more competitive. But not every manufacturer that we engage with has previous experience of automation. Therefore, our main objective is to fully understand their system, bringing our product and application expertise to bear, so they can continue to optimize their process flows.
One arm of our customer service provision is the comprehensive engineering expertise and reliable field service engineers that underpin a wide range of service and maintenance agreements in place across the UK and Ireland. Delivered out of our Wednesbury, Halesowen and Dundalk offices, KUKA’s unique consulting and support services are delivered at the highest level, via our team of highly trained and industry-savvy technicians, encompassing our robotics, systems, and advanced welding solutions. In turn, this knowledge has enabled our customers to harness the power of automation, safe in the knowledge that when faced with a challenge, KUKA shall be on hand to ensure any costly downtime is minimized. These close relationships with our customers form the basis of our successes – we firmly believe that excellence comes from trust, derived from working with an expert team, helping others to succeed.
But, above and beyond face-to-face, hands-on support that a customer might expect from an assistance programme, how are some customer service provisions changing, in keeping with the times and technological advances? It is true that we have all had to diversify our service offerings during, and post-COVID , with many ‘physical’ services being offered online, out of necessity, consummate with social distancing protocol, and some restrictions on travel and entering third-party premises.
Having moved some of our customer service provisions into the cloud, KUKA has been able to streamline some support services over cross-functional channels, improving convenience for our customers and empowering them with the provision of tools that match their exact needs.
The introduction of ‘my.kuka’ our digital customer portal, enables customers to take control, 24/7, of their robot applications. Having witnessed a shift in when and how customers want to, and have been accessing information, KUKA is making meaningful changes to the resources available to our client base. Customers want information at any time of the day, from anywhere and accessible from any device. This is the new reality for customer services,; always being connected, as a means to promote efficiency and the delivery of a level of transparency that drives loyalty and makes customers feel valued.
By moving some technology applications to the cloud, such as ‘KUKA Xpert’, KUKA is also able to meet some of its sustainability objectives, consuming fewer servers, less power and reducing carbon emissions. The provision of a sustainable business environment is a huge consideration these days for customers who are looking for an environmentally astute supplier, whose practices align with their own environmental goals and values. Gaining loyalty from our existing customers is lucrative, and delivering the right tools is essential, but it can cost up to five times as much to win new customers.
The strength of our brand, products and solutions are known across industry; we are a leading supplier in the delivery of automation across several manufacturing sectors, though post sale support is critical. We wish to establish relationships with our customers, built upon trust, two-way communication, and transparency. The after-sales service/customer service provision/programme plays an integral role in the decision to purchase. It is these post-sales engagements that leave a lasting impression and reflect positively upon our brand.
Delivered out of the KUKA UK and Ireland, KUKA’s customer service provision makes our offering very unique, in that we provide an extensive portfolio of after-sales services, that include: training, spare parts, used robots, technical hotline, maintenance contracts and engineering field support. Nothing is subcontracted, you will always deal with a KUKA expert.
Unmatched customer centric services, from KUKA. We’ve got your back.
