Case Study - How KKT KOLBE Reduces Service Requests and Improves its Complaint Management Process with OMQ

As a supplier of high quality kitchen appliances with a wide range of products, KKT KOLBE has an active exchange between the company and its customers. In addition to daily standard enquiries, which lead to a high volume of mail and requests, there are also individual concerns, such as complaints, which usually have to be resolved laboriously and are associated with a lengthy back and forth in e-mail traffic.

KOLBE uses the OMQ system to efficiently automate customer service in order to reduce these customer enquiries by e-mail and simplify matters such as the complaint process. The focus is on improving the help page with OMQ Help and automating service processes with the help of intelligent forms that are integrated directly into the FAQ.

Who is KKT KOLBE?

KKT KOLBE is a specialist in built-in kitchen appliances such as extractor hoods, ovens and dishwashers based in Pettstadt. For more than 20 years, the company has been offering devices with ease of use and a long service life.

When it comes to customer service, KKT KOLBE attaches great importance to the quality of the answers and wants to offer its customers a quick and direct response to customer enquiries.

Idea for automation in customer service

Since the beginning of 2020, the company has had the idea of automation in customer service. The clear advantage of intelligent software for customers and the company is that questions can be answered quickly, easily and without long waiting times. Another of KOLBE’s ideas was to better manage internal service knowledge so that employees could quickly access and process information.

Challenges for the company

KOLBE already had an internal knowledge database prior to the implementation of the OMQ system, but it did not meet the requirements of the service department. Especially in times of home office it is important to use a knowledge database that all employees can access and easily edit from anywhere. The service knowledge should be centrally managed and changes made available in real time to all customers and employees. Suitable tools were lacking for this.

Another challenge for the company was the complaint process. This is a complex process in which a lot of information is required, which has to be queried by the customer in a lengthy process. Important information, such as serial numbers, has often not been provided directly by customers in the past. Conversely, this meant that the exchange between the customers and the company was prolonged and that the volume of mail increased steadily.

The same tasks had to be performed manually again and again by the employees, which took a lot of time.

Process of finding solutions

When looking for suppliers, OMQ convinced KOLBE with a broad product portfolio and a good price-performance ratio. Through constant consultation and communication at eye level, new ideas could be designed and implemented in a timely manner.

The “old” knowledge base was to be replaced with the new, modern AI-based knowledge base of OMQ, thus helping with internal and external information transfer. In addition, KKT KOLBE and OMQ had the joint project to automate various processes such as complaints besides implementing OMQ Help on the help page.

Implementation of the OMQ System

Setting up the knowledge database was quick and easy. The OMQ team transferred the service knowledge from the old database to the new database and supported the KOLBE service team during the system introduction. This enabled OMQ’s central knowledge database to be quickly used.

Thanks to the professional and uncomplicated exchange between the first contact and the execution, the OMQ Help tool was integrated into the service page easily and uncomplicated via JavaScript Snippet. From the time of deployment, the company was able to immediately see how the volume of mail was significantly reduced, as the response process was now improved.

The OMQ system is based on an AI that works out-of-the-box and does not need to be trained. When customers ask a question, AI analyzes it and understands its intention. The AI then finds suitable entries in the knowledge database and displays the correct solution.

The employees were also quickly introduced into the system, as it is very intuitive. No costly employee training had to be carried out and the OMQ system can also be used in the hotline service.

Solution - The central OMQ knowledge base

The central OMQ knowledge database distributes the entire service knowledge in all communication channels (chat, help pages, contact form, ticket system, e-mail inbox). Changes to the FAQ’s on the KOLBE help page are available in real time on the website and the service knowledge is always up to date.

Employees can find solutions and information faster thanks to the OMQ Knowledge Database, enabling them to better help their customers. The service knowledge is the same both internally and externally, which means that customers always receive the same high quality of their answers. At the same time, this means that employees can also work with the system from home, as it is easy to use. New colleagues can also be incorporated so quickly.

Auto-searching help page in action

In addition to the internal knowledge management, which was improved by the automation, the help page of the company was also optimized with the help of the OMQ system.

With the auto-searching help page OMQ Help, which guides customers to the right solution in self-service, KOLBE offers its customers a clear support center. Thanks to the auto-completion, customers are able to guide themselves to the right solution without having to spend time searching. Similar to Google Search, relevant terms appear when entering. The clearly arranged categories also help with easy navigation and look good by adapting them to the KOLBE design.

AI ranks the topics in real time according to their frequency of requests and places them at the top of the list, which also makes it quicker for customers to get their answers.

Automation of the complaint process

Complaints are very expensive and costly for KKT KOLBE. Before the company started using OMQ, inquiries for complaints were made via e-mail and answered manually. This led to the following problem: Since customers did not always provide the right information for the answer, the service case had to be classified first. The result: long-term and complex e-mail communication.

OMQ has simplified this process with a form function integrated into the help page, by allowing customers to enter all relevant information in one form. In the Clickbot procedure, the complaint requests are assigned to a range, then data on errors are queried and the branching logic is used to ask corresponding follow-up questions depending on the decision. In most cases, individual solutions are already offered for the customers and the complaint is invalid or not sent to the service.

If the flaw has not been found by then, the product information is queried in the next step. In this step it is possible to distinguish directly with which machine there is a problem.

The form filled out by the customer is eventually forwarded to the customer service as an e-mail. The fact that the problem can be recorded directly allows the service staff to deal with the specific case better and without any queries. This significantly reduces manual effort and saves a lot of time. The form function significantly reduces incoming e-mails: In peak times, there was a drop in service requests of almost 80%.

By linking the form to the automated help page, it is also ensured that many complaints no longer arise, as the AI already offers suitable solutions.

The result of the collaboration

Since the implementation of the OMQ software, there has been a clear decrease in the number of requests to be answered. Standard requests are recognized by AI technology and answered directly, which greatly relieves service staff as they can now fully focus on individual requests. Since then, fewer tickets have to be processed quantitatively, while the quality of the response is constantly improving. The company has a significant saving of time and effort.

Through the OMQ system, all employees receive all internal service information immediately. Thanks to the intuitive user interface, employees can work with the system right away. New colleagues are also quickly introduced into the system. Through reports and analyses from OMQ, KOLBE is also able to accurately assess its current service volume and to continuously improve its performance by making recommendations from OMQ.

Plans for the future

KKT KOLBE is thinking about automating the chat in the future in order to offer its customers another optimal customer service channel. For customers and employees, this means that the service will be even faster and more efficient. The OMQ Chatbot uses the same service knowledge from the OMQ knowledge database. So there is no additional effort due to time-consuming training. OMQ’s AI learns across all channels, which means it gets better and better with every question asked in chat or on the help page.

Would you like to automate your service processes and make your customer service more efficient? Then contact us or request a demo to get to know our system better.