Product category:
Mid-range and Large PLCs
News Release from: Rockwell Automation Global Manufacturing Solutions
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 31 May 2002
Technical support in soccer rivalry
Rockwell Automation's Western European Technical Support Centre at Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes will be a lively place during the forthcoming World Cup.
Rockwell Automation's Western European Technical Support Centre at Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes will be a lively place during the forthcoming World Cup, as the new multi-national customer support team eagerly follows the progress of the European nations The Western European Centre now provides telephone, fax and email technical support for the whole of Western Europe and Scandinavia, including the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Finland, Iceland and South Africa
A similar centre covering Eastern Europe has been established in Germany.
Engineers from all over Western Europe have been brought together at Kiln Farm to form a 28-strong team of experts able to answer technical customer enquiries on Rockwell Automation products and software in six languages.
"The Customer Service Centre will be eventful over the summer as our engineers get behind their teams in the World Cup", says Rockwell Automation technical support manager Steve Norton.
"It will be very interesting on 2nd June when England meets Sweden".
Customers access the Technical Support Centre by dialling a local number in their own country.
Calls, which are charged at local rates, are routed directly to an appropriate product support engineer, ensuring customers are greeted in their own language.
By centralising support in one location, greater depth and breadth of knowledge is available to the technical support team, enabling the majority of queries to be answered on the first call.
"If the engineer taking the call doesn't have the in-depth knowledge of the product required to answer a particular query, there is always someone in the centre who does", says Norton.
"We receive on average 5000 to 6000 telephone calls each month, and 76% of these queries are resolved on the same day.
We also receive around 300 emails per month, and aim to respond to each of these within the hour".
Last year the Technical Support Centre was awarded Support Centre Practices (SCP) certification by the international Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA), a process that involved measuring customer satisfaction with the support centre with a major survey.
The survey found that 93% of people were either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they received, a performance described by the SSPA auditor as "outstanding".
The underlying trend call volume indicates technical support queries are rising by around 10% a year.
"We've invested heavily to improve our technical support so people are more likely to use it", says Norton.
All Rockwell Automation customers have access to the Technical Support Centre, which operates between 8am and 6pm Central European Time.
A range of value added support agreements are also available from Rockwell Automation, providing 24/7 telephone or on-site technical support, parts maintenance services and full asset management.
High quality technical support has long been a key selling point for Rockwell Automation products, and the creation of a regional support centre for Western Europe has further improved its competitive edge in this arena.
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