Something new is coming! We are improving our customer service model, introducing more functionalities to our Help Desk, and launching the #VikingExpert campaign. From now on, on selected dates, you will be able to ask experts from various fields your questions. On April 20th, we're kicking things off with Tomek Chołast from Zrzutka.pl. We discussed our initiatives with Piotr Barycki from Spidersweb.pl. Here’s the interview he conducted with Bartek Grabowski, our Head of New Business.
A few months ago, we conducted a large test of mobile network operators. We checked how their technical support and customer service worked. Bartek Grabowski, Head of New Business at Mobile Vikings, contacted me then. He claimed he was pleased with the test results, but that the Mobile Vikings Help Desk is an extremely important element of the entire organization's operations and that they are constantly working on it. They want the technical support for their community to be even better and to mean even more. He said they were working on a new process to streamline the entire model.
I gave Mobile Vikings some time, but after 4 months, it was time to verify Grabowski's words. I arranged a conversation with him, during which I wanted to check if these were just bold announcements or if they were actually implementing changes. And most importantly – what kind of changes? It turns out that the brand is moving forward with momentum. "We are the first on the market to introduce a new customer service model," says Bartek Grabowski. What does that mean?
Piotr Barycki: "We are the first to introduce a new process to the market, we're going a step further" – you have to admit that sounds a bit grand. I'm almost afraid to ask what unique thing you have up your sleeve that will surprise your customers and competitors.
Bartek Grabowski, Head of New Business at Mobile Vikings: Relax, those words might sound grand, but they are true. Yes – with what we are currently launching, we are the first. I can honestly say that at Mobile Vikings, we have an efficient and fast Help Desk service, and we are constantly working on it. But that’s no longer enough for us. And yes – we are going a step further. We want our Help Desk to be more than just technical support. We want it to become a platform connecting an ambitious community of the brand, hungry for knowledge and challenges. A community that will now be able to turn to their operator on selected dates with questions about various aspects of life, such as new technologies or business.
And this is how you want to stand out from other operators who, I assume, you believe are not handling customer service well?
I'm not saying that other operators don't handle customer service well. But I believe they do it averagely. They don't want to step out of their comfort zone. Let's take technical support. We all learned some time ago to respond relatively quickly and substantively to customers' problems related to using our services. But are we doing anything more?
Forbes Insights research from 2015 on the modern customer service model clearly shows that only 15% of surveyed companies consider real contact and support for their customers a key element in their brand's operations. Yet, 88% of them claim they are doing very well with customer service and are constantly developing. If something isn't important to someone, they simply can't do it well. And that's what we're dealing with in the Polish market too.
What I have uniquely in store is precisely this additional element, the existence of which many companies are not yet aware of. A certain added value.
I'm just curious – what do you mean by added value? What is it for you and where should we look for it?
In the entire process of building and maintaining relationships with our community. We want Vikings, at every stage of contact with our brand, whether when purchasing a service or in case of a problem that occurs while using it, to feel that they are getting something more from us than just a solution to their doubts. We want to reach out to them first. We want to offer them help, inspiration.
We are launching an initiative where members of our community will be able to turn to us with questions or problems from various areas of life – business, new technologies, gaming. We have invited experts to cooperate who, on specific dates, will participate in our Help Desk's work and share their professional knowledge and experience with Vikings.
But in your opinion, do your customers really expect this from you? I use a network's services, something breaks, I need help, I get it, I'm satisfied. I'm not really looking for a friend in my operator; I have books and the internet for gaining knowledge.
And here I will surprise you. The entire idea of redefining the post-sale customer service process at Mobile Vikings stems from our daily experiences. One day, someone called our Help Desk with a question completely unrelated to our business – how to set up a signature in an email. Okay, unusual situations happen. But it quickly turned out that it wasn't the first time, and such calls or emails happen more often. So, Vikings and not only them are looking for help from their operator in various areas of life.
So, you're saying I can now call the Mobile Vikings Help Desk with any problem or question that comes to my mind?
That's not what we're aiming for; we don't want to reduce our Help Desk's activities to answering questions about the best pizza in town. We believe in Vikings and we know they are ambitious, seek challenges in life, and undertake various interesting activities. Because we have constant contact with them, we can see what they are interested in and what kind of help they need. And it is with such topics that we want to approach them.
We will always inform our community on our social media about which expert, when, at what hours, and on what topic will be participating in our Help Desk's work. And then Vikings will be able to ask their questions. We are starting on April 20th with start-ups and launching your own business, but we have further initiatives planned, covering topics related to gaming, new technologies, marketing.
Someone called you with an unusual question, and in response to that situation, you're launching a new campaign.
This campaign is just one element of the new process we are implementing in our organization. That call was an inspiration for us. To design new activities effectively, we wanted to understand the needs of our community. For this purpose, we used a customer experience map. This tool allowed us to define the goals and expectations of Vikings, in which elements of the customer service process we can respond to them even more effectively, and most importantly, how to do it. All of this allowed us to improve our model.
Our solution involves adding a certain functionality to the Help Desk. We want to organize regular meetings with experts from various fields. On dates and topics specified by us, Vikings will be able to benefit from the knowledge and experience of our guests. We want the Help Desk to be more than just a technical support center. At least once a month.
In that case, what are the needs of a modern customer? How should collaboration with them look like?
For me, the most important thing is the idea that John Gerzema, an American entrepreneur who analyzes and describes business and marketing trends, presented during TED lectures some time ago. The modern customer takes control, is an active participant in all processes, values quality and thoughtful consumption. This customer is demanding. They want more and more from us. Therefore, one must be well-prepared for collaboration with them.
From my own experience, I know that marketing today is not just about acquiring a customer and selling them a service. Every member of our Viking community has their own values, goals, and needs, which we, as a brand, try to satisfy. In a personalized way. Multichannel. Non-stop. From now on, in every field. And from now on, we are the first. We are reaching out to our community.
You are ambitious. I don't want to be malicious here. Will you be able to handle this task?
Ambitious, yes. But I would rather emphasize that we feel immensely responsible. We simply know that our products and services are an important part of our community's daily life. And we have the opportunity to help them in this daily life. That's why we want to work hard. We have set certain goals and will do everything to achieve them. And will we succeed? Invite me for a conversation at the end of the year. Then I'll be able to prove to you that we did.
Let's go back to the Help Desk itself for a moment. On your website, you boast about having a "model Help Desk." In general, you often emphasize its role in your communication and position yourselves as the operator with the most helpful Help Desk in Poland. What evidence do you have for this? What sets you apart from other networks?
For Mobile Vikings, the fast and effective functioning of the Help Desk is extremely important. We truly put a lot of work and commitment into it, which yields very good results.
The most important thing is that on the other side, there is always a real person, a Viking, one of us. We view contact with them as a friendly conversation, not an obligation that needs to be ticked off. And our community feels this. We don't redirect you to pre-written answer templates, you don't wait half an hour on the line talking to an automated system, finding an email address on the website doesn't require digging through it, and you don't need to create accounts or log in.
We respond quickly to questions and requests for help. Want proof? You conducted a test of operators some time ago – a response on Twitter in 3 minutes, on email – 18 minutes, and that's the best result among all networks.
Yes, but in the test you mentioned, you perform poorly in terms of Facebook – you're rather slow there. And it's not just the time, but also the substance of the answer that matters.
Exactly. And that's why our answer always includes a ready solution to the problem. We could reply in 10 seconds that we will contact you later, just to inflate the fastest response statistics. That's how some operators work. And then silence for 24 hours. Slow for us is 20-30 minutes. But for a full, comprehensive answer. Because we want that answer to be valuable. It is for this added value for our community that we fight the hardest. In everything.
