Fisher & Paykel ups customer service ante with fresh tech

Instant maintenance support notifications, self-service customer tools and customer feedback follow-up are now on the cards for Fisher & Paykel following its latest technology program of work.

The appliances brand is rolling out Vonage’s cloud communications offering to improve the way it manages customer service and support across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the US. Vonage Messages API will be adopted to provide instant maintenance support notifications via SMS to customers to enhance post-sales service including confirmations and reminders on technician appointments. This will be embedded into Fisher & Paykel’s operational platforms so customers can access self-service tools to cancel or reschedule appointments.

The tech is also being used to send follow-up messages for customer feedback once a job is done. Fisher & Paykel EVP marketing and customer experience, Rudi Khoury, said the latest technology improvements are about meeting customer expectations for brands to respond instantly.

“Customers want regular updates from businesses, and more importantly, a two-way communication channel that allows them to share their concerns and feedback quickly and easily,” he said. “With Vonage APIs, we are able to communicate with customers promptly and create a unique experience, giving them control at their fingertips.

“Vonage also helps Fisher & Paykel make the customer journey – from booking a technician and confirming the appointment to evaluating our service – a seamless process and closes any gaps in customer communications.”

The latest deployment is one of many digital and technology-led innovations Fisher & Paykel has made over the past 18 months to lift its customer experience game.

Last year, the company replatformed its site globally onto Salesforce’s suite of digital products including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud and Commerce Cloud in select markets. At the time, Khoury told CMO the emphasis is on simplifying the product selection journey process. He also flagged plans to unify this with the customer support piece of the picture.

“When you’re renovating your house, you’re lucky if you do that even 10 years and beyond, and end customers are coming in and out of the market with big breaks inbetween. After a long time between interacting, we want to simplify the process to help you make the best choice for you,” he said.  “We need to do more and do a better, and you need to do it faster.”

Having a cloud-based platform allows Fisher & Paykel to focus less on the infrastructure pieces and concentrate its energy instead on designing and building the experience, Khoury said.

Prior to the latest tech rollout, Vonage has been engaging Fisher & Paykel on other communication solutions to transform Customer Experience.

Having prompt customer service across multiple countries in a consistent manner can be a challenge for any brand, Vonage senior VP and general manager for Asia-Pacific, Sunny Rao, commented. The vendor’s APIs are about allowing companies to instantly reach their customers through their preferred channels at reduced costs, thereby creating better customer experience, he said.

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