We recently visited Creative Europe’s main office in Ireland and had the chance to see lots of new exciting products (some of which we already reported on). While there I also had the opportunity to talk to Creative about their tech support. As far as I know their tech support is among the best renowned, at least in Europe. After some discussion in a recent review of their graphics board based on GeForce FX 5900 Ultra they explained that they aim for slimmer bundles in order to allocate more resources to their tech support…
We recently visited Creative Europe’s main office in Ireland and had the chance to see lots of new exciting products (some of which we already reported on). While there I also had the opportunity to talk to Creative about their tech support. As far as I know their tech support is among the best renowned, at least in Europe. After some discussion in a recent review of their graphics board based on GeForce FX 5900 Ultra they explained that they aim for slimmer bundles in order to allocate more resources to their tech support.
Thus I think it could be interesting to see what type of operation their tech support is.
Let’s talk to Andrew Killeen, Technical Support Manager at Creative Europe.
Our customers have various ranges of experience in terms of PCs, identifying themselves as new / novice users all the way up to the high end PC enthusiasts. We are constantly reviewing our service options to ensure we are meeting both the variety of needs and the requirement for different contact channels. Our monthly customer survey ( over 5000 mails sent each month) together with the feedback options on our Knowledge Base are two of the key indicators of our performance.
On an average day Creative’s European contact center handles approximately 1000 emails , 400 telephone calls and 150 web chat sessions per day. This volume ramps up during the peak periods form November to February.
On the Knowledgebase side, in excess of 100,000 unique users use this application each month and the web forum on the European web site sees approximately 100 postings from customers each day with in excess of 2000 customers viewing the postings daily.
[NH] How many employees does Creative have in Europe and how many work for Technical Support?
[CL] Creative Labs Europe employ over 400 people. The company has 10 Local Sales offices around Europe and has the European headquarters based in Dublin. The Dublin facility contains a number of European Support functions –Operations – Production, Warehousing , Service Center
Brand Management and Product development
Finance and related activities
European IT functions
Technical Support Contact Center
The support center was set up in 1994 and employs 73 people. The are 21 nationalities within this department with an average age of 26 years.
People – The technical support department has 73 staff , 52 Advisors handling customer interactions , 6 Advanced Support ( & Forums) , 4 Technical Authors, 2 Technical Trainers and a Team Leader/ management group
Dedicated business systems / Test Machines / access to Creative hardware . We purchase a range of motherboard types and all advisors have access to all Microsoft OS to install on their test systems ( in any language).
[NH] Could you give us some insight regarding your RMA/Warranty replacement service?
Customers are required to keep a copy of their proof of purchase for the duration of the warranty period. Should the store receipt indicate that the product is less that 30 days old, the customer has the option of returning the full product to the Dealer/ Retailer for a replacement or credit. The 30- day time period may not apply in all instances as certain dealers may have their own replacement / credit terms. At any time, either within the 30 day period or afterwards, the customer can contact Creative Technical Support for assistance with warranty replacements.
After the 30 day period end user returns are handled through Technical Support.
[NH] What types of support options does Creative Europe currently supply for their users? [CL] • Faster turnaround on eMail response (next bus. day) –in 16 languages• Self-service intelligent knowledgebase available 24x7x365 servicing Europe (6 Languages… English, French Italian, Spanish, German …& Brazilian Portuguese …Traditional Chinese planned in Q2).
• Localized TS section on website
• Interactive TextCHAT facility in English .
• Moderated Web Forums
• Telephone support – 20 countries in 16 languages
• Opening hours Monday to Friday
• Opening hours phone : 10:30 – 19:00 CET
• Chat : 10:00 – 18:30 CET [NH] How do Creative see their support changing in the future? [CL] Customer requirements are changing in terms of the type of support the customer is looking for and the types of contact channels across which the support is required. Creative is working to further refine our offerings to suit the requirements of customers with different levels of technical knowledge and who have different requirements from our products.
With the increased availability of Broadband access across Europe Creative Technical Support are looking at providing more ‘rich’ content through our support channels. Low internet connectivity speeds in the past have meant that the provision of multimedia content could not be optimized for many customers.
[NH] Can you give some examples of the most frequent problem received? [CL] 1. Crashing problems.Problems with crashing either when using software, playing sounds or playing games. Not a specific problem, and could be related to lots of different things ( 3rd party software , other peripherals , hardware/ mother board configurations).
Can usually be solved quite quickly with either the knowledgebase or through technical support.
2. Crackling/Distortion
People that complain that the sound crackles or sound is distorted or pops. ”Optimizing your system for better sound performance” Knowledge Base article has some good tips. General problems with bad or strange sound (often related to the motherboard and PCI latency settings).
3. Drivers – some problems with installation . The auto update function is now used by 50% of customers downloading drivers and this had made selection of the required driver very easy ( note …external devices need to be connected to the system when auto-update is run).
4. How to connect certain speakers.
Often people with third party speakers that want to connect them to our cards. Which cables do they use, which adapters, which settings do they choose.
5. Pre-sales type enquiries – Questions on upcoming products.
What are the features, will it support x, etc
6. Graphics cards crashing when playing games.
Especially with the new powerful cards. People often get the new expensive card and put it in older systems. The power supply might be too weak, the system might not have good airflow (which will cause overheating and cause crashes), the motherboard may be too old or they might not have all the updates they need.
7. Firmware questions about the Jukeboxes.
Suggestions for firmware updates, when will the firmware versions be released.
| On the other side |
While I was talking to Andrew he also presented me to some of his co-workers dealing with customers. I got a chance to see their chat support system in a real live event. To me this kind of support seems pretty ideal. The chat uses a proprietary client (ie you don’t use ICQ or MSN etc.) but is just as easy to use as your normal instant messaging applications. Here’s a look at how the Creative staff see the user he/she is chatting with:
After the session a transcript of the conversation is sent to the user so that they don’t need to keep the chat windows open. Pretty ideal if you have a reoccurring problem or need to reboot during the process of solving the problem.
On another note I was pleasantly surprised to see that most, if not all, employees at the supports stations were actually very interested in, and had in depth knowledge of, Creative products. Too many of these support centers just have students trying to make an extra buck working for them that just sit and read in a manual or knowledge database while they’re trying to help the customers.
Creative are also taking good care of their employees. Anyone who’s been working with telephone support or telemarketing know what a drag it can become. Creative solved the problem by letting their employees switch types of tasks and they also have free internal education on lots of topics. On top of that they’ve skipped those god awful cubicles that lots of companies have.
All in all I was impressed with Creative’s tech support organization. It just works a whole lot better than most companies I’ve been in contact with. After being stuck with broken motherboards (not naming any names) that I had to send back to Taiwan twice and each ”trip” took them over a month I’d feel a bit more confident with a Creative product.
Actually I’ve personally used their support in two cases as well. (Once as a journalist and once for a private matter.) I got very swift help in both cases with no hassles. Both the actual first contact (ie calling them up and them replying within a minute or so, and speaking to me in my own language) and the delivery/pickup of the product worked as good as it ever could.
Next up on NordicHardware about Creative is our review of the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro and the Inspire TT 7700.
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