Built around Caroline and BrunoSupported by the entire studio and project managers, the customer support team is essential to the smooth running of Soledis. When do customers call on them? How do they work? How are they perceived? Find out in this interview with caroline.
Caroline, can you tell us about the Support Division?
The support activity starts on the front line with Bruno and myself. We've been working in pairs since 2015, helped by the whole studio when needed. It's a real team effort.
Bruno is a historic figure in the company. After an international career spanning several years, he has been with Soledis for 8 years. Personally, I did quite a bit of international traveling before joining Soledis on my return to France. In fact, many of our customers identify "support" with Bruno.
Who are your contacts and when do they call on you?
We may be in contact with various people, depending on our customers' internal organization. Directly with e-tailers, CIOs, e-commerce managers, webmarketing managers...
We intervene after production start-up. From an operational point of view, our customers mainly call on us in the following cases :
- in operation, third-party updates (payment or delivery systems) or in the ERP can modify data flows. This is likely to interfere with order-taking for some e-tailers. We need to solve these problems quickly, as they can be a real inconvenience for e-commerce sites.
- after receivingHowever, there are still some "cases" that have not necessarily been properly identified or defined, but which may need to be adjusted in practice.
- some e-tailers may be connected to the back office of their store and wish to perform an actionWhatever it is, they can't remember how to do it.
- others want adjustments to existing functions. In this case we need to assess whether this is an evolution (and refer their request to their project manager) or whether we can find another setting for this function.
- finally, some try to make modifications themselves that lead to a bug and contact us to fix it.
To be autonomous, all our customers are trained to use the back-office of their e-commerce site. We follow over 350 customers every year.
How do you divide up the work in the division?
I've already said it, but it's a real team effort. We complement each other.
I'm lucky enough to work with Bruno, who is a key person in the company, very competent and never stingy with advice and help to unblock certain situations.
The allocation of tickets is naturally based on our respective knowledge of different languages and software.. Everything produced by Soledis is handled by the support department. From Boost technology to Prestashop 1.7.
We each have our own strengths. I'm more often involved with front-end issues and Bruno with data flows..
We are constantly on the lookout for new technologies in our businesses, so that we can handle all customer requests as quickly as possible.
We generally handle tickets autonomously, but on certain subjects, we coordinate with project managers or other studio developers for very specific functions or customer-specific environments.
Can you describe how a customer request is processed?
From an organizational point of view, it's easier to handle one request per ticket, than customers who send us three questions in the same ticket. It's a question of understanding needs and prioritizing emergencies.
Receiving a ticket
When a ticket is opened by a customer, we receive an alert.
The more precise the customer's request, the easier and faster it will be to process. That's because.., to take action, we need to identify the problem and be able to reproduce it.
A typical ticket contains the following information:
- the customer's name,
- the problem explained in the message title,
- a description of the problem,
- and a photo or screenshot.
Images are far more effective than text to understand customer demand and reproduce the error.
- the last important element of a ticket: the URL where the error can be found; with the order ID or the ID of the customer causing the problem.
If I don't have enough information to see the problem in the e-mail, I go back to the customer to explain the request. And in very rare cases, if I really can't reproduce the error, or if something doesn't add up, I contact the customer by phone.
Ticket processing
That's the heart of my job. Identify the problem and do everything possible to solve it quickly.
First of all, we check the criticality of the problemThe criticality of the problem is defined contractually, according to its impact on order intake or site visibility. Depending on this criticality, we aim to neutralize the problem.
To do this, you need understand the source of the error, resolve it and test that everything works before notifying the customer. This may simply be due to a database that needs to be relaunched, or to feeds that don't go back up correctly following third-party updates (payment systems, deliveries....).
Hence the importance of teamwork, and the experience of its members, as I said earlier, to quickly identify the source of the problem.
How do you get on with your contacts?
All right!
Our customers know that we're here to help; and that we do our best to deal with their requests as quickly as possible.
The latest satisfaction survey we launched showed 99% of customers satisfied with our work.
The fact that we are clearly identifiable and identified by our customers is an additional asset in our relationships. They know that we don't operate on a decentralized platform outside France. We do exist and really work in Vanneson the Soledis premises.
I can't name any customers. But in practical terms, we also get to know each other and communicate throughout the relationship. I have in mind a customer I met in person during a visit to our premises. He knows exactly how I work and what information I need.
When one of his customers brings a problem to his attention. First, he sees the error for himself. He sends me a precise e-mail explaining the problem, with a photo and the URL.
Our e-mail exchanges are more precise, so we're more efficient.
The team is very committed and wants everything to run smoothly.
What qualities are essential for this position?
First of all, we need to master the technologies we deal with in the department. The human qualities required for the job are the same as in many other professions.
The most important thing is to listen carefully to understand the customer's needs. Admittedly, we often work by e-mail, but understanding needs is the basis of a healthy long-term relationship.
Be curious and tenacious. Don't give up until the customer's problem is solved.
