In most cases, the IT-ServiceDesk is the first point of contact for technical problems concerning the services of RWTH Aachen University.
Source: Freepik
But how do you contact us?
Of course, in the way that is most convenient for you. Either via our chat support, by mail, by phone or via our ticket portal.
In order for you to be able to report in any way you want and at the same time for us to be able to handle any incoming request efficiently and with high quality, the Omnichannel tool was introduced.
And now we are celebrating the two-year anniversary of this tool. Thanks to this tool, for the past two years we have been able to manage customer requests more easily and efficiently, as we now have them from chat and phone bundled in one system.
What Is an Omnichannel?
Are you wondering what exactly exactly the omnichannel tool is and what it’s useful for? There was already a blog post about this, which you are welcome to read.
But here is the short version again:
The omnichannel system ensures the interconnection of different communication channels (in this case: telephony & chat support) and the connection to our ticket tool. This means that we can easily switch from a telephone support request or even a chat to e-mail traffic if the issue cannot be resolved directly in the first instance.
What’s special about it?
This change happens without a break in communication. During a phone call or a chat, a ticket gets created, which can be filled out at the same time and then arrives in the ticket tool (either completed or for further processing).
At the same time, you will receive an electronic response from us in a timely manner.
This was not possible before the implementation. Especially because we have a large number of input channels, increased attention from employees was a must in order to keep track of each channel separately. This often resulted in a double burden, as the phone and chat were not connected and employees could receive both a simultaneously.
If an inquiry could not be clarified directly, either by phone or chat, the employee had to manually open a ticket and enter all the information mentioned there. There were some gaps that needed to be closed and the omnichannel tool was the appropriate solution for this.
Advantages of the Omnichannel
The introduction brought some benefits:
- Structured organization of customer inquiries (via telephone and chat): No simultaneous processing of a request.
- Skill-based routing in telephone support: incoming calls are filtered and routed according to available resources and employee expertise.
- Increased efficiency: tickets are automatically created & processed faster.
- Flexible adaptability: short-term changes can be incorporated into the application, such as setting error message announcements.
In 2022, we received a total of around 5,100 chat inquiries and around 12,700 telephone inquiries. In view of that, the tool pays off in every aspect, as processing is now more structured and thus also simpler.
As a result, there is no overall delay in response time depending on the service used.
On the contrary, the response and processing time has even improved, as less time has to be invested in the management of chats and phone calls.
Feedback from employees has also shown that the introduction was a complete success. The direct processing of telephone and chat tickets is perceived as added value, as is the elimination of the additional workload caused by simultaneously processing of a chat and a telephone call.
Outlook
But that’s not all.
Our top priority is, of course, to provide you with a qualified solution without delay, which is why we are constantly optimizing our support. There are plenty of ideas, such as enabling calls via the browser, expanding functionalities or simply adapting designs.
So it remains exciting, which innovations there will be in the future.
But we will inform you in time, don’t worry!
Responsible for the content of this article is Sara Erdem.
