Being on the Frontline for Customer Service at Samsung Türkiye

Story by: Chandni U

“Customers expect personalised service, but also expect quick resolutions. Striking a balance between individualised attention and efficient, high-speed service is an ongoing challenge. We are aware of the obligation of continuously optimising our processes to ensure that personalisation does not lead to delays and that efficiency does not compromise the quality of interaction,” says Erbil Topgül , Director of Customer Service at Samsung Türkiye .

Erbil oversees the pre-sales and after-sales repair, maintenance, and installation services for all Samsung products on the market, ranging from smartphones to consumer electronics. Working closely with his team, they deliver high-quality and fast service to customers across Türkiye through a network of authorised service points nationwide. Under Erbil's leadership, the team is believed to be a benchmark in the industry with services such as uninterrupted communication, remote connection, and eco-repair. 

One of the key challenges Samsung Türkiye faces is balancing personalised customer service with the need for quick resolutions. The company strives to optimise processes to ensure that personalised service does not compromise efficiency.

Additionally, AI is viewed by Samsung Türkiye's customer service agents as a tool that enhances their ability to meet customer needs efficiently. AI assists agents by providing real-time suggestions and reducing the need for extensive memorisation of troubleshooting steps, making it an enabler rather than a threat.

Excerpts from the interview:

What are the top three priorities and challenges in the customer service industry today?

High customer satisfaction comes first

Samsung Electronics Türkiye prioritises delivering an exceptional customer experience by ensuring that every interaction meets or even exceeds customer expectations. Our goal is to maintain the highest levels of customer satisfaction, which directly impacts brand loyalty and market reputation.

Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Service In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Samsung Electronics Türkiye focuses on integrating advanced technology into our customer service operations. This includes utilising AI-driven chatbots, mobile support app (Samsung Members), and self-service platforms to provide quick and efficient solutions. We always prioritise staying ahead of technological trends to enhance service delivery and streamline processes, ensuring that customers have access to support anytime, anywhere.

Expanding Service Channels and Accessibility:

We are committed to enhancing our customer service channels to ensure greater availability and accessibility. This includes not only traditional call centre but also online support, digital media engagement, and in-store assistance. One of our other priorities is to meet customers wherever they are, offering seamless and convenient access to support, thereby increasing customer engagement and satisfaction.

One of the key challenges we face is balancing personalisation with efficiency to adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations.

Customers expect personalised service, but also expect quick resolutions. Striking a balance between individualised attention and efficient, high-speed service is an ongoing challenge. We are aware of the obligation of continuously optimising our processes to ensure that personalisation does not lead to delays, and that efficiency does not compromise the quality of interaction.

In the electronics industry, customer expectations evolve rapidly. Staying attuned to these changes, especially in a diverse and dynamic market like Turkey is a significant challenge. As the customer service department, we must remain agile, regularly updating our service offerings and approaches to meet new demands, while also managing resource constraints and maintaining consistent service quality. 

What key metrics do you recommend to measure the success of customer service efforts, and how have these evolved over time?

Advancements in technology, products, and services, combined with shifting dynamics, are causing lasting changes in customer habits. Companies are striving to adapt all their processes to these evolving demands.

Smart devices undoubtedly play a crucial role in these changes. These devices have become essential platforms for communication, business, payment systems, entertainment, and even education. These smart devices make our daily lives easier to such an extent that we can hardly imagine living without them. It is extremely important that the needs of these devices, which are so vital to us, are met in the fastest and highest-quality manner.

At Samsung Türkiye After-Sales and Customer Service, we continue to lead our sector with innovative approaches that transform the customer experience. We have reimagined our mobile device service centres as "Smart Service Centers" to meet the demands of modern life. With this transformation, customers can visit the service centres without the need for an appointment and complete their transactions quickly, thanks to our consultants who provide one-on-one support. 

While software issues are typically resolved within an average of 10 minutes, for cases requiring repair, we can fix up to 90% of the devices within an hour and return them to our customers. In cases where the repair time may exceed an hour, we immediately offer a loan set to our customers so that they can continue on their communication uninterruptedly. We continue to implement this transformation not only at physical contact points but also across all our channels to better serve our customers.

We connect to our customers' TVs and smartphones remotely to address their needs together, responding quickly to their requests without requiring them to visit a service centre. Additionally, we provide easy service via video chat for products such as home appliances and air conditioners. In today's fast-paced and dynamic world, while tracking detailed metrics such as First Response Time (FRT), First Contact Resolution (FCR), and repeat service rates, we also monitor customer loyalty using NPS (Net Promoter Score) measurements.

How should brands tweak their customer service strategies to build loyalty among the Gen Z?

Gen Z, having grown up in a digital world, expects quick responses and personalised experiences. They are highly sensitive to diversity, social responsibility, and transparency. Channels such as social media, live chat, mobile applications, and self-service need to be strengthened to meet the demands of Gen Z, who predominantly prefer digital interaction. In addition to the variety of these channels, the ability to produce instant solutions is also among the greatest expectations of this young generation.

As Samsung Electronics Türkiye Customer Services, in line with our “experience-oriented” strategy, we have expanded our digital customer channels and launched a WhatsApp support line. For Gen Z, the speed of seamless service is as important as its uninterrupted nature. With our WhatsApp support line, customers can easily and quickly connect with our customer service experts and receive immediate support.

We are always in touch with our customers through our call centre, Live Chat, WhatsApp support line, Samsung Members application, Samsung Forum, remote connection, and support content on our website. We continue to provide an integrated and uninterrupted customer communication experience across all these channels. I would also like to point out that remote connection and video chat are among the most preferred service channels by Gen Z, and in terms of NPS (Net Promoter Score), the highest scores are given by those who receive this service.

At Samsung Electronics Türkiye, we are committed to meeting Gen Z’s expectations not only through diverse service channels but also by embracing social responsibility and environmental awareness. For example, our “Eco Repair” project allows us to produce an average of 80% less electronic waste compared to the previous repair method and is an average of 40% more economical. Additionally, with our women technician training program, we aim to challenge traditional gender roles in fields like repair and maintenance, demonstrating that women can excel in these areas. This initiative supports gender equality, empowers the female workforce through specialised training, and helps women develop new professional skills. .

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How do you see AI-led tech tools change the customer service industry in the next ten years?

AI-led tech tools are poised to revolutionise the customer service industry in several ways.

The integration of AI with voice assistants will become more prevalent, enabling customers to resolve issues and access services through voice commands, making the customer service process more seamless and user-friendly. AI will assist agents by providing real-time suggestions and information during customer interactions, improving agent performance and reducing training times. AI will also analyse customer sentiment in real-time, allowing companies to gauge customer emotions and adjust their responses accordingly, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. These tools may also design customer experiences by providing highly personalised suggestions and intelligent assistance, while enabling companies to allocate resources more effectively.

In addition, we believe that the technologies we currently use, such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text, will play a revolutionary role, particularly in customer service experience design. AI-supported assistants that continuously improve by learning from past customer experiences will provide fast and instant solutions to complex customer demands through text translations, thereby increasing customer loyalty to the brand.

How do agents feel about the potential of AI in customer service? 

We design all our processes with the awareness that employee experience directly influences the quality of customer experience. A key aspect of this is ensuring that employees can access the information they need in their daily operational work while meeting customer demands in the fastest and most effortless way possible.

For Samsung specifically, the diverse range of products used in the market naturally requires numerous technical solution steps (troubleshooting steps), which differ for each model. While trying to meet these customer needs and sharing the appropriate steps for each request with the customer to solve the issue together, it can be challenging for the agents to remember all these steps. To enhance the employee experience, we have developed AI-supported guided paths software. With this software, agents can quickly respond to customer requests with system support and work more comfortably without having to memorise each solution.