With India’s largest service network of over 3,300 service points including 535 customer service vans that go to all corners of the country, Samsung will ensure that consumers in major cities who buy premium products this festive season like Samsung TVs (55 inch and above), 300 liter and above Samsung refrigerators, front load washing machines and five-star inverter and Wind Free ACs, will get installation within four hours of delivery.

This festive season, Samsung has announced a wide range of exclusive deals, offers and assured gifts across its large product portfolio, valid till October 31, 2019. Through these offers, Samsung aims to make aspirational products more accessible for consumers.

“This festive season, we aim to extend best-in-class service to all our consumers with our 3,300 customer service points, including 535 customer service vans. Festive season in India is a time when people shop to upgrade their lifestyle. Our diverse product portfolio has something for everybody. Our new service offering, Live Chat along with Remote Support are part of our strategy to deepen our consumer connect and further our brand love. We wish everyone a very happy and prosperous festive season,” said Sunil Cutinha, Vice President, Customer Service, Samsung India.

Samsung’s service centers have over 10,000 specialist engineers trained at Samsung’s in-house training academies. To support the needs of its consumers, Samsung has 24×7 premium call centers that extend help in nine languages. Consumers can also seek priority services by simply booking an appointment online and schedule a visit to their nearest service center at a convenient day and time.

In addition, Samsung’s 535 customer service vans travel to every corner of the country, making Samsung’s service network the largest in this industry in India and strengthening its commitment to provide quality customer service in both urban and rural India. The service vans are equipped with multi-skilled engineers, key components, a generator set and key jigs/fixtures for providing quick response and on-the-spot resolution.

In an industry first initiative, Samsung provides interactive repair facilities for our mobile phone at all service centers across India. Mobile is repaired in front of customer leading to transparency in repair process. Further, to ensure customer satisfaction, Samsung uses its cutting-edge technology to connect and resolve their issues. Some of them are:

• Remote Support – This is provided to all Samsung smartphone and Smart TV users. A Samsung call center agent can work on a customer’s smart phone or smart TV remotely through the internet and diagnose the issue online to provide instant resolution.

• Live Chat – Customers can reach out to Samsung instantly on its website Www.samsung.com/in/support wherein trained agents and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Chat Bot provides instant and accurate information for any queries 24*7, without any wait time.

• Video Tips on Samsung Website & YouTube – In this age of social media, it’s an advantage to provide solution to common problems and issues through tutorial videos and product care tips via platforms such as YouTube. Consumers can find amazing tips and do-it-yourself videos on YouTube that can help them resolve their issues. These learning videos allow concepts and ideas to actually become a recall experience.

As part of these efforts, Samsung also has a comprehensive app called ‘Samsung Members’ which provides customers with the option of live chat, placing service requests, tracking repair progress, remote support and phone diagnostics. Customers can engage with other Samsung fans on the ‘community’ section too.

To mitigate this problem for consumers, Samsung Electronics has this year for the first time introduced a Visual Support service as part of its Global Contact Center offering.

Just One Click for Comprehensive Visual Support

The Samsung Global Contact Center’s Visual Support service is a more personalized form of customer support wherein a consultant is able to provide advice based on actual visuals of the affected product provided by the user.

Easy and intuitive to use, once it has been requested by the customer or consultant, the consultant will then send a URL link via SMS message to the customer which launches straight into the Visual Support permissions process – there is no need for customers to download a separate application.

Many customers have already expressed their satisfaction with this innovative service; in a customer satisfaction survey conducted in countries where Visual Support is available, the average score was 93.4, up from the call-only service satisfaction score of 88.7.

Customer feedback so far has reflected the satisfaction score shift; an Australian customer who used the service to fix washing machine drainage noted; “I did not have to reach out to Samsung a second time via email to send the pictures needed, as the consultant just used a photo taken while on the call using Visual Support. It was very convenient.” Another customer in the Philippines explained why they had rated the service 5 stars; “It’s great that Samsung is coming up with new ways to assist their customers, especially for ones like me who are not particularly ‘tech-y’ and don’t really know anything about non-conventional washing machines.”

Once the customer has granted Visual Support secure permission, the consultant on the other end of the line is then able to analyze a product as seen directly through the customer’s camera. This enables the consultant to more accurately assess the situation, request more information from the customer and guide them forward with specific measures.

Useful Functionalities for Effective Customer Care

Samsung’s Visual Support service includes several useful functions for efficient and effective consultation. Both the consultant and the customer can use a mouse or a finger to annotate their device’s screen, meaning that both parties can indicate to the other the specific area of the product they are referring to. Furthermore, prior to Visual Support, the process of conveying a product’s model name or serial number – often complex in themselves – had to be manually done by the customer, but with Visual Support this process is an easy and automatic one thanks to the scan function of the service.

Not only does Visual Support allow customers and consultants to simultaneously speak via telephone and stream images, but if the product’s lighting environment is not good, the consultant can also remotely turn on the customer’s phone flashlight in order to better assess the situation. The images captured by Visual Support during a consultation can also come in useful further down the product repair process.

Thanks to the improved troubleshooting of Visual Support, customers can easily and accurately receive a diagnosis from one of Samsung’s consultants without having to struggle with technical and complex product details themselves. The in-depth analysis granted by Visual Support also means that consultants can make qualified judgements on whether or not a product actually needs to be sent for repair, saving time and effort for the customer.

Convenient, Accurate and Efficient Customer Service

Not only have customers noted their satisfaction with the service, but also Samsung’s consultants and repair engineers. One consultant noted that upon consulting for a TV product with abnormal color issues, “the customer’s inquiry was much easier to understand when looking at the screen together compared to just having the issue explained over the phone. For counseling purposes, it makes much more sense to actually see a sound bar or monitor terminal.” Similarly, Samsung’s repair engineers have found themselves conducting home visits only when actually necessary and can enter repair situations with a much more detailed understanding of a product and any issues.

With the introduction of the Visual Support service, consultants can now directly assess a product’s environment as well as its appearance, something that previously could not be verified in generalized phone counseling. As a result, the accuracy of diagnoses on home appliance products – which often experience non-defect-related issues – has significantly improved.

Visual Support is currently operating in 12 countries including Korea, the USA, the UK, India, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and New Zealand. Following the favorable response from customers and consultants alike, Samsung plans to launch the service globally by the end of the year, as well as to grow the supported product lineup to include medical device products and others in the near future.