With Zammad, customer service is fast, dynamic and simple

Why a ticket system?

Answering, categorizing, and keeping track of over a thousand requests a month... that can easily turn into a mess. That's why Italian window manufacturer Finstral has been using Zammad since 2018. We spoke with Andreas Stedile, Head of Data Management, about how this came about.

Before they implemented Zammad, everything was done by email. "We had a shared mailbox where we received all requests. Phone calls were sometimes recorded in Excel," Stedile says. However, this approach was time-consuming and offered a lot of potential for optimization.

We wanted to collect and document our merchant inquiries more quickly and create an alternative channel for the telephone," Stedile explains the switch to a ticket system. "After collection and categorization, we wanted to measure and analyze the data and then introduce possible training and audits. We also wanted to create a knowledge base that would be visible internally (to agents) and externally.

But that wasn't all, as Finstral had clear requirements for the new system: "The software had to be simple and efficient - these were our specific requirements. We wanted to be able to work with it intuitively, quickly, and without complications. Zammad had been recommended to us by a partner, so we checked it out."

What was the start like?

Once the decision was made to go with Zammad, the first apprehensions started appearing. "We were a little concerned at first that the implementation of the new system would be too costly and complicated," Stedile says. "The whole team was a bit skeptical at first, but that quickly changed and soon everyone was delighted because Zammad delivered the desired results."

"With Zammad, we can process and measure merchant requests more efficiently and easily."

The switch was straightforward; after all, there was no other ticketing system before that. "We had a brief introduction from our partner at the beginning and then we were up and running. The team was already familiar with Zammad after one day and there were no problems at all."

Everyday life with Zammad

Today, Zammad is used at Finstral by the market-oriented EDP team. They look after over 700 merchants across Europe and provide support for the merchant software. "In the past, we didn't really document anything. With Zammad, the opposite is true, and yet we have virtually no maintenance effort," says Stedile. "And what's even better is that we were finally able to prove how many requests we were handling with so few employees."

The day-to-day routine is now well-established: Merchants from all over Europe send error messages, send inquiries, send requests. "We categorize these, prioritize them, and then also assign them to individual employees for processing. All inquiries are registered and can therefore be retrieved. As a result, communication with the merchants has become much easier, even if it has to be in a language other than the native tongue. All agents work more or less in the same way, making our processes structured and consistent."

Tickets are displayed in the "Unassigned & Open" overview. Agents and employees can assign them to themselves. "When an employee has processed and solved the ticket, it no longer appears in the open pool and you know that the customer has at least received an answer or, at best, a solution," Stedile explains of his team's way of working.

Conclusion

So what's different now - or even better? "External communication hasn't changed much, our main channel is still email (albeit sent directly from Zammad). But we now have facts and figures that justify our efforts," Stedile says. "The way individual employees work has been standardized as much as possible. Last but not least, the knowledge base also contributes to a uniform and efficient exchange."

And the switch is paying off, as Stedile illustrates with an anecdote: "In the summer, my boss came to me and said that our call center was upset because they never reached any of our five employees. So I showed her the Zammad statistics for June 2021 and she saw that the five of us handled over 1,500 tickets and took an average of 10 minutes per ticket. Then she understood that maybe it was time to set up first-level support after all."

Future

So what's next for Finstral and Zammad? "We would like to use more features like macros, triggers, or APIs, as well as incorporate new channels like the chat function into our internal processes," Stedile said. "We see a lot of potential in such automation. Also, we think AI & Machine Learning could be future topics for Zammad as well. So we're very excited to see what else is coming."