2024. 12. 9.

Solve technical issues from anywhere: Introducing TeamViewer Smart Service

Need a faster, more effective way to troubleshoot issues? Deliver instant remote after-sales services with TeamViewer’s brand-new Smart Service solution.

  • Empower frontline workers
  • Did you know that investing just 5% more in customer retention can boost your profits by five times as much?

    For original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), our research with ABI Research shows that customer experience after the sale is just as important as the sale itself. But when faced with skills shortages, downtime costs, operational complexity, and sustainability demands, delivering fast, reliable after-sales service becomes a challenge.

    Our new remote troubleshooting solution, Smart Service, has been designed to help businesses overcome this challenge. With secure remote technology, powerful integrations, and intuitive new features, Smart Service helps service teams boost efficiency, save costs, and simplify processes throughout their operations.

    In this article:

    Today’s after-sales service challenges

    When a machine fails, B2B customers expect to receive instant technical support. But delivering it isn’t always easy.

    Sixty-nine percent of companies experience unplanned machine outages at least once a month. Each hour of downtime costs an average of USD 125,000, but the repercussions go way beyond financial loss. Downtime can impair brand image, lower customer trust, and increase employee churn.

    As a result, customers demand fast, effective troubleshooting whenever a machine fails. According to a recent study, a staggering 77% of customers expect an immediate response when contacting customer service. This expectation puts immense pressure on service teams, with 69% of them struggling to balance quality and speed.

    At the same time, technology businesses worldwide are facing a critical shortage of skilled talent. As technology progresses and requirements change, the skills gap only continues to grow. To illustrate: The average half life of tech-related skills is now less than five years. That means that half of what employees know today will be outdated by 2029.

    This skills shortage makes it even harder for after-sales service teams to meet customer demands. Plus, customer service agents are at a high risk of burnout, which can cause turnover and an additional strain on the remaining workforce.

    Increasingly complex procedures are an additional challenge for OEMs. In large-scale customer operations, a single equipment failure can halt an entire operation, leading to costly downtime and potential long-term impacts on business success. Our research indicates that complexity not only causes operational delays but also hampers decision making, lowering morale, productivity, and innovation.

    Lastly, the effects of climate change—from record-breaking sea-level rises to droughts, storms, and wildfires—are undeniable. However, many after-sales service processes still rely on technicians traveling by car or airplane to customer sites, hindering efforts to minimize carbon emissions and help counter climate change.

    Businesses must act now to reduce emissions and promote sustainable practices. And investors are increasingly pressuring businesses to regularly report on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. This creates a direct link between sustainability goals and business success.

    TeamViewer Smart Service: A powerful solution

    Businesses are turning to remote technology to help tackle these challenges. Our all-new solution, TeamViewer Smart Service, responds directly to this need.

    Smart Service empowers service technicians to troubleshoot machinery and equipment remotely, boosting efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction. It builds on trusted TeamViewer connectivity technology and enhances it to create a smooth end-to-end remote troubleshooting process.

    With Smart Service, the tools you need to resolve issues are right at your fingertips. Connect to machines’ systems remotely or provide guidance to workers on site via augmented reality (AR) remote assistance—all within the same application. Smart Service also integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, ensuring complete transparency and a smooth digital experience.

    It also makes support more easily accessible for your customers. With Scan to Support, creating a service request becomes as easy as scanning a code. When a service expert picks up the request, they can connect with the customer instantly. Using AR remote assistance with live captions and real-time translation for 136 different languages, they can easily guide the customer to a solution, even if they don’t speak the same language.

    With Smart Service, you can avoid time-intensive travel and resolve many issues immediately. This doesn’t just relieve some of the pressure on your team. It also improves customer satisfaction by improving your time to resolution (TTR) and first-time fix rate (FTFR).

    Another benefit of remote troubleshooting with Smart Service is that it helps you save costs—both on traveling to customer sites and on maintaining internally developed troubleshooting solutions.

    Plus, the solution helps you improve communication between service technicians and customers by unifying all communication channels in one central place. And, by automatically documenting remote sessions, Smart Service allows you to easily capture useful insights and share them with your team.

    Finally, Smart Service delivers secure remote connections and protects your infrastructure. After all, it’s built on TeamViewer’s industry-proven secure remote connectivity.

    Case study: How BOBST solves customer issues in an instant

    BOBST is a leading supplier of equipment and services for the packaging industry. Its machines have a lifespan of up to 50 years, so maintaining good customer relationships is vital to the company’s success.

    Customers also run BOBST machines 24/7, which means downtime isn’t exactly an option. That’s why the customer service team needed a way to get eyes on customer machines instantly whenever an issue occurred.

    TeamViewer has made this a reality.

    Using TeamViewer solutions, highly skilled specialists can now identify and troubleshoot issues remotely in no time. The AR-enhanced video chat allows them to connect instantly with customers and guide them easily through each troubleshooting step.

    Beyond that, customers no longer need to wait for an agent from their region to become available. With Translated Live Captions, agents can provide instant support, no matter the customer’s language.

    Thanks to TeamViewer, BOBST can now solve 80% of customers’ electrical issues remotely. Not only that: Because service technicians can connect with customers instantly, 90% of resolutions of electrical issues now happen in under two hours.

    If BOBST can fix machines instantly, so can you

    Learn more about BOBST and get actionable insights into remote troubleshooting in our on-demand webinar.

    Summary

    In today’s challenging business environment, technicians often don’t have the time to travel and troubleshoot machinery and equipment on site.

    That’s why it’s time to start fixing issues remotely. TeamViewer Smart Service is an end-to-end remote after-sales service solution that empowers service teams to fix even the most complex issues from a distance.

    With TeamViewer’s trusted remote access and AR technology, new intuitive features, and advanced third-party integrations, Smart Service supports service operations from start to finish. With it, technicians can access machines’ systems directly or use AR guidance to walk on-site workers through the troubleshooting process.

    Businesses like BOBST are already reaping the benefits. These include higher efficiency, reduced travel costs, and improved knowledge capture. And let’s not forget that faster issue resolution means less downtime—and less downtime means happier customers.

    Would you like to know how TeamViewer Smart Service can help your business? Contact our team for a free consultation anytime.

    About the author

    Lisa Gruber

     Senior Product Marketing Manager at TeamViewer

    Lisa is an expert in AR and after-sales service product marketing. She’s passionate about driving value for customers in the industrial space through innovative digital technology. With experience spanning from finance to tech start-ups and a master’s in media culture, Lisa is adept at navigating and solving complex business challenges.

    Want to delight your customers?

    Build lasting relationships with seamless remote troubleshooting. Discover TeamViewer Smart Service today.