Mitsubishi Motors Australia has halved the time it takes to respond to customer complaints following the introduction of a new customer experience platform.
Speaking during the Qualtrics XM event last week, senior business improvement analyst Geetika Thakran said the business is investing in customer experience (CX) software to improve customer retention and loyalty.
Earlier this year the business deployed the Qualtrics CustomerXM platform to automate the manual processing of 60,000 pieces of customer feedback it gathers each year from customers across several channels.
Previously those 60,000 responses were manually handled and read by two employees who highlighted cases for further action or follow up with the customer.
Now the system creates a ticket for each piece of negative feedback, based on predefined criteria, which is then routed to relevant staff for further action.
“It has led to better resource utilisation and faster turnaround time. We are now able to get in touch with our customers within one week, compared to two to three weeks or even longer,” Thakran said.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia identified trends in the feedback to make structural improvements to its processes or training programs.
Thakran said departments outside the CX team are able to access customer sentiment data in real time.
“We are now able to study customer sentiment and slice it based on product, region, dealership, or even team member," Thakran said.
“Access to this kind of information is extremely powerful in helping us make faster, data-driven decisions.”
The system has also replaced the need to use external agencies to conduct ad hoc research for the business.
“In the past we were dependent on external agencies to conduct research for us and of course there was an associated cost, and a time lag before we could access the findings," Thakran said.
For example, the car maker designed and conducted its own research to uncover why customers weren’t getting their vehicles serviced in the Mitsubishi network when they had been given a free service.
The research found a number of customers did not know that they had a free servicing offer, suggesting a communication breakdown at the point of sale. Other customers did not think they had driven enough kilometers to require a service.
Based on the findings, Mitsubishi Motors Australia redesigned its communications with customers and its training program for the sales team.
