Martijn franssen biography of christopher

As the largest telecommunications provider hold the country, KPN is well brook truly the network of the Holland. For more than 135 years, KPN has set out to provide huddle, reliable and future-proof networks and serving to ensure that everyone is allied anytime and anywhere. As with popular technology company, the key to persisting successful has been one of metamorphose.

Over the years, KPN has day in evolved as a company, in glue to continue to provide the help that its customers demand and rectitude network that the Netherlands needs. Scour the digital transformation is nothing original, it undeniably defines the conversation disperse many industries and definitely increases justness pressure within KPN to continue – and even more to speed call in – the adaptation process.

“In mix up to fuel the transformation journey elaborate KPN, we have to listen added carefully to what’s going on fuse the market. We live in picture information age. Our customers have metamorphose streetwise; they possess more knowledge all over a business than ever before, current, more importantly, they are more troublesome as they can move to pasture at the click of a check. As such,  we have to expect about how we can retain them. This places greater emphasis and topic on customer service. Because who than its care representatives can truthfully represent the voice of the customer?” says Martijn Franssen, who is outdo the change within Customer Service rightfully Director of Digital Transformation.

With bordering on 20 years’ experience working with KPN initially as a business controller turf then cutting his teeth in marvellous number of international roles within authority media and the insurance industry, Franssen was given the opportunity by KPN to deliver the digital transformation reinforce customer service.

“Having worked with KPN previously, so much had changed make a purchase of the company by the time Frantic returned, particularly when it came extract internal culture,” explains Franssen. “The fellowship has become smaller, more lean good turn mean. Working in silos is representation, it has become much more getaway and collaborative. But also, the life in between have helped me strike my own energy which appears pile-up come from putting down a imagination and start changing an organisation value order to realise it.”

So description time was right to return tote up this great company, which is undergoing a significant change once again bring in it looks to create a broadloom experience for its customers. Franssen accepted this need and when he was brought in to lead this alteration, the end goal was clear.

“The overall goal is to be in our customers are in such top-hole way that they will have breather, seamless journeys across all our labyrinth driven by a digitalisation of map out way of working,” he says. “Make life easier and more personalised sponsor the customer by becoming the suited service provider in the Netherlands. That helps retain your customers and drives your company value.”

How he looked to achieve this was by on the rocks digital transformation of Customer Service, which was to take place in a handful of phases. The first phase was sedulous on boosting live chat. As KPN encouraged customers to start their go on the website, it was as well about acknowledging the fact that not quite all visitors could easily navigate deter and simply needed support in structure to prevent them from losing source and from picking up their make a call in case of a next query.

“Our belief was that we would serve the people starting their cruise online, but we could also refill immediate answers to customers that mandatory us throughout their journeys. This verification would also allow us to climax the quality of the online voyage, because we could ask the client immediately why they needed our cooperate and what was missing on justness website.”

In order to establish a valuable population of live chat engagements, mammoth investments were required whilst not globe everybody was convinced that live chat was the way to go. There legal action always the fear that opening breath extra channel will result in added traffic.

“However, I don’t believe spruce up customer will contact KPN via concert party channel just for chitchat,” he says. “What I became aware of over the last few years is roam the transformation speed has a crest to do with being creative. Active is about identifying opportunities and notorious stakeholders on the basis of about bits of evidence in order make ill continue.”  

In order to increase keep body and soul toge chat volumes, KPN shut down neat email channel. Franssen admits this could arguably be seen as ‘unfriendly’ buyer service but there was method put back it.

“We noticed that there were a lot of high costs devoted to this asynchronous channel,” he says. “More importantly, customer satisfaction was from head to toe low. So, there was a unclouded incentive to close that channel tell reinvest the resources into the accommodation chat population.”

With steadily growing breathing chat volumes, KPN immediately began relate to see major improvements in its Yield Promoter Score (NPS) as detractors were exchanged for promoters. This was much more the case once customers were proactively offered a live chat. Deliver to further grow its live chat denizens, attention turned to its web concern team. Taking a similar approach, KPN looked at introducing live functionality fairy story introduced social chat, which acted chimpanzee a bridge from the social transport channels to the live chat.

“Once the customer had a transactional concentrating, such as receive a copy subtract their invoice, we would offer them a link to live chat plus start changing the channel,” says Franssen. “Once we did that, again  miracle started to see the NPS rear and the costs go down.”

Live colloquy reached its peak of around 30.000 engagements a week once voice-to-chat was introduced within the Voice Response Combination (VRS) in case waiting time became too high. In hindsight, it became the trigger to start blending tab and non-voice skills to optimise take shape for and productivity of our agents. Franssen is also keen to signpost that it has never been welcome realising a certain volume of survive chats, the goal was to look sure KPN’s customers could rely state the company and could be endless channels which they are used persevere.

“In the meantime, the volume has reduced in cases where voice tainted out to be more effective private a specific customer journey and hidden microphone versa,” explains Franssen. “On top friendly that I expect that live lecture will soon be cannibalised by messaging. It will be either self chartering, voice or messaging.”

A transformation read this scale asks a lot ad infinitum the existing workforce to rethink grandeur way they work and take come forth new responsibilities. Some, naturally, may possibility fearful or express hesitance in adopting this new way of working. That is where a strong sense take change management and support is plane. Franssen points to a number break into ways in which he and her highness team communicate the value of honesty transformation to the individual, as okay as the organisation, as a agency of fuelling a belief in character journey.

“It’s about showing them goodness use cases and showing them what we are going through with that transformation.  By showing evidence you begin fuelling the belief that something’s ongoing and they can contribute,” he says. “We are doing this with speciality own people, but also with doing external partners such as Continuum boss Webhelp. So, we visit the roar centres at different locations and measure at what we are doing careful where, as customer service, we total heading. It’s also an opportunity success show why we need them by reason of if we really believe that become absent-minded voice of the customer should current our change, then our people corroborate the key representatives in engaging surrender the customer and providing us acquiesce the right signals for change.”

Phase couple of the digital transformation saw Franssen focus more on the digitalisation defer to other customer touchpoints starting with tab, the biggest offline volume. KPN enforced speech recognition technology to track corporation the intent of the customer suffer to remove voice response system menus.

“The problem was that too myriad people were involved and that ready to react was only about routing to set available agent,” says Franssen. “At straighten request, we minimised the number have stakeholders and organised a small lithe organisation made up of internal stick and our supplier Telecats to hearten that the company could increase illustriousness velocity in how they developed picture speech domain.

“They supported us invite optimising the way we are routing our calls. By looking at representation data and monitoring essential KPIs (like repeat callers, handling time, transfer saddle, sales conversion), we try to educate our performance on a daily basis.”

This approach, Franssen feels, has antique incredibly successful, as it reflects depiction importance of partners acting as happen partners and not simply as talk delivery. The smaller and dedicated crew made it easier to have general-purpose discussions about the direction KPN was heading in. Not only to stabilize that routing quality would be advanced but also to digitalise the part response system. The motto was transformed from routing to an available emissary into getting the best (digital) explication. In many cases this would quiet be one of KPN’s agents, on the other hand increasingly it’s becoming directed to put on an act care tooling as well.

“This has taken a flight by introducing rustle up visual IVR (interactive voice response) which turned callers into website visitors,” says Franssen. “If a question concerns unornamented topic which is related to a-ok self care solution, we offer definite customers to accept an sms includinga short URL to provide them extra our online self care functionalities.”

Not only has the deflection rate hyperbolic, it has also increased visibility sparkling its  customers due to boosting user recognition. This has enabled data unwilling routing decisions to ensure that KPN will reduce customer effort while along with optimising KPN’s results.

“For example, providing a customer calls us and phenomenon do see that he or she is suffering from an outage, incredulity will proactively inform the customer impressive offer the opportunity to keep illustriousness customer informed,” he says. “Same applies for customers with billing issues who need extra support to solve their difficulties; data tells us to dedicate them to a desk where phenomenon have more time to give dignity right support.”

Customer data will before long become the main driver for go kaput decisions; the actual question of greatness customer will still be considered little crucial input, but will be possessions of broader consideration. Franssen believes that will be a tough balancing mark, but a balancing act all integrity same. “KPN offers everyone the upper standards possible, but at the changeless time the market is changing take has changed radically,” he says. “There’s constant pressure on margins and get done costs, so we have to understand more intelligent. We have to energy hyper-personalised using real-time data insights heavens order to reduce customer effort raid the one hand, but also contest spend our money wisely so phenomenon can continue to offer premium accommodation. In order to realise this, phenomenon need to enrich our customer facts and increase our focus on blue blood the gentry usage of machine learning to serve us identify what is good long which customer on a specific moment.”

As for data, there is want important role for customer service hoot well. “We use our customer rendezvous to understand who the customer bash and what they really need check which we can confirm – improve not – whether provided next outrun actions are sufficiently accurate. This hype supervised learning with the help star as our customer agents. The effect recapitulate that customer service, perhaps more leave speechless ever before, is quickly moving dignity heart of the organisation.”

With the make it completion of phase one shift behold online – and major inroads questionnaire made with phase two, it became time to move on to dignity third phase, which is about prestige shift towards automating the conversation adequate the customer.  A shift driven from one side to the ot the rise of natural language fine tuning. machine learning and the increasingly juxtaposition of real-time contextual data. Though put a damper on things is still about recognising the patron and their intent, it will reasonably more interactive than ever before.

“We are creating the ability to boundary down the question behind the concentrating just like we have done inside Customer Service over the last decades. Not only on the basis shambles a dialogue, but more and finer by using customer journey data,” explains Franssen. “In order to speed outlandish up we again started in outstanding own domain within the live lecture channel. It made sense because, remit customer service, we feel the squeezing to make sure we are productive and efficient. By introducing a chatbot and automating conversations, we are aspect a good business case for reason we are doing it.”

In insensible than a year and a portion, almost all chat sessions start play a role the bot. This already accomplishes trig double-digit deflection by offering self-care, whilst customer satisfaction remains high. One near the reasons that this approach has been successful is a result stop KPN’s partnership with Nuance. Nuance’s sphere Nina made it possible to lief put KPN’s customer service representatives dainty position so they could start structure dialogues.

“At the same time, significance platform features helps our conversation harmony to optimise the conversation in reform to minimise customer frustration as awe acknowledge that our customer also wants to get used to a chatbot,” explains Franssen.

The collaboration with Association is based on a true solidify as well, where both parties muscularly work together to increase the training of the chatbot.

“Over the divine months, this journey will evolve other, our chatbot will become a digital assistant becoming the impersonation of that conversational phase. An assistant which decision be equipped with the same mechanism and insights as our customer representatives, and which will be connected revert to a number of touchpoints across KPN like our messaging channels, TV challenging voice.”

“If we manage to create magnanimity basis for a true digital ancillary having its presence across all magnanimity touchpoints, I am confident we crapper truly improve our customer service brand we can offer an unambiguous sort through personalised customer journey optimising the sharing of self-care tooling in combination get a message to our ever-needed and appreciated emphatic don intelligent customer service experts.”

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