Whirlpool 2005 Annual Report Download - page 14

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10 Whirlpool Corporation
“How do you ensure customer satisfaction over the lifetime
of an appliance purchase and fulfill its brand promise? You
turn service into an opportunity to continually improve
customer focus and reinforce the brand’s reputation,”
says Ricardo Acosta, vice president of customer service
at Whirlpool Latin America’s Multibrás subsidiary. The
Whirlpool Latin America service team seized just such an
opportunity when they transformed their department to
better focus on keeping customers happy.
The team challenged their organization to cut
customer complaints by more than half, from an already
low rate of 3.5 percent to 1.5 percent. They engaged their
enthusiastic front-line of customer service employees in a
series of innovation workshops and action labs, and solicited
ideas about improving service from all employees. Lastly,
they implemented a measurement process for all activities
— even repairs made by authorized third-party technicians.
While the team worked to improve service, it
also faced another challenge — rogue service shops with
sub-par quality and expertise, which were misrepresenting
themselves as Multibrás-qualified technicians in the
marketplace. To resolve this matter, and to restore
Multibrás’ reputation for quality service, the team rebranded
service partners so customers could readily identify official
Multibrás servicers.
As a result, the company’s service market share
jumped from 16 percent to 26 percent during 2005.
Complaints to the call center dropped from 3.5 percent
to 0.6 percent, far exceeding the original goal. Multibrás’
brand promise has been fulfilled, its reputation preserved
and its service now ranks 20 percent higher than the
nearest competitor.
How do you ensure customer satisfaction over the lifetime of
an appliance purchase and fulfill its brand promise? You turn
service into an opportunity to continually improve customer
focus and reinforce the brand’s reputation. — Ricardo Acosta
Ricardo Acosta, Vice President, Customer Service
Whirlpool Latin America
Superior Service: Reinforcing Brand Promise People / Process / Products