It is essential for any technology to be originally reliable and robust, but this alone is not enough. At Situm we are aware that our customers expect much more from us and therefore we have formed a professional and effective customer success team. The goal is to make our customers feel accompanied and comfortable at all stages of the project. To learn more about how our technical support department works we talked to Cristina Gamallo, Situm’s founding partner and responsible for this area.
During more than 5 years of activity, Situm has had the opportunity to work with many clients. Their profiles have always been different: from corporate centers to hospitals, from shopping malls to large industries. Many of them were interested in monitoring solutions that allow them to audit the use of space and the activity of their staff (personnel or material). Others came to Situm thinking about how to facilitate and enrich their user’s experience when they move around their indoor space; in this case their focus was on guidance solutions.
Since it is a platform that allows building different applications based on indoor location, they all have found an answer in Situm IPS technology. But we know that technology, whatever it may be, needs the support of qualified professionals and therefore, we have a great customer success team that is committed to training, guidance, and personalized advice on each project.
Behind our customer success department are Cristina Gamallo and her team, including Felipe, Fernanda, Gabriela, Iria, Emmanuel and Sara. Cristina is one of the founding partners of the company, and from the very beginning, she wanted to be present and lead the deployment and implementation of Situm IPS. Her work is the result of the experience gained in the implementation of our system in more than 6,000 buildings across 70 countries.
1. Technical support beyond implementation
When a company is interested in using the indoor geopositioning system, they have the possibility to test the system by themselves, following the steps detailed on the website (autonomously or with the help of our team). The test is accessible to any interested company, it is simple in its use and it only takes one hour of dedication.
Once the company wants to take a step forward with Situm’s IPS platform, the customer success team takes the reins of the project by making it their own. This department is in charge of:
- Planning: Our engineers explain the way forward for Situm IPS technology to reach its maximum performance once the needs of the client are analyzed.
- Implementation and deployment: For both tracking and guiding solutions, the support of our team advises on how to achieve full coverage of the space to be monitored.
- Maintenance: Although Situm’s technology does not require dedicated infrastructure or maintenance work, any doubts that may come up during its use will be solved at once.
- License extension and new features: On many occasions, our clients’ needs change with time or require extensions. Thanks to the knowledge of their specific requirements, the customer success team can scale or readapt in a short time.
“The customer success team is vital to Situm. We want our customers to feel accompanied at all times, that is why we work very actively. We are not just a service to go to when a question or problem arises. For us, it is vital to be accessible and we always encourage continuous training. It is vital for our clients that we are always by their side. Situm is a cross-cutting solution that can grow with them, and obviously, at every moment they need different advice,” says Cristina Gamallo.
Situm provides a platform from which to build on to improve the dynamics of any company that needs to manage and audit the use of indoor space and the customer success team is present throughout this process. “Often, our clients develop solutions for their customers and we provide all the support they need. Their projects are our projects,” says the manager.
We currently work with hospitals, shopping malls, factories, corporate spaces, airports, large hotels, etc. each looking into Situm as a tool to improve their work processes. “It is difficult to say how many clients we are now giving active technical support to, possibly more than 120. Many of them follow remote support through which they are solved in real-time, a very useful tool especially for companies that are far away from us,” says Cristina.
Logically, new customers who are in the implementation phase or first moments of use need more support until the system becomes part of their daily dynamics. In these cases, Gamallo and her team dedicate an average of 5 hours per week/client to provide this advice. “On many occasions, we anticipate their needs because we know what their situation is and we can be there even before they have a doubt.”
2. Grow with the client by adapting the system to their new needs
Situm’s geopositioning system does not require large deployments or major investments. The key is a proprietary algorithm that positions Smartphones indoors by combining the existing WiFi and Bluetooth signals in the buildings with the data provided by the mobile phone inertial sensors.
Although the technology does not need a dedicated infrastructure, it is important to always support it with a customer success team that can solve any doubt or unforeseen event in the shortest time possible, as well as to adapt it 100% to the needs of each client. “This is vital during the first stages of implementation, but also later. Until the implementation is put into practice, there is a certain lack of knowledge about the potential of indoor location,” says Cristina. “This is why once our clients are familiar with the solution they often see new applications and additional benefits that are soon developed.”
Whether the company is implementing the systems or wondering how to take the leap towards expanding Situm’s products, questions arise along the way:
- In the case of the Situm MRM solution, designed to monitor human resources and mobile assets such as forklifts in a large indoor space, it is crucial to define the needs of each company as well as the particularities of the area.
- Is our corporate mobile phone the most suitable for monitoring?
- Are the signals processed by the system valid in all areas of the facility?
- How should I manage the different users of the system?
- What is the best way to benefit from the analytics?
- When it comes to guiding users’ interiors (whether shopping centers, airports, or hospitals, for example), there are other issues to consider.
- Which models of beacons, how many, and where should I place them?
- Is it worth using Situm WYF for a simple, quick integration, or should I think about using the SDKs for a more customized solution?
- How should I understand geo-analytics in order to analyze user behavior in detail?
- How can I benefit from geofence?
3. A customer success team ready to solve new challenges, even the unpredictable ones
As a result of the pandemic, the current situation poses new challenges such as capacity control or the traceability of employees. Situm must provide a response that lives up to the expectations that are being placed in the geolocation. “There is no doubt that this new reality places us all in a new scenario; until now, this degree of geolocation has never been needed in such detail. Fortunately, the Situm system is ready to support it and is fully reliable”.
And if technical versatility is essential in these cases, it is no less important to know how to learn the details of each of the clients to be able to implement new solutions. “The customer success team stands by the developers and the customers to implement all the operations as soon as possible and thus comply with the new regulations. It is a challenge, but we are very happy with the results”.
4. A support center to facilitate an increased client autonomy
This new situation caused by Covid-19, in which visits to the customer’s facilities have been very limited, has given greater prominence to remote assistance and the customer success center. “If our customer success center was already taking on special relevance in our relationship with our customers, the last few months have given it the final push. A wide variety of resources such as manuals, code examples, or videos allow us to remotely coordinate quickly and easily with our client’s staff”.
5. Customer needs as the basis for product development
Our technology is constantly developing. Situm is characterised by its versatility to be implemented in all types of buildings and to provide an efficient response in all kinds of situations. The information about the client’s needs gathered by the support team is vital for launching truly useful solutions. “Our department is key in helping the product area to define improvements in the platform. We do not develop anything that we do not know for sure will be useful to most of the companies that trust our solutions”.
In short, at Situm we are well aware that it is customer success what transforms business relationships into much more efficient processes for everyone. We put attention where it is really needed at all times with the aim of making the most of the applications of our technology.