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PEOPLE FLOW |
“We have had successful earlier
generations of customer portals, but
we could not use them to serve our
entire customer base.”
With the new solution, KONE aims
to reach customers, big and small, no
matter where they are in the world.
The service covers all equipment
maintained by KONE: elevators,
escalators, autowalks and automatic
building doors.
“We want to ensure that every
customer can see what we are doing
to maintain their equipment and get
regular news from us,” sipilä says.
CUSTOMERS KNOW BEST
KONE Care Online has been designed
in direct collaboration with customers.
The first pilots started in 2012 and are
being carried out in Finland, Belgium,
the United states and Australia.
“The feedback received thus far
from testers and pilot users has been
positive,” says sipilä.
Charlotte Quevit
, a pilot user
from Belgium, considers the system
a practical tool to collect necessary
information. It has saved her time
when responding to customer
inquiries and helps to justify costs.
“Most questions from building owners
are about the significant cost of main-
taining the building, and we cannot
deny that the elevators are a big part
of these costs.”
KONE is initially targeting mainte-
nance customers with the new tool.
The overall role of the online system
will be expanded in the future.
“We have started with a basic set
of functionalities that we know bring
value to customers regardless of
company size. The next phase will
bring additional features particularly
suited for larger customers,” says sipilä.
TRANSPARENT AND INTUITIVE
For customers who do not need to
access the system very often, KONE will
offer a regular newsletter that provides a
clear overview of the customer’s equip-
ment activity history over a given time
period. The newsletter will be generated
from the system and will cover topics
such as past call-outs, upcoming main-
tenance visits, outstanding invoices and
any relevant local new items.
“We want to be as transparent as
possible,” says sipilä. “Customers with
a large equipment-base naturally com-
municate with us more frequently. For
CUsTOMERs
ARE THE INTENdEd
UsERs ANd THEY KNOW
BEsT WHAT Is NEEdEd
FROM THE sYsTEM.
smaller customers, especially if there
are no call-outs, our preventive mainte-
nance work can be essentially invisible.
Through KONE Care Online, we will be
able to better communicate what we
are doing for all our customers.”
By logging into the system, custom-
ers will have access to data that is well
summarized in intuitive, easy-to-read
reports.
“This is important,” emphasizes
sipilä. “We are not sharing anything
that our customers would not know or
be able to find out already. But with
KONE Care Online, this information
becomes easy to access and digest.”
INTERACTIVE BY DESIGN
Early versions of KONE Care Online
went through vigorous usability testing
with customers and KONE users alike.
“Naturally, we would like the inter-
face to be so intuitive that no training is
required. But we have prepared training
materials that can be used as needed,”
says sipilä. “We worked hard on the us-
ability aspect and hope customers find
the end result a pleasant experience.”
Comments received from customers
through the system’s built-in feedback
channel will be used to make further
improvements to usability. KONE will
also track several performance indica-
tors to see how the new system impacts
customer satisfaction and to find new
areas of development.
•
KEY BENEFITS OF
KONE CARE ONLINE
• Maintenance data at your fingertips
• Easy monitoring of equipment performance
• Transparent reporting
• Helps to plan future maintenance and modernization
• suited for all KONE maintenance customers
• Once available, included as part of the service
offered to KONE maintenance customers
Ask your local KONE representative when this service
will become available in your country.