Help Lightning’s AR-enabled video support allowed early adopter Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis (Oxford Nano) to gain efficiency, provide a higher level of real time customer support, and add a new profit center.
Dan Turner is Global Service Business Manager at Oxford Nano, and he shares how the company has been using Help Lightning to meet core business objectives. Turner is responsible for the company’s service strategy and how to improve it. The goal is always to generate more value for customers alongside more revenue for Oxford Nano.
Help Lightning powers Live Assist, the company’s AR-enabled remote visual assistance service. Live Assist has enhanced the value of what Oxford Nano offers their customers with augmented reality video streaming and remote assistance features like making on-screen annotations, using real tools/objects to demonstrate how to fix something, and being able to virtually reach into a customer’s physical setting.
Oxford Nano’s implementation of Help Lightning means customers now get instant access to a global team of service providers for real time solutions.
Breaking the ‘Break/Fix’ Service Model
Prior to onboarding Help Lightning, Oxford Nano operated in a way that is typical to most service providers. Something breaks and then an engineer or technician fixes it. While this model is widely accepted, it lacks efficiency and results in wasted time and money. Clients must wait until help can arrive onsite, preventing them from operating at full capacity. From the provider side, Oxford Nano had to send someone onsite which is expensive and time consuming.
“The time between something going wrong and then someone going to fix it can be weeks or even months,” Turner explains. “With Help Lightning, you can check in on customers and do equipment checks remotely to make sure everything is working as it should. You can identify issues or defective parts before an instrument breaks and help customers take needed action before it becomes a problem for them.”
A primary objective for Turner’s team was to transition their support model from reactive to proactive. A proactive support model offers high value to customers and helps them feel secure with Oxford Nano products.
Using Help Lightning’s AR-enabled video streaming, Oxford Nano can more easily collaborate with partners to identify problems before they arise. In addition to providing value to how the customer operates, this form of engagement cultivates a deeper relationship between Oxford Nano and their customers. Instead of relying on a failure event and for the customer to realize something has gone wrong, Oxford Nano can do equipment checks remotely and make sure everything is operating as it should.
AR-Enabled Remote Customer Support
Oxford Nano serves a global customer base, and uses Help Lightning to provide real time support to customers all over the world. There is no barrier to entry, as customers can access Help Lightning on any device including iOS, Android, and PC, without having to download or add hardware. Using Help Lightning, Oxford Nano helps customers solve problems faster and more intelligently.
“Customers think it’s otherworldly when they see the images projected in 3D right on their screen,” says Turner. “It’s a greater level of intimacy compared to a phone call or email, and that translates to minimal time to repair. There is no more guesswork. If an engineer must go onsite, they are able to fix the issue in one visit. That gives customers maximum uptime, and that’s more revenue for the customer.”
Customers using Help Lightning get a virtual presence right in their labs. They hit a link and are connected without having to download an app or use special hardware. This offers a high level of intimacy that is of great value to the customer, as the result is better product reliability. Turner’s team is able to interact with customers in the moment and on any device they have. A local onsite person can handle issues even if knowledge is minimal.
“It used to be that you could only really understand a customer’s problem when you got onsite,” Turner explains. “Factors like humidity or the placement of machinery within a room have an impact on how you’d solve a problem. These are things you’d simply never know from a phone call or an email. With Live Assist, you get the full scope of context.”
Additionally, with augmented reality, hands-on gestures allows Oxford Nano engineers to guide customers unlike any other modality. As a global company, and with about 80% of engineers not having English as their first language, remote teams can communicate by visually demonstrating exactly what they mean.
Customers also have the option for traditional service, but Help Lightning is available when and if they need it.
Increase Revenue with Wider Profit Margins While Adding Value
In addition to cost savings and margin uplift from enabling greater efficiency, Help Lightning has changed the way Oxford Nano is able to charge for service in many cases. Help Lightning provides a level of engagement that’s completely different from commonly used forms of communication like Facetime and WhatsApp. Augmented reality is a new model and a new level of service that can be included in service contracts.
A proactive service contract means Oxford Nano can offer a higher level of service while reducing travel-related costs and downtime. Help Lightning enables the company to change their tech support metric to how many problems were solved, rather than how many emails were responded to.
“Every time we save a visit, the savings to Oxford Nano is £1,200-£3,000 ($1,625-$4,000 USD),” says Turner. “We are making ~100 calls per month now using Live Assist!”
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, call volumes through Live Assist surged, translating to a 19% increase in revenue. Help Lightning enabled Oxford Nano to maintain their entire staff of engineers, while bumping up call volume and providing value to customers without having to visit them.
One of Oxford Nano’s clients is a large semiconductor company located in Italy. The company had a warranty failure on a piece of equipment, and they wanted someone to resolve the issue in a short time scale. No one was available to go onsite for at least 4 weeks.
The onsite engineers were competent, so Oxford Nano support within the United States was able to successfully support the customer and guide them through the install using Live Assist. It took 7.5 minutes. This is compared to a 4-week delay and 2-3 days of travel, paying for onsite hotels, and an upset customer.
Connect with Help Lightning if you’d like a demonstration of Help Lightning, and to discuss how AR-enabled remote support can help your business optimize operations and increase revenue.
