BUNN is at the forefront of all dispensed beverage equipment manufacturers with a full portfolio of innovative products and first-in-industry technologies.The BUNN equipment portfolio is managed by teams headquartered in Springfield, IL USA who listen, anticipate and meet emerging trends for every channel.
Before investing in Help Lightning’s remote video support AR technology, BUNN had a go-tomarket strategy that included a large third-party service provider network that managed most of their work orders. When they decided to grow their business, they chose to grow their own staff of service technicians.
“We knew we would ramp-up quickly and needed a way to help these folks that are new to the industry, or at least new to us, come up to speed swiftly,” says Tim Spencer, Senior Vice Presi- dent and General Manager Service Operations at BUNN.
This was also the largest year in the company’s history for releasing new products, so BUNN was ramping up their service network significantly. They needed to rapidly onboard new technicians, but traditional classroom environments seemed too lengthy, expensive, and complex in terms of logistics.
A Winning Alternative to Wearables
Spencer’s team first looked into wearables as a better alternate training solution to classroom environments. But outfitting the majority of their technicians with wearable devices wasn’t cost effective, as BUNN’s service network consisted of several hundred technicians.
“When you boil that out of the equation, there weren’t many players left,” says Spencer. “Help Lightning is a very cost-effective solution, and they were the only ones with this unique merged reality capability.”
In Help Lightning, BUNN found superior cost to-value in that they could implement the AR technology without an upfront investment in hardware. Technicians and third-parties can employ the tool using common smartphones and devices.
“It was a fast way to onboard all technicians, whether your own or third-party, to make them all experts right away,” says Spencer. “It was also a long-term investment as you’re getting them familiar with the technology.”
A New Pathway to Best-In-Class Service
In addition to transforming onboarding and training processes, Help Lightning’s AR technology is positively impacting the way BUNN delivers service in both tangible benefits and appeal.
“When you’re talking to a customer about why you’re different and why they should choose you versus a competitor, it pays to have something to talk about,” says Spencer. “Sometimes it’s a little bit of sizzle, and sometimes it’s a little bit of value—in this case, it’s both.”
BUNN has achieved a better utilization of their people—tasks that once required an hour of a technician’s time now take only minutes. Along with cost savings, less downtime, and fewer and shorter service calls, customers have a greater sense of dependability and comfort knowing the technology is there to support them in addition to BUNN’s service teams.
“We’ve built a program for the customer to demonstrate that value, which essentially steals business from our competitors.”
In terms of best-in-class service, BUNN has found several applications for the technology beyond enhancing regular service:
- On-the Job Training
BUNN can confirm new or inexperienced technicians are successful by engaging them in a help session via the technology, either during or after a service visit.
“We’ve done that quite often with third-party service providers,” says Spencer. “Everyone appreciates the value of on-the-job training; we can scale it out with this method without the additional expense.”
- Quality Assurance
When servicing BUNN’s new or complex products, technicians engage in a help session to ensure they understand the nuances of the equipment and the customer. In this way, BUNN technicians can mitigate and resolve unique issues, no matter the case or scale.
“The technician can aim the camera at their work and we can say it’s done right,” says Spencer. “We have them show us their work and we can determine if their quality is up to our standards.”
Everyone appreciates the value of on-the-job training; we can scale it out with this method without the additional expense.
- Technical Support
Technicians in BUNN’s central technical support area can provide 24/7 support, even when they are on call and away from the office.
“If we get a call after hours and a Help Lightning ses- sion can help, on-call technicians can provide support from home with their smartphones,” says Spencer. “Our technicians love that availability, whether they’re on call or in the field.”
Now, customers ask BUNN if they can expand the use of Help Lightning’s AR technology into other areas of their business, beyond the way BUNN had initially engaged them.
Creating More Personalized Service with Expanded Help Sessions
Recently, Help Lightning expanded the usefulness of its tool with a capability that supports the inclusion of a third party during help sessions. In this way, BUNN is expanding upon the two-way conversations between remote technicians and cen- tral-office technicians, providing them with additional support.
For example, BUNN can introduce a third seasoned technician, a relevant product engineer, a sales person, or a third-party manufacturer who can talk through potential solutions relative to the customer’s environment. Since BUNN always has the right people available, they have the capacity to resolve any unique issue.
“The list of ways to further utilize this tool by virtue of introduc- ing a third party into the conversation is long,” says Spencer. “We’ve already done this many times with great success.”
A New Pathway to Growth and Profitability
BUNN has become proactive in how they retrain, retrench, validate, qualify, and ensure quality in their delivery of service. They bring technicians up to speed faster, validate their work, and build out technicians’ soft skills as well.
“When we bring someone new to our organization we want them to understand our culture, and this tool helps us to trans- fer that culture to our growing staff,” says Spencer. “Engaging with our new folks helps us to teach them how we would fix something to our standards—how we want them to leave the workplace and the equipment, the level of cleanliness we expect, and more.”
We’ve built a program for the customer to demon- strate that value, which essentially steals business from our competitors. I’d highly recommend it because it has been so great for us.
The company’s new path involves winning additional revenue by virtue of using Help Lightning’s remote video support AR technology. Already, they are approaching prospects and show- ing them what they can do with the tool.
“We’ve built a program for the customer to demonstrate that value, which essentially steals business from our competitors,” says Spencer. “I’d highly recommend it because it has been so great for us.”
About the Case Study
As field service organizations face increasing pressure to offer competitive service models, new technologies are transforming the way technicians connect with customers, enhance customer experiences, and drive business value. Companies excelling in this area are leading the industry as service value parallels products in their search for a competitive edge.
In this report, we take a look at how Help Lightning’s remote video support AR technology is driving success for field service operations improving the way they onboard new technicians, expanding customer support, optimizing service visits, building personal connections with their customers, and driving calculable business results as a result.
For additional Case Studies, contact info@helplightning.com
With Help Lightning, we have completely reimagined how businesses, customers and employees are able to give and receive help using merged reality. We’ve eliminated the frustrations and inadequacies of phone or simple video chat, as well as dramatically reduced the need to drive or fly to interact in person. For more information, please visit helplightning.com.
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