How to improve customer relationships by optimizing field service: the Novomatic case

Novomatic is one of the largest gaming technology companies in the world; the Novomatic Group develops, manufactures and leases gaming and lottery equipment and systems internationally. It employs more than 25,000 people across the 45-plus countries where it operates.

Globally, Novomatic provides leasing and maintenance services for more than 260,000 gaming terminals and video lottery terminals, delivering reliability across the sophisticated gaming systems it develops and offers to its varied clients, notably casinos, electronic casinos and gaming halls.

Our work with them took place at its Colombian subsidiary, which supplies large-scale entertainment technology products to its regional client base. 

Novomatic's main challenge: improving client relationships by optimizing field technical service

Before GDW Services was implemented, Novomatic had no centralized platform for coordinating its technical team's field operations. The intention was to improve CRM (customer relationship management) through greater operational efficiency, particularly by improving the traceability and punctuality of its technicians to guarantee the service was delivered.

Technical visits were scheduled over WhatsApp, and physical paper records were produced in the field that then had to be reprocessed. Beyond administrative simplification, digitizing the processes would also open digital communication channels with clients and allow further CRM improvements.

Because the management processes they had before the GoDoWorks solution gave them no way to know where technicians were in the field, there was no information about how long assigned tasks took. More information about field operational performance was therefore needed.

Systematizing and digitizing the processes provided valuable resources for simplifying the work of technical staff and their supervisors. That, in turn, made for better client relationships by guaranteeing service quality. 

The solution implemented: GDW Services as the centralized platform for field technical service operations

GDW Services delivered efficiency and productivity through improvements at key points in managing field operations.  

First, it improved scheduling and work order assignment, creating an orderly, systematized flow thanks to the digital platform. The tool brings traceability to operations by digitizing technicians' movements in the field, and it guarantees visits, response times and adherence to schedules.

That traceability happens in real time and, through interaction with other client communication channels (email, for instance), makes it possible to inform the client about the status of the job requested, the scheduling process and its confirmation. Achieving that added value on the CRM side was one of Novomatic's main motivations. 

The benefits of running technical service with GDW Services

One important benefit of digitization was the end of paper records. That simplifies the technician's work and saves time, since it avoids handling physical forms and then transporting them. It also cuts stationery costs.

The digital record keeping GDW Services makes possible improves efficiency in several ways. The reliability inherent to digital storage reduces omissions and losses and, above all, saves considerable time and energy by avoiding rework in data entry. Administrative processes become simpler and smoother. 

Coordination and supervision also get simpler, since receiving work orders and planning them weekly is far easier to organize and centralize with the tool. Communicating work orders to technicians in the field is streamlined too. 

The platform also makes it possible to see how technicians are doing and rate their performance, adding one more component of improvement to the service offered to clients. That, along with automatic information sent through digital channels, streamlines communication and rounds out the CRM gains they were specifically after.

Finally, knowing and measuring the performance of the technical workforce as a whole and weighing its strengths and weaknesses, based on the information GDW Services gathers and compiles, supports better management decisions. 

In summary:

• The ability to trace field technical service, which they did not have before. That guarantees the service is delivered and builds reliability.
• An optimized process for scheduling and issuing work orders, which brings administrative efficiency on one hand and better client relationships on the other, thanks to being able to provide information automatically and immediately. 
• The ability to measure the technical workforce's performance, allowing better service and stronger guarantees.
• An improvement, driven by efficiency and digital communication, in client relationships. This was one of the central goals.
• Constant, up-to-date knowledge of how field operations are performing, which strengthens management decision-making. 
• In total, a productivity increase of more than 10%.