Sense’s mission is to make all homes intelligent by keeping people informed about what’s happening in their homes and helping to make homes safer, more efficient, and more reliable. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not “smart.” Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs.

Sense has received investments from two of the world’s largest energy technology companies, Schneider Electric and Landis + Gyr. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. Currently, Sense has about 50 employees.

We recently talked with Aisha Strauss, director of customer success at Sense, for her perspectives on using Nicereply.

 

Problem

Sense needed a way for customers to voice their opinions about their customer support experience, good and bad. According to Strauss, “We also wanted to be able to address every problem as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Our hope is that customers will come to us first whenever they are experiencing frustrations with the product.”

“Before Nicereply,” says Strauss, “we didn’t have a way to send a response to customers immediately after each interaction and give them an opportunity to rate us right away on how well we supported them.”

Solution

Thanks to Nicereply people at Sense can see customers’ feedback in a short period of time after the interaction is finished and take immediate action if necessary.  Strauss commented: “Using Nicereply, we can immediately respond to a customer as soon as they contact us, have a productive interaction, and see their feedback and ratings within minutes. If the interaction wasn’t satisfactory, we can reach out immediately, taking our customer support to the next level of 100% follow-through. This approach has helped us provide the best-in-class customer experience.”

Another thing that Sense values about Nicereply is the ability to track customer support representative’s effectiveness.

“In addition, Nicereply gave us a consistent metric to assess the effectiveness of each of our customer service representatives,” said Strauss- “ This provides greater transparency for employees and managers. At the same time, we have insight into what our customers are saying about each interaction in real-time combined with the ability to immediately address their issues.”

Sense uses Nicereply in combination with another customer service system to track and reply to every customer service inquiry​. ​Strauss appreciates Nicereply’s simple, streamlined experience​: ”Nicereply gives us the simplicity that we were looking for when understanding our customer’s needs by tracking and monitoring their experience in real-time. Since Nicereply tracks the entire interaction with the customers from their first outreach, we know where the issue stemmed from and don’t need to go back through our records to research before responding. The entire customer service interaction becomes real-time and information-rich.”

People at Sense believe that customer feedback is the key to success in business. “Customer feedback is the bread and butter of any successful company. We value all positive and negative feedback from our customers and believe that feeling heard is as important to any customer as having their problem solved. If customers don’t believe you make an effort to try to understand them, they, in turn, become disinterested in your services. Our goal is not just satisfied customers – it’s happy customers! When you listen to your customers, you can start improving the experience for all.”

Sense chose Nicereply because of its focus on customers, not just the product. When Strauss started looking for a solution, “we vetted several platforms that were more focused on the product and not the customer. Nicereply highlights the customer experience and helps identify areas of improvement in our support organization through customer ratings.”

Response time is a key consideration, also. Says Strauss: “Nicereply gives us the tools and organization we need to ensure we are responding back to customers in real-time. You have a short window to ensure your customers are having a pleasant experience. Nicereply gives us the chance to change frowns into smiles. Before Nicereply, our response times were longer. Having an immediate, collaborative response when the customer is experiencing their frustration improves the entire experience for customers.”

Listening to customers is Sense’s most effective and powerful tool. “We rely on the combination of detailed reporting and customer feedback to identify trends and areas of opportunity. We use Zendesk to capture tags and reason codes. Nicereply’s customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores give us great insight into what our customers are thinking and we have the ability to ask our customers what’s going on. Based on those findings, we have solid insights into trends that we use to develop more specific plans for the company.”

Sense’s Company Culture

Sense’s team manager believes that happy employees are more likely to feel motivated, engaged and productive.

“As the team manager, it’s extremely important that I create a space where my Customer Service Representatives feel comfortable and confident. To make this happen, we operate with an open door and open communication policy. As a manager, I’m constantly encouraging employees to have the confidence to speak their minds, offering suggestions, ideas and feedback. Feeling heard empowers us all. The team feels pride in their work and each one has a voice in our efforts, reminding them that they are part of something bigger than just answering support tickets.” 

Sense Labs understands the importance of customer service and views the team as their front runners who ensure that all their customers continue to have the positive experiences that create success as the company grows.

For Strauss, “Feedback and praise are essential to a productive workplace, and managers should be constantly striving to help employees feel motivated and inspired. If you do this, you’re sure to achieve the results that you need. “

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