Gaggia UK’s unique ‘forever customer care’ puts us in line for 2 national awards

Gaggia UK’s unique ‘forever customer care’ puts us in line for 2 national awards
 
Gaggia UK has been shortlisted for two of the UK’s most prestigious customer service awards.

We’ve been shortlisted in the Institute of Customer Service awards for the Customer Focus Award for small and medium businesses and the Commitment Award B2C for our unique ‘forever customer care’ policy.

We are instantly accessible on Zoom and phone all day, helping anyone with a Gaggia coffee machine long after the warranty has run out.

People contacting us for help or advice speak immediately to someone from the company and they can do that either on the phone or by coming straight through on Zoom.

Our service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is exceptional as we’ll arrange for a sign language expert to join online so deaf people can communicate directly with our team.

We’ve fully embraced Artificial Intelligence and introduced our own chatbot that’s simply called VAR and asked our customers to email in the questions they’d like VAR to answer. More than 2,000 came in and now the answers have been programmed into VAR it’s probably the most advanced AI chatbot in the coffee industry.

Gaggia UK’s ratings on TrustPilot are virtually all five-star with excellent testimonials being posted on the internet just about every day.

Managing director Raj Beadle says: “We can’t think of another organisation that provides the same level of free customer care out of warranty and instant accessibility that we do. We view these awards as the best in Britain for customer service so we are delighted to be shortlisted in two categories, especially as we are up against some big names.”

The Commitment Award B2C sees Gaggia pitched against the Nationwide Building Society, Cirencester Friendly Society, Pension Insurance Corporation and the National Records of Scotland which preserves and publishes information about Scotland’s people and history.
The Customer Focus Award shortlist includes Mazuma mobile phone recycling service, Carmoola car finance company, top quality bathroom equipment company Geberit and Personal Group insurance.

Raj adds: “Our concept is simple yet highly effective, using Zoom to provide quick and efficient customer care which we call Forever Customer Care as it continues after the warranty ends.

“When customers contact a company they want an instant response - someone to pick up the phone and talk to them immediately - yet how many businesses actually do this? With most, the caller has to endure digital call handling systems that have them pressing this button, then another and another before subjecting them to awful muzak before the call is finally answered or, worse, gets cut off when they’ve been waiting for it to be answered for ages.

“At Gaggia UK people can contact us immediately by phone, chat or zoom and are instantly talking to a person from the business. It’s amazing how many customers are surprised and even shocked by that.”

Raj adds: “If the member of staff can’t resolve the problem straightaway then the customer is immediately referred to an engineer who will join the Zoom or phone call.

“This means that if they have a problem with a coffee machine they can show us the problem and we can give instant advice there and then and guide them on how to fix it as many of the issues can be quickly solved.

“It also saves the time, effort, money and the environment of needlessly sending a machine  back to us when it can be quickly sorted online. If a part needs replacing we can get it ordered and delivered straight to the customer and then talk them through how to fit it.

“The number of coffee machines sent back to us for repairs, servicing or upgrades has halved since we introduced Zoom into our customer service.”

In 2003 Gaggia UK was granted Cool Brand Leader status by The Brand Council which put the company alongside the likes of Aston Martin, Chanel, Royal Doulton, Bang and Olufsen, Jaguar Cars, Lambretta, Vespa, Moet & Chandon, Selfridges and Xbox.

This is because Gaggia machines – the first ever coffee machines in the UK 75 years ago - have changed the way coffee was made forever and continues to be a brand leader.