With Steam-connect, companies can handle all forms of customer contact: from email to social media and from telephony to chat. Each year, more than 150 million customer contacts occur through the platform, and its market share grew to 22 percent within the Dutch facilities call center industry in 15 years.
‘”And now we are on the eve of a complete rebranding of the company,” says CEO Dennis Schabracq. “We want to renew, become fresher and fruitier. To adopt a completely new identity with a completely different look and feel.”
“With a marketing agency, we looked at where we are now and where we actually want to be. We’re a good guy now and want to become more of a hero.”
Manager of Marketing & Communications Renée Müller agrees wholeheartedly. “We have a very good product and offer our customers the best solution. And with our product, they also offer their customers the best customer experience again. And it’s okay to start saying that a little bit louder.”
Schabracq updates her: “Absolutely! We are ready for market leadership as a disruptive and innovative party. That too is the rationale behind the rebranding.”
Completely new branding
Everything is being done thoroughly, right down to the design and layout of the (new) headquarters. Schabracq: “The layout and setting in the previous building no longer felt quite right. We wanted to move to a new building where everything is more open and more interaction with colleagues.”
“With repositioning your brand values, you have to address all facets: the office and office appearance, but also logo, color schemes, websites, commercial and marketing communications, social channels, the customer environment (dashboards) of our software, login screens, etc. Everything gets a completely different look and feel.”
One brand, one name
The rebranding also made clear choices for the first time, acknowledges Renée Müller. “Definitely! There were in fact no choices made, neither in positioning nor in branding or the name. We often got feedback: are you called Codelogic, Steam or Steam-connect? We’re now clearly distancing ourselves from this confusion: all our communications are now Steam Connect. At least there’s no more noise on the line.”
Schabracq is also pleased with the direction chosen. “We named the company Codelogic at the time because we were making software for call centers, but might also develop software for other industries.”
“But we didn’t start making other products and Steam- connect is our core business, we’re busy enough with that.”
“Because there should be no confusion in the marketplace, we are now making a clear choice: we are Steam-connect! And that name is going to resonate in everything we do, right down to the registration with the Chamber of Commerce.”
Origin of Steam-connect
The new branding and brand story shines with self-confidence and this has its origins in the strong proposition of the product.
Dennis Schabracq: “It started out as an appointment and calendar tool for call centers. We then sat down with them to get input on what all they needed in the product.”
“So it really originated and evolved from the desire of the contact centers. We’ve always followed that line and that’s really our pure DNA: listening to our customers and developing the product from there.”
He continues: “I dare say that Steam-connect has one of the best calendar modules for commercial activities and appointment scheduling. No competitor can match that.”
Unique omnichannel capabilities
But there is more, much more. “In addition, I am convinced that our product is unique because of its omnichannel capabilities,” states Schabracq. “Steam-connect provides all customer contact channels in one agent screen. Our partnership with OBI4wan ensures that all messages from their platform are offered within Steam-connect.”
“And that’s not through an iframe, but directly in the screen. So the agent experiences every form of customer contact in the same way.”
Schabracq: “He sees whether it is an e-mail, WhatsApp or a Facebook message, but everything comes in on his integrated screen. That’s our unique selling point to the market: we have the ability to open up to customers (and of course to our customers’ customers) every customer contact channel.”
“So with us, all those channels are well and easily managed for the agents.”
And that’s critical to the customer experience of Steam-connect’s customers. “In fact, you also see in the marketplace that companies say: there are so many channels; we’ll shut down a few and let them call or send an email.”
“In other words, these companies are going back in time with their customer service because they can’t handle it. With our software, they would be able to manage it, because everything comes to the same agent and in the same way. Whether it’s a Twitter, Facebook or email message, it all goes the same way.”
USPs
Schabracq: “By the way, our competitors will say that they also offer all these functionalities, but they work through iframes and other solutions. The registration and all the agent’s actions take place in an external package. In Steam-connect it is fully integrated. So you don’t have to log in elsewhere to run reports.”
“Therein lies the biggest difference and therein we are unique. It is precisely because of these innovations that we want to be and remain the hero when it comes to call center software. We have been around for 15 years and have more than a fifth of the market within the facility call centers. All in all, we’re pretty mature and we want to emphasize that as well.”
More than just call center software
Renée Müller adds: “It actually goes beyond call center software as well. We actually make conversational software; it doesn’t matter if you are a call center or SME. Any company with customer contact can do super well with our software.”
Steam-connect has therefore defined three target groups: call centers (facility or in-house), the SME market and the client market, such as the GGD or energy companies. If these parties were to purchase Steam-connect and have their facility call centers work with it, they would have complete control over their campaigns and immediate insight into call duration, dates, communications and hours.
“Any party that has anything to do with customer contact can use our heroic package,” concludes Dennis Schabracq.
New innovations
It doesn’t stop there, as the company continues to innovate. “We are also launching a chatbot in our package soon, because we see an increasing demand for it. Our customers can set it up just the way they want it, that’s how we designed and built it.”
The rebranding is about to start, when will the operation be successful? For Renée Müller when the customers are happy with it and Steam-connect will be seen even more as a thought leader in a while and they will have an easier time getting to the table with larger parties.
Schabracq goes one step further. “Our competitors are big, global players and the ultimate ambition is to be next to them or just below them. I would very much like to conquer the world and our product can make that happen. In that, I would like to be the hero.”
Future of customer contact
The world in which Steam-connect operates won’t change much, he thinks. “There is likely to be a shift within customer contact channels. Live chat is on the rise, but each generation will use the channels they are most comfortable with, and the companies that score well in customer experience know how to manage all those channels well and appropriately.”
“Another question, of course, is: why is there still so much customer contact? Because most companies communicate woefully poorly. Why does a customer have to call back three times for a question? If everything were immediately clear to everyone through clear communication, there would be less need for customer contact. But that ideal world is still a long way off, and for us that’s a good thing.”
