Sage UK Limited is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of business management software solutions. The Group employs more than 9,000 people worldwide, and more than 600,000 customers in the UK have registered Sage products. The company offers accounting, payroll and CRM business management software solutions, which enable companies of all sizes to cut costs, save time and improve customer service.

The Challenge: Reduce Resolution Time for Complex Technical-support Calls

While the majority of the technical-support calls received by Sage’s technical-support help desk are resolved quickly, a small percentage of calls were taking considerably longer than others, reducing the total available call time for all support agents. These calls were complex in nature and involved customers spending considerable time trying to explain what was wrong.

Implementing Citrix GoToAssist

To address the situation, Sage introduced “show me” remote-support technology from Citrix into its technical-support department. With Citrix GoToAssist TM, Sage’s technical-support staff now rapidly and securely connects to the customer’s screen and, if necessary, use diagnostic tools or share keyboard and mouse control to train the customer or troubleshoot and resolve a problem. “GoToAssist is ideal in that it enables the technician to view the customer’s actions on screen,” says Andrew Cooper, project manager for Sage.

Sage selected GoToAssist as the technology best suited to the requirements of the company and its customers. With GoToAssist, customers do not need to pre-install any software on their computers. The patented compression technology of GoToAssist enables Sage to support customers on virtually any Internet connection, including slower 56Kbps modems. Plus, GoToAssist is simple to use, so customers do not need any previous experience to receive immediate, effective support.

Consistently Exceeds Customer Expectations

The Sage technical-support team believes that GoToAssist has made a positive impact on quality of service to key customer groups. The majority of customers agree, expressing high satisfaction when receiving support through GoToAssist. In fact, 83 percent of customers rated their GoToAssist support experience as better than previous sessions, according to a survey conducted by the company.

The survey also reveals that 90 percent of customers found that GoToAssist sessions exceeded their expectations and the GoToAssist experience has boosted Sage’s customer satisfaction rates to an impressive 96 percent. “GoToAssist enables us to improve the quality of service we provide to key customer groups, increasing customer satisfaction and first time resolution,” says Cooper.

Resolve Customer Issues Quickly and Correctly the First Time

Because help desk staff can use GoToAssist to see the problem, agents can investigate and diagnose issues as if they were sitting at the customer’s desk. “The average length of a GoToAssist session is 27 minutes—less than handling these complex calls only over the phone, when they could last upwards of two hours per call,” says Cooper.

When GoToAssist is utilized, the power of visually seeing a customer’s screen has increased first-call resolution. According to Cooper, over 92 percent of customers using GoToAssist have their issue resolved the first time. “An additional benefit was to improve the speed at which we can investigate new issues. We can now connect directly to the customer’s system to view the issue exactly, enabling us to resolve issues much quicker,” says Cooper.

Due to the success of the GoToAssist implementation, the company is now investigating a number of future service enhancements using this technology.

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