Company: Samsung Electronics America
Company Description: Samsung, founded in South Korea, is one of the world’s largest producers of electronic devices. Samsung specializes in the production of a wide variety of consumer and industry electronics, including appliances, digital media devices, semiconductors, memory chips, and integrated systems.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Satisfaction Strategy
 Nomination Title: Samsung Beyond Boundaries
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2021, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 194 words used.
The United States has approximately 46 million of its residents living in rural areas, making up 14 % of the country’s population. Historically, Samsung has provided very strong repair service coverage in large metropolitan areas with multiple service providers who can provide quick turnaround with highly skilled technicians. Covering rural areas with few residents and providing quick turnaround with skilled technicians has been a big challenge for all home appliance and TV companies. We have taken this challenge on by creating a dedicated rural coverage team called Samsung Beyond Boundaries in 2H 2022.
Currently, 27 of these technicians, and growing rapidly, are dedicated to providing services in rural areas. The technicians are not restricted by travel distance. They are based in central locations and on a typical day can travel 200 miles one way to a customer's house to fix a home appliance or a TV. In one particular case, for example, we had a technician travel over 9 hours to a customer’s house in Malone NY to provide assistance.
With this field service program, we were able to achieve high customer NPS score (80) and #1 in key major national retailer’s brand recommendation.
- Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 112 words used.
- The program garnered an NPS score of 80
- Exchanged and refunds have decreased as a result of the Samsung Beyond Boundaries program. In the area’s that SBB covers, exchanges and refunds have been reduced by 69% since June of 2022
- Repair turnaround time has improved in these areas since June of 2022, reducing by 15%
- SBB has won multiple awards from the United States and International awards programs for the full program:
- 2023 US Customer Experience Awards Gold – Best Customer Experience Strategy
- 2023 International Customer Experience Awards Gold – Best Customer Experience Strategy (>10,000 Employees)
- 2022 International Customer Experience Awards Gold – Best Innovation in Customer Experience (>10,000 Employees)
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 40 words used.
Samsung is providing you with the following to assist in your review of our program’s submission
- https://bcove.video/47PejNG
- 2023 International CX Awards - https://cxscoop.com/latest-news/international-customer-experience-awards-2023-meet-the-winners/ (Currently blocked by Samsung firewall)
- 2023 UX CX Awards - https://usacxa.com/hall-of-fame
- Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 237 words used.
The SBB achievements are unique because covering rural areas with few residents and providing quick turnaround with skilled technicians has been a challenge for the industry. Customer satisfaction has increased due to the speed and quality of the repair. The number of escalations for customers waiting for repair over 20 days have decreased. Cases like these typically prompt an escalation, resulting in the inefficient usage man-hours to resolve the escalation and loss of customer trust.
A resulting impact on the business has been a 73% reduction in refunds resulting in cost savings of 4.9 million dollars by reducing the number of exchanges or refunds due to no coverage. The savings are invested into the program by increasing the technician headcount to 51 since the beginning of the program.
The SBB program has also promoted and instill brand confidence at local dealers because technicians also repair floor demo appliances. Having technicians visit stores in remote parts of the country allows the frontline sales staff to build relationships and learn from their local technician, which in turn, empowers them to sell the product more confidently to their customers.
As a result of our SBB program, wait time in rural United States decreased from 20 days to 10 days. This program has been very impactful in increasing our customer satisfaction scores, lowering our product returns and increasing sales at our partner locations like Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy.
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