Rinnai, a leading UK company in continuous flow Infinity gas fired water heaters, supports its benchmark ‘A’ rated range of energy efficient products with direct customer service through a dedicated team.
Rinnai, a leading UK company in continuous flow Infinity gas fired water heaters, supports its benchmark ‘A’ rated range of energy efficient products with direct customer service through a dedicated team.
Steve Thompson, Rinnai UK internal sales and purchasing officer, says that strong customer service “engenders customer trust and loyalty to the Rinnai brand.”
He continues: “Our team, ‘Red H2ot Rinnai Excellence Delivered’ is dedicated to this simple premise.
“With that in mind, we expanded the internal sales and customer service team to answer any customer questions, offer advice and help in any way we can. Key pillars of this team are Cara Shipley, Paul Shelbourne and myself”.
He adds: “Nothing is more frustrating for customers than to be calling a phone that isn’t answered. That is why we aim to answer all calls with just a few rings – and we look to keep up with all website enquiries - answering all queries by return. We also keep the Rinnai UK website up to date, on a daily basis, with any pertinent latest information”.
Paul Shelbourne says: “The new Rinnai UK website itself is yet another useful window, opening up another way to technical help any time..
“Rinnai is selling more and more products through word-of-mouth recommendations from installers – this has increased dramatically in the last two years – this, inevitably, generates more queries and it is important that we deal with them professionally, efficiently and in a friendly way.”
He continues: “Anything we cannot answer instantly – and that is rare - we are able to pass on very quickly to our dedicated technical team – it could be a query about a system for a large hotel that has 100 rooms, for example. We can refer them to the Rinnai regional sales manager who will be able to drop in if needed to help them with sizing/pipe layouts/legislative concerns and much more. Rinnai UK has ensured the process is seamless when it comes to customer service.”
“We are also on hand to project managing deliveries if needed,” says Steve. “For example we recently saw an order through the whole process from the initial order delivery to a customer in Ireland. The consignment was a timed delivery at a set time through the security gate at Dublin Airport and there was no room for error. We handled the whole process from the office, tracking it all the way and followed up after pick-up. It gave the customer peace of mind that this support was there and that we at Rinnai were prepared to go that extra mile”.
He adds: “We now have multiple methods of logistics carriers and can use online portals to track deliveries from our office. We can see exactly where the driver is and by inputting the tracking number can interrogate the parcel carrier on how many deliveries he has on his van. If he has, say 75 on board, we can inform our customer that they are fifth on the list; the driver’s name is Jim and the carrier will text or phone when he is an hour away from their premises.”
Paul Shelbourne comments: “We also find end users, installers and engineers ordering verbally from us and via email. Email is a very efficient way to order as everything goes to a central address so one of us will always pick it up quickly and turn it around.
“Customer service is primed to give the right information at the right time, for example we will advise that maybe a customer is overspending on a system that is larger than their needs or that the system they have in mind is, say, more suited for a commercial installation rather than a domestic one,” he says.
Steve cites an example of an end user phoning to order a part her engineer had identified as needing replacing. “We identified it was the wrong part so I arranged for our technical department to talk to the engineer and we helped that way. We aim to save the customer time and money and ensure the right outcome. As the Rinnai motto goes ‘quality is our destiny’.”
“Sales calls can be complicated and some are dealt with in just a few minutes – it all depends. I think it is true to say that nobody goes away dissatisfied,” he adds.
Feedback from customers on the company’s customer service has been extremely positive for Rinnai’s Red H2ot Service team (Rinnai Excellence Delivered). “We are interested in our customers. We look to build up a rapport with them and when they phone again they ask for us by our names. We take time to talk and have a laugh here and there with them. We all agree that our aim is to make a customer, not a sale” says Steve.