CAD, construction
3D printing
CAM, CNC
3D Metrology
PDM, MES
Architecture, Construction
Mechatronics & Robotics
Image processing
Hardware
CAD, construction
If you get stuck, that’s where they come in: the WESTCAM support team
What exactly goes on behind the scenes when the phone rings at WESTCAM? We took a look over the shoulders of three members of the WESTCAM support team, representing the entire support team for CAD, data management, simulation, 3D printing, CAM and 3DMetrology.
In this article, Mario Hinterreiter (3D-Metrology expert), Bernhard Ruetz (CAD expert) and Rainer Weingärtner (CAM expert) answer all the questions you have always wanted to ask a support employee.
Competent help from experts in the field
A special feature of WESTCAM is that all support staff are technical employees from the field who, in addition to providing support, also carry out all other services for the customer, such as on-site installations or training. This means that callers are not dealing with some call center employee on the other side of the world, but directly with a WESTCAM technician and therefore an expert who deals with the software and hardware on a daily basis and is very familiar with it.
Rainer Weingärtner explains: “We employees in the CAM team share the support service so that everyone provides support for a week approximately every six weeks. The fact that we don’t have a pure “support person” makes us more effective because everyone has an overview and is also with the customer.”
“We in the CAM support team have an average of ten requests a day. As a support employee, that means you’re working at full capacity. Being on support duty means that you usually have another hour in the evening,” says Rainer Weingärtner.
The person behind the support request is important
Because the support staff also provide services at the customer’s premises, they often already know the callers. At WESTCAM, someone who contacts support with a problem is not just an anonymous, sequential number, but the person behind it is important:
“We have close contact with many customers – from training to installation to support, you are often the same technician. When the customer then calls and says “you trained me anyway”, the personal relationship and the customer’s trust are immediately there and you can help them straight away,” says Bernhard Ruetz.
With the help of a competent, professional and flexible partner like WESTCAM, anything is possible! Even an update of Inventor and Vault on December 23rd in the evening, while all our other colleagues were already celebrating Christmas. WESTCAM supported us until the end of the update, thank you very much!
What does the support cost?
The support service is available exclusively for WESTCAM customers. Due to the high workload and because there really are experts from the field at the other end of the line, use of the support service is only free of charge with a booked hotline contract. Without a contract, we charge € 48 net per quarter of an hour or part thereof.
Who contacts the support team?
Bernhard Ruetz says: “There are certainly customers who call with simple questions. But then there are also customers who are really experts and only call when their hat is on fire. These are problems that they have been working on for eight hours and simply can’t get any further. They often just need a different perspective.”
What exactly happens when a customer contacts support?
If a customer needs help, they can contact the WESTCAM support team either by telephone or by e-mail. The most efficient way is to send a short e-mail to the general support e-mail address.
Rainer Weingärtner says: “If I receive an email with a question and possibly a screenshot, I can look at the problem directly and perhaps even answer the question by email or think it through and then call back.”
Mario Hinterreiter also explains: “We have different technicians, not all of whom are always on site: One is with the customer, the other is at a training course… When the support request comes in by email, you can immediately see who has time and respond more quickly.”
How can support help customers?
No matter how tricky your question is – the WESTCAM support team has helped every caller!
- First, the support employee listens to the customer’s problem and tries to understand it.
- In most cases, he connects to the Teamviewer, which allows him to view the customer’s screen and understand the issue in detail.
- Often the employee also asks the customer to send him the entire project or the file so that he can take a closer look at it
- For special challenges, the support employee consults his team.
- Problems that cannot be solved by WESTCAM are passed on to the manufacturer. In rare cases, where not only the software but also the hardware is affected, the support staff will visit the customer directly on site.
- Once the problem has been successfully solved, each support case is stored in the WESTCAM customer database, the CRM system, where every support employee can later look up whether the problem has already occurred and what the solution was at the time.
WESTCAM support staff are committed to helping customers as quickly as possible. The customer is always kept up to date on the progress of their request.
Who contacts the support team?
Bernhard Ruetz says: “There are certainly customers who call with simple questions. But then there are also customers who are really experts and only call when their hat is on fire. These are problems that they have been working on for eight hours and simply can’t get any further. They often just need a different perspective.”
Which questions are asked particularly often?
Rainer Weingärtner: “When a software update is released, all customers get in touch at once and want to have the update installed very quickly. We would prefer it if customers contacted us a few days in advance and made an appointment for the installation. That way, we could organize it a little and help them even faster and more efficiently.”
Do you also have a question that you can no longer answer on your own?
/All support telephone numbers and times as well as all relevant information on the hotline contract and the support request form can be found here.
