Square D expands customer service in North America

Advanced customer information capability extended to Caribbean and expected to reduce customer service cycle time.

Square D (Palatine, IL) and its parent company — Schneider Electric (Paris, France) have expanded the reach of their Customer Information Center (CIC) beyond the United States and Canada to the Caribbean. This, in essence, blankets most of North America with a single point of contact for customer service. It's the first time in the history of the electrical industry that one centralized customer service center can manage calls from such a broad territory.

The Square D CIC was designed to reduce cycle time for the company's customers and distributors by providing them with immediate logistical and technical support through a single toll-free number (888-778-2733). It handles inquiries that come in by phone or fax, through the company's web site or from E-WAY — the extranet site used by Square D distributors for quote and order management.

Initial service coverage for the entire United States began in late 1999 and was expanded to the English-speaking provinces of Canada. The Caribbean was the most recent addition. The CIC will begin serving customers and distributors in Quebec within the next quarter.

The Square D/Schneider Electric CIC provides information and technical support for all Square D products as well as products bearing Schneider Electric's other major brands: Modicon, Telemecanque, Merlin Gerin, Federal Pioneer and Federal Pacific. The regular operating hours are 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

When a customer calls, automated number identification technology

• captures the caller's phone number
  
• runs it against a customer database that includes information generated in previous calls
  
• automatically directs the call to a customer service representative assigned to field calls from that specific region.

Before the customer service rep even picks up the phone, information about the caller appears on his or her computer screen.

About 80 percent of inquiries to CIC concern non-technical issues and can be addressed by one of the regionally-assigned service representatives. The other 20 percent are technical in nature and are directed to virtual-based product support specialists located throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition, there are technical experts available at manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico to deal with technical inquiries.

Edited by Jerry R. Borland, P.E.
Managing Editor, EC Online