For Ametro, Customer Service is a Competetive Advantage

In 2019, Ametro was looking for a solution to fragmented customer communication, where conversations with customers were scattered across individual employees’ email inboxes. Sovellin provided Ametro with a customer service solution that brings all customer communication transparently into one place, significantly improving operational efficiency. Since then, the business has grown and services have diversified, yet customer service has remained easy to manage. “Having all communication in one place is the key thing,” says CEO Ville Haataja.

Ametro – Home Cleaning and Services That Make Everyday Life Easier

Ametro is a Finnish family-owned company founded in 2001, specializing in home cleaning and complementary services that make everyday life easier. The company serves consumer customers in the Helsinki metropolitan area and the wider Uusimaa region, as well as owners of holiday homes in the Jämsä area. Ametro currently employs nearly one hundred people and has a broad customer base that includes families, working households, and an increasing number of seniors. Reliability, long-term customer relationships, and a smooth customer experience are at the heart of the business. In other words, stable operations where customer service plays a central role!

Omnichannel Customer Service Supports Growth

Because Ametro’s customer base is broad, customers use multiple different channels to get in touch—some prefer phone calls, others email, and some use the contact form on the website. The service offering has also expanded from home cleaning to additional services such as window cleaning and yard work, which has further diversified the reasons why customers contact customer service.

It was precisely this fragmentation and lack of transparency that originally prompted Ville to look for a system to improve Ametro’s customer service. “Customer service agents had their own email inboxes where messages were received. Information didn’t flow between agents, and if someone was absent, others had no visibility into what had been discussed with customers,” CEO Ville Haataja describes the initial situation.

In addition to improved transparency, Ametro was looking for a tool that would make serving customers across multiple channels easier—and for this challenge, Zendesk proved to be the perfect solution. “We were looking for a solution that would conveniently bring all customer communication into one place. The entire communication history, starting from when a customer first contacted us and throughout the entire customer relationship. In Zendesk, you can always see the customer’s full conversation history regardless of the channel and what has been agreed with them at any given time,” Haataja explains.

A Strong Start with an Implementation Project

Sovellin supported Ametro in the Zendesk implementation in 2019, ensuring that all of Ametro’s customer communication and customer service use cases were taken into account when setting up the system. Sovellin helped Ametro, among other things, with:

• building automations and efficiency-boosting workflows
• categorizing and prioritizing customer inquiries
• identifying cases that are critical for business operations and customer experience

As part of the implementation, various classifications and rules were created for Ametro to guide and prioritize work more efficiently—and above all, to ensure that critical issues are handled first. Previously, there had been no unified library of predefined replies; instead, each customer service agent handled responses independently, either writing replies from scratch or using their own personal templates. “Now standardized base replies can be sent to customers from Zendesk in seconds, whereas previously everyone typed them out individually,” Haataja summarizes.

The transition from email and agent-specific mobile phones to a single system went smoothly. Soon after the implementation, Ametro’s customer service team noticed that the unpleasant feeling from the previous fragmented way of working, that many issues were left unresolved or completely missed, had disappeared with Zendesk. The volume, status, and owner of customer inquiries are now clearly visible in Zendesk, and issues are no longer hidden behind individual employees.

Clear Division of Work Improves Efficiency

One of the most significant changes following the implementation of Zendesk has been a clearer division of labor in customer service. “Previously, everyone did a bit of everything. Today, that wouldn’t even cross our minds,” Haataja states. Zendesk has enabled a clear separation of workflows and responsibilities, improving efficiency and reducing the workload on support staff. Today, tasks are clearly divided between the front desk (customer service and inbound inquiries) and the back office (background work and administrative tasks). This division speeds up case handling as issues are automatically routed to the right team or handler.

Sustainable Results Through Ongoing Collaboration

Zendesk is developing at a rapid pace, especially in the area of artificial intelligence, with new features and functionalities released weekly. From the very beginning, it has been important for Ametro that the system does not remain static, but is instead utilized in a versatile and efficient way. As a result, Ametro has chosen to leverage Sovellin’s expertise through regular development workshops.

“We hold workshops with Sovellin a couple of times a year. We go through new features and refresh our usage. This way, the learning curve stays at a reasonable level,” Haataja explains.

Typical workshop activities include:

• Sovellin presenting and demonstrating new Zendesk features that could be suitable for Ametro
• jointly ensuring that existing workflows are up to date and still meet Ametro’s needs
• reviewing any new requirements and use cases from Ametro
• refreshing or further training staff on the efficient use of Zendesk when needed

Collaboration and Partnership—with a Smile

At Sovellin, every customer is assigned a dedicated consultant who understands the customer’s needs and use cases. The extent of collaboration always depends on the customer’s needs and preferences, but at its best it is active and long-term teamwork, as in the case of Ametro. This ensures that the customer gains real value from their customer service system and can turn customer experience into a competitive advantage.

Future in Mind – AI Is Transforming the Role of Customer Service

The adoption of AI features in the future will be Ametro’s next major development step. Ville sees customer service evolving into an increasingly expert-driven role as a result. “We have a huge amount of information about our customers. Customers ask us for advice on home maintenance and cleanliness, and in addition to actual cleaning, we also act as a kind of advisor—and AI will bring an entirely new level to this,” Ville explains.

“With the introduction of AI, the customer service function will play a truly central role when it comes to competition,” Ville Haataja concludes.

Key Benefits of Zendesk for Ametro

Over the years, Zendesk has significantly transformed Ametro’s customer service work and daily practices. The most important benefits include:

• One single system and interface for managing all service channels
• Immediate access to information about the customer’s home, services, and history
• Transparency and a deep understanding of the true state of customer service operations
• Elimination of unnecessary visits and duplicate work
• Faster and more consistent responses to customers based on prioritization and target response times
• The ability to deepen the role of customer service into an expert function in maintenance and cleanliness through centralized information

Sovellin Is a Partner Ametro Recommends

When asked whether Ametro would recommend Sovellin and Zendesk based on their experience, Ville’s answer is unequivocal: “Yes, absolutely!” The only thing Ville slightly regrets is that Zendesk was not implemented earlier: “We should have jumped on that bike a bit sooner instead of running alongside it.”