On the one hand the business world is becoming increasingly international and extensive digital. References offer valuable orientation for prospective clients. We understand that a personal recommendation from a satisfied client is a very valuable way of evaluating a consultant and potential business partner. Therefore we are thrilled to receive client references testifying our know-how and professional expertise.

On the other hand we aim to demonstrate our international expertise and approach as clearly as possible whilst respecting our clients’ anonymity. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have regarding previous projects or our international experience in a personal conversation.

[collapsibles]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“German Market Entry of an International Customer Service Provider“]

Customer Service Provider (Outset)

• 300 million Euros revenue and over 12,000 employees make this company the undisputed market leader on its domestic market. Its portfolio includes contact centre services, help desk, back office, management receivables and document management.
• The company has already entered several foreign markets in various ways.
• In addition to the operational management of the above tasks, the company also provides process planning and improvement. Alongside this vast technical know-how, the organisation develops innovative sales and operational models, including its own “Operational Excellence Model“.

Solution

• Analysis and presentation of the entire German customer services market, including market participants, market mechanisms, market specifics and in particular the regional differences within the labour market
• Support in finding potential sites for a German operation
• Negotiation management, drafting contracts and generating sub-leasing leases in locations selected by the company
• Support in creating and designing project plans
• Creation of a targeted and realistic recruiting plan for the chosen locations
• Identification and pre-selection of qualified candidates for upper management

Results

• All relevant information for a successful market entry was collated and presented to the client in their head office within 4 weeks.
• Top-level support and advice for all relevant areas of the German market entry including financial and legal issues.
• The service provider was accompanied to all appointments and client presentations and well supported during the whole process.

Advantages for our client

• A German-speaking site has been established in Europe as a key addition to its international service offering.
• Fast and profound market information was provided for both the company’s own strategy and client presentations.
• Competitive advantage of insider market knowledge and extensive local network within a very short lead time.

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Tendering Process for a European Service Provider in 10 European Languages“]

Customer Service Provider (Outset)

• International organisation active at a number of sites worldwide plans to tender for a large German contract.
• The service provider has many international clients, however no German clients and therefore requires market knowledge and guidance during the tendering process.

Solution

• Schacht Consulting advises the company during the whole tendering process, including tender documents and presentation.
• Clear recommendations for the structure and presentation of the tender documents, plus necessary changes for a tailored approach, all within a short lead time.
• Professional support for the tender presentation and interim role as sole point of contact for the potential client.

Results

• Ideal tender documents in terms of content and layout for the potential German client’s requirements
• Shortlisting with opportunity to present the tender personally at the service provider’s site
• Identification of critical pain points prior to the presentation and thorough preparation of meeting with key onsite staff
• Review of presentation and clear focus on key issues

Advantages for our client

• Feedback from our client: „This was the best tender I have ever seen in all my time at this company“
• Shortlisting
• Clear identification of the potential client’s needs and targeted presentation of the site’s services.

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Sales und Marketing Support for a Product Launch in Germany“]

European Software Manufacturer (Outset)

• European software manufacturer for a multichannel payment solution plans to enter the German market.
• The company requires access to potential German clients and partners within the target audience.

Solution

• Schacht Consulting identifies the target audience in Germany together with the client.
• A SWOT analysis identifies industries where the product is best positioned to fulfill the specific market requirements.
• Organise meetings with companies in target audience
• Accompany and support the client in the first round of meetings

Results

• 10-15 telephone contacts were generated with B2B prospects.
• Co-moderation of web conferences with prospects.
• Tailor-made user cases provided client with a clear line of reasoning for the initial meetings with prospects.

Advantages for our client

• Acquired one partner, which went on to integrate the solution into its existing offering in Germany.
• Face-to-face meetings with a large German bank and a semi-privatised transportation company.

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Support and Optimisation of a Distribution Company’s Outbound Inhouse Sales Team“]

Pharmaceuticals (Outset)

• Founded in 1967 and a nationwide supplier of point-of-care products for hospitals, medical practitioners, rehabilitation and care facilities.
• One of the world’s leading companies for in-vitro diagnostics.
• High-quality services including marketing, installation and support from a single source.
• Product distribution has changed considerably in recent years. Therefore a specialized telephone sales team was initiated several years ago to address the market. A double-digit growth rate proves the success of this approach.

Solution

• Analysis and recommendations to optimize the sales organistation, presentation of the existing system landscape detailing the underlying operational processes
• Recommendations to enable continuing sales growth whils taking into account our benchmarking experience and figures from comparable service units
• Designing an ideal concept for an pro-active in-house sales team.
• Developing individual trainings and implementing these across the whole sales team

Results

• Identified numerous improvements for continued growth over the coming years
• Introduced new techniques to improve the work environment for the sales staff
• Created a detailed road map to execute the recommended concept

Advantages for our client

• Continued growth within the existing organisation without hiring new staff
• Monopolising previously unrecognised potential to increase the sales organisation’s performance.
• Opportunity for the technical and process renewal of the organisation
• Coaching of sales representatives over a long period of time

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Preparation of a Preliminary Study for a -Customer Service Centre of the Future- of a DAX Group“]

Chemicals Manufacturer (Outset)

• The Business Services unit employs 2,200 people with an annual turnover of 523.5 million euros
• Years of experience and a high level of customer orientation enables the company to support the business processes both efficiently and effectively across all divisions
• An innovative and competitive service portfolio ranges from consulting, developing and operating IT systems to the design and improvement of business processes along the whole value chain
• Business Services operate three global service desk centre locations with a total of 600 English and German language customer support technicians

Solution

• Analysis of the current organisation, presentation of the existing system landscape for IT / TK / knowledge and detailing the underlying operational processes
• Recommendations for process improvements, taking into account benchmark figures and experience with comparable service units
• Creation of an ideal concept for a „Customer Service Centre of the Future“
• All documentation and presentations in English

Results

• Feasible operational, process and technical improvements was presented within 6 weeks
• Detailed recommendations were made for the on-going process in order to achieve the strategic aims
• Clear outline of support and performance priorities for the transition phase

Advantages for our client

• This project set the future course for the technical and procedure aspects of this service desk
• In addition to harmonising the technical Customer Service Centre, our team also provided a solution with uniform input channels, comprehensive reporting, global routing mechanisms as well as full integration into the existing application landscape. The conversion to Voice over IP was implemented globally.
• The target scenario for a global Customer Service Centre included improvements for existing processes, the presentation of necessary process innovations as well as a technical solution based on the existing IT and TK architecture. The solution also included the evaluation of possible solution providers for a managed service based upon the pre-defined requirements.

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Improving and Restructuring Order Management in the Real Estate Sector“]

Enterprise in the Real Estate Industry (Outset)

• Facility management division within a real estate company managing a high 5-figure number of apartments with 200-300 employees.
• The service portfolio is specifically tailored to the needs of the housing industry and consists of many bookable sub-services, which are co-ordinated and bundled for clients.
• The focus is on the whole value chain for the customer/tenant. One part of this process is order management where customer requests are collated
• Order management fails to reach the required quality level. Many processes are manual. Few tools are available and the team leaders have not defined clear processes. The employees are neither monitored nor trained. This results in many customer complaints being escalated to board level.

Solution

• Brief analysis of the unit and the players involved
• Development of a target concept with clear potential for improvement
• Hands-on implementation together with the recommended tools to achieve the indicated improvements
• Advising and training operational managers as service managers and quality managers

Results

• Full re-organisation of both central and individual processes
• Involvement of all order management employees in peak phases
• Optimized processes and support in implementing IT and TK tools
• Increased employee friendliness and competence

Advantages for our client

• Costs dropped by more than 20% within three months of implementation
• A fully reorganised service unit, optimised on contact volume and complexity
• Involvement and enthusiasm of the employees for the change process

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Restructuring Customer Service for automotive-related Service Provider“]

Service Provider (Outset)

• Our client’s mission is to ensure a reliable measurement process and operational service. This high-quality solution should also reduce costs.
• Approximately 1 million relevant mobile units are registered, of which over 50% are stationed abroad.
• The Customer Service unit is responsible for the whole external customer communication and uses both in-house service staff and external service providers. The diverse processes are partially manual or semi-automated, are supported by different systems and each case is handled one by one.
• The task is to restructure and organise this area, taking into account both current and future tasks.

Solution

• Process analysis of all existing tasks
• Analysis of skills amongst staff, team leaders and group heads
• Facilitate workshop about the project aims with the management team
• Identify additional improvements
• Create a final concept for the target scenario

Results

• Redefined organisational processes
• All staff assignments are based on skills and task
• Less complexity within individual processes
• Customer-friendly case-by-case processing of customer requests

Advantages for our client

• Reorganisation was completed alongside normal business operations in a short time and taking into consideration all relevant internal policies and capacity forecasts
• Clear and extensive business proposal for the management and the workers’ council

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Analysis and Conceptual Design for the Reorganisation of a Customer Service Organisation in Retail Business“]

Retail Card Service (Outset)

• Our client operates German department stores in the premium segment.
• The loyalty card is much more than a piece of plastic for cashless payment. It is a valuable link between the store and its retail customers.
• Customers have the possibility to contact the department stores via many channels. In addition to the Card Service Centre there are also physical, telephone and electronic touch points.
• During peak hours accessibility and service do not reach the high service levels expected of these channels.

Solution

• Analysis of the current situation with comprehensive management presentation
• Designing a target concept
• Developing the target concept into a detailed plan with clear opportunities to improve operations, TK and IT technology, process automation, training design, training and interior design
• Implementing the whole concept with chosen partners

Results

• Accessibility and service levels increased considerably even at peak times
• Improved processes lead to a reduction of the entire workload
• Increased employee and customer satisfaction

Advantages for our client

• A professional WFM-tool enables better employee planning, especially in peak periods
• Full use of existing technical tools
• Lower costs for a higher contact volume and higher quality

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Introducing Digital Signatures at Point of Sale“]

Swiss Telecommunications (Outset)

• Company has over 5m customers
• More than 100 retail outlets
• upwards of 3k external PoS vendors
• PoS incurs high costs within the contract process chain
• Media switches between the individual systems and service partner hamper the process

Solution

• Analyse the existing PoS processes
• Develop a new system architecture
• Advise on partner choice and selection
• Ensure the project milestones are reached
• Responsibility for IT budget and development coordination (SCRUM)

Results

• Redesign of all business processes at PoS
• Introduction of a web-based solution for digital signature (dockstation + tablet)
• Introduction of new interface to reduce media switch
• Successful rollout phase with shops going live on first day

Advantages for our client

• Cost reduction by more than 40%
• Unified processes across all interfaces
• Harmonised system architecture
• Increased conversion rate in retail outlets

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Support whilst introducing a new CRM System“]

World leader inspection, certification and test (Outset)

• The company has over 5m customers
• Active internationally with 1.5k branches in 120 countries
• Multiple CRM systems are in operation
• Existing audits are over 20 years old
• Interface adaptions incur high costs
• High running costs

Solution

• Re-engineering old application
• Developing a cloud-based application
• Facilitating and leading workshops with the departments
• Ensuring project milestones are reached
• Responsibility for IT budget and coordinating development
• Evaluating output management application

Results

• Modernised IT infrastructure
• Single CRM system for all divisions
• Documentation of current IT processes in departments
• Fully implemented cloud-based solution
• Fully implemented cloud-based output management application

Advantages for our client

• Reduced costs for operation and maintenance
• Modernised infrastructure as initial stage towards self-care
• Fully documented processes
• Harmonised system landscape
• Improved CI/CD visuals across all branches

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“Improving HR Service Structure and Processes“]

German Automobile Manufacturer (Outset)

• Our client has split the HR employee support into three separate areas.
1) Business Partners look after the management teams and staff in leadership roles
2) The Business Service team in Düsseldorf looks after all other staff
3) A service unit in Poland carries out standard processes and provides first level support for employee enquiries
• The responsibilities are not transparent for the stakeholders, the differentiation between management staff and other employees is awkward
• The service teams should be combined whilst improving processes and interfaces
• Maximum shift of workload to the service centre

Solution

• Redesigning the most important 10 HR processes, definition of interfaces, developing work instructions
• Clarifiying roles and responsibilities to enable an ideal interface design
• Introducing process management
• Improving service levels in the service centre

Results

• Smooth changeover to the newly defined processes
• Reduction of administrative work for business partners
• Improved processes though technical support and improved flow of process relevant information to stakeholders

Advantages for our Client

• Significantly more transparency with regards to responsibilities within HR, ie. “one face to the customer”
• Significantly lower processing times due to the improved flow of information
• Significantly improved service levels when answering employee enquiries

[/collapse]

[collapse type=“primary“ title=“HR Support during Reorganisation of Production Sites in D-A-CH“]

Manufacturer of Medical Analysis Machines (Outset)

• International market leader with a wide range of products in various stages of development at four sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
• To make the company fit for the future, one site should be closed and any overlap between the remaining three sites should be eliminated.

Solution

• HR analysis of the existing alternative options
• Support in identifying the most suitable legal procedure and handling negotiations for the dismissals.
• Operative support to close down one site

Results

• Socially acceptable execution of the best solution within the given legal and financial framework.
• Transfer of employees to other sites
• Closing down the unprofitable site

Advantages for our client

• Safeguarding the future of the whole organisation
• Unnecessary delays and costs were avoided

[/collapse]

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