KM for the UK

A British retailer of home appliances and electronics is powering its customer service and support centers with software from Kaidara.

Comet consists of 250 store outlets with 18 service centers and a large call center operation in Hull, England. Company officials wanted an efficient and reliable system to handle technical questions and problems from its customers. One of Comet's sister companies, Darty, had been successfully using Kaidara's ADVISOR offering in its call centers to troubleshoot and diagnose incoming inquiries, so Comet decided to choose that solution as well.

Says Phil Heaton, head of services at Comet, "The results we had seen at our sister company allowed us to build a strong business case based on tangible results. In addition, we had witnessed that the Kaidara solution is a solid product and that its personnel know the support business and understand what it takes to improve our operations."

According to Kaidara, its software suite can solve problems the first time based on knowledge that is accrued by support teams. The system can help clarify the characteristics of the situation and identify the best resolution. The ability to accurately resolve a problem reduces the need to repair a machine twice for the same problem and also prevents the random replacement of parts, Kaidara reports in a recent press release.

The Comet solution illustrates that "KM solutions are delivering real business value and have moved from being nice-to-have into the category of must-have to provide world-class customer service," says Allen Bonde, senior VP of strategy and marketing at eVergance, a management consulting and systems integration firm.