Выбор сервисного центра

Sergey Sokolan, Director of the Service Department at LG Electronics in Russia, answers questions from the iXBT.pro information department.

LG's service department has more than twenty-five years of history in the Russian market. What is the service center like today? What changes have occurred over the year?

As you have noticed, LG's service department has been around for a long time. It was founded in 1996 and has come a long way, transforming along with the needs and wishes of customers. The main thing is that the service structure was and is within the company itself: this ensures stable operation even in turbulent times. The goal remains the same — to ensure that the customer is satisfied. All this is possible thanks to our advantages: a network of authorized service centers and a spare parts warehouse.

Regardless of the circumstances, the equipment must work, so we continue to develop. This year, we paid special attention to our proprietary on-site service. We first introduced this format in 2004, and for 20 years we have been working in this direction: we started with Moscow, then moved to large settlements, and today it operates in 26 cities across the country. This has reduced waiting times and repair times for consumers by approximately 2 times or more.

We are constantly introducing new technologies and maintaining a high standard of warranty service. Thanks to this, we are becoming a laureate of the "Consumer Choice" award for the 8th time. This year in the "Customer Experience" category in the "Digital Transformation of the Year" nomination.

This victory is no accident. In 2024, we paid special attention to digitalization and automation. At some point, it became noticeable that needs and the pace of work had increased, and with them the need for some kind of solution. Our own customer-oriented MARS program became such a solution — a multipurpose application that was created to speed up the execution of tasks in the service department. Based on it, we optimized manual processes that could delay customer service, for example, equipment repair or the work of the claims department. The time for setting tasks has been reduced from 7.5 to 2.5 hours. The program also eliminates the loss of a request, and an employee can track the repair at any stage in order to provide an answer to the client. The service time has decreased, and the level of customer satisfaction has increased.

I would like to note that we continue to develop our own in-house call center — our advantage and rarity: it is located inside the company, and has been with us since the very foundation of the service. Our operators speak five languages and process more than 1,000 incoming requests per day. We do not use outsourcing, so this is a completely different level of quality. Customers always note this.

If we talk about the geography of the service, how are things now? Moscow is clear, but what should a person do, for example, from a remote region?

We carefully monitor the geography of the service: if it is not enough in some regions, we strengthen it, if it is not there somewhere, we create it. In other words, we are constantly improving and organizing.

As mentioned earlier, we pay special attention to on-site service. We are expanding its geography and continue to consider new cities and regions. It allows us to help customers even where there are no service centers — this is our signature feature. If for some reason this is not possible, a technical support engineer provides an online consultation for the client. I emphasize that the consumer will not be left alone with the problem, we will find a way to help.

Generally speaking, we currently have more than 400 service centers in Russia.

What are the current trends in the service sector that are being implemented in LG service?

We highlight several trends. The main one is artificial intelligence. It has not bypassed us, but only as an assistant. In our call center, a chatbot helps and analyzes up to a third of incoming requests, transferring them to operators.

Secondly, the trend towards training. Technology is changing, and we are changing with it. Based on our training center, the LG Air Conditioning Academy, professional engineers conduct training to improve the skills of masters of authorized service centers with testing and certification in all areas. Such events are held not only offline, but also online for remote regions. In addition, we pay attention to future personnel. This year, one of the projects was a training program for students of the Moscow Polytechnic University on the basics of Air Conditioning and ventilation using the example of hardware and software produced by LG. Including a practical part in our Academy, where students learned about the rules and features of installing systems.

And the trend towards responsiveness. No AI will replace a person, so we have created a chat where on-site engineers and our technical support department are in touch online. If you need to consult or find out the availability of a part, you can contact us and get help during repairs at the client's home. In case of complex defects, the technical department will connect via video to help determine the malfunction and help carry out a competent repair.

What are the future plans?

In short: we will continue to improve and develop so that the client can solve any problem quickly and efficiently.

We are helped in this by collecting feedback from customers. After each repair or consultation, we ask the consumer to give an assessment. If a problem is visible, we обязательно react, communicate it to all participants in the "chain", and fix it. It is important for us to know what is happening at each stage in order to react quickly.