Vopak USA adopts SafeHarbor's Web-based customer support to cut operational costs
Leading chemical distributor uses Internet to drive efficiencies in business operations
SATSOP, Wash. (July 16, 2001) — SafeHarbor Technology Corporation (www.safeharbor.com) will create and support customer service solutions for Vopak USA Inc., North America's leading chemical distributor. SafeHarbor provides Web-based customer support for companies worldwide.
Vopak USA provides more chemical products and related services than any other company in the marketplace. Vopak serves a broad range of manufacturing markets including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical manufacturing, coatings, inks and adhesives, personal care and household products, waste management, oil and gas, electronics, forest products, mining, and water treatment.
SafeHarbor will provide 24-hour online and traditional customer support to improve the efficiency of Vopak's customer relationships and lengthen the hours of its customer service.
"You only get one chance to make a good first impression with your customers. We chose SafeHarbor because we wanted our customer's first experience with Vopak to be a positive one," said John Sammons, senior vice president of administration for Vopak. "Along with its comprehensive solution, SafeHarbor's ability to provide us with concrete data on our customer support interactions solidified our decision."
SafeHarbor created a customized support site for Vopak. It provides online answers to customers' questions about Vopak's core services, which include value added proprietary offerings such as SureStock™ assured inventory management system, Remote Sentry™ tank telemetry and inventory solutions customized to meet specific customer requirements. SafeHarbor also added its proprietary knowledge base, called the Browser Base, with answers to hundreds of questions about browser and connectivity issues. The SafeHarbor support site is seamlessly integrated into Vopak's Web site.
"Large companies often need a specialized customer support program to efficiently address the wide range of customer needs," said Bo Wandell, SafeHarbor's president. "By offering a cost-effective, multi-channel support environment, SafeHarbor is saving these companies, like Vopak, the cost of building the technology from scratch and staffing a customer service center on their own."
Vopak chose SafeHarbor because their graphical Web self-help solutions are also backed by a staff that gives 24-hour, one-to-one support through e-mail, chat and telephone.
SafeHarbor develops, hosts and continuously updates each client's Web self-help Knowledge Base. The company uses graphics, screen shots and step-by-step instructions to help guide users through answers to frequently asked or technical questions.
Vopak saw the benefit of a customer support center that has both Knowledge Engineers, who create the Knowledge Base, and trained techs handling customer calls, working together in one location. The complete solution improves customer satisfaction and controls the cost of support.
Vopak is the latest company to leverage SafeHarbor's expertise in providing customer and technical support. Other SafeHarbor customers include: Seattle-based WatchGuard, a leading creator of Internet security solutions and Access Washington, Washington state's award-winning Internet portal.
About Vopak USA Inc.
Vopak USA Inc., headquartered in Kirkland, WA, maintains more than 140 stocking locations across North America. State-of-the-art facilities are located in Chicago, IL, Morrisville, PA, and Los Angeles, CA. Modern warehouses, tank farms, white rooms, laboratories, warm rooms and transloading capabilities set the standard in the chemical industry. Vopak USA's waste management service, ChemCare®, picks up, stores, and transports hazardous and non-hazardous materials to licensed facilities for safe disposal. Vopak USA is a part of Royal Vopak, a global firm based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Vopak is a world leader in chemical and oil logistics, and chemical distribution. For further information, visit Vopak USA at www.vopakusa.com or Royal Vopak at www.vopak.com.
About SafeHarbor Technology Corporation
SafeHarbor Technology Corporation helps companies become more efficient with a smarter alternative to traditional one-to-one customer support. SafeHarbor's Semaphore Service™ provides a total solution, integrating Web self-help and interactive customer and technical support. SafeHarbor's outsourced Web self-help solution is successful because it is graphical in nature. SafeHarbor's Knowledge Engineers construct and continuously update our clients' Knowledge Bases to answer their customers' commonly asked questions with easy-to-understand graphics and animation.
On average, about 85 percent of our clients' end-users have their questions answered with Web self-help. The remaining questions are answered by one-to-one contact — including Web case, chat, e-mail and phone. This success rate, together with SafeHarbor's monthly subscription-based pricing, helps clients control costs.
SafeHarbor's corporate headquarters are in Satsop, WA — 90 miles southwest of Seattle. The company also has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and London. To learn more, please visit www.safeharbor.com.
For more information about how SafeHarbor can help your company increase productivity, customer retention, satisfaction and loyalty—while reducing support costs—please contact us at:
