SIBUR pays a lot of attention to the requests and needs of its clients and keeps improving its customer service. In 2020, the Company launches a dedicated Customer Service Centre, following in the footsteps of the most efficient international companies that separate their sales, negotiating, pricing, contracting and contract support functions.

From now on, commercial and organisational matters will be handled by different customer relationship officers. The Centre will be led by a group of experienced operations professionals with in-depth knowledge of the Company’s internal processes and recurring customer requests.

Fine-tuning the sales and separating the functions will help standardise and subsequently automate many processes, making them simpler, faster and clearer for the client.

Approach criteria

Vladimir Zimovtsev,
Head of Sales Development at SIBUR

Vladimir Zimovtsev

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The project to put in place the new Customer Service Centre focused on two main areas – revision and optimisation of internal processes, and implementation of new IT tools. The project team included sales managers, system architects, software designers, and experts familiar with the best international practices.

In 2019, we divided the project into five streams:

● process transformation (with the team describing the existing internal processes, creating a target vision and forming a pool of potential improvement areas);

● implementation of the CRM system to structure interaction with every client;

● eCommerce (introduction of user accounts to let our clients make and track orders and requests at any time and from any device);

● implementation of a client request management system that would help accept complaints, forward them to the dedicated specialist, track order processing times, prepare and send replies, and receive feedback;

● integration of the CRM and user account with SIBUR’s internal systems.

“To start the automation, you need to have a clear understanding of the processes and their target vision,” Vladimir Zimovtsev said. “Otherwise, you'll end up with an automated chaos that will bring no improvements to the customer experience.”

How it works

Customer service at SIBUR is structured around three key performance indicators that are assessed based on a ten-point scale: length of the sale cycle, degree of automation, and customer satisfaction. Each KPI is further divided into several metrics, helping the Company to make preciser assessments of its performance and be more aware of customer needs.

Maria Borisova,
Head of Customer Service Centre

Maria Borisova

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“The Customer Service Centre aims to streamline our interaction with clients at every stage of order processing. We seek to build strong customer relationships by promoting shared values, minimising formalities, and harnessing cutting-edge service tools to achieve new goals and fulfil plans.”

According to Maria Borisova, it is important to set the standard in service attractiveness by integrating process regulation, customer journey automation and employee behaviour guidelines.

“Our main performance criterion is Net Promoter Score (NPS),” said Maria. “We ask clients how likely it is that they would recommend SIBUR as a supplier of petrochemical products, and then use this date to calculate the score. The index tends to be 25–40% for B2B and up to 60–80% for B2C. 60% is the level we strive to maintain at SIBUR. Higher scores reflect greater customer satisfaction and mean higher retention rates.”

Customer Service Centre team.

Are there any new features that are planned to become available to clients in the future?

In 2020, the Customer Service Centre plans to introduce the following innovations:

● online tracking, including instant order status updates and delivery monitoring;

● omni-channel services enabling customers to stay in constant touch with the manager and offering them a user account, a messenger and a chatbot to get quick order status updates and answers to frequently asked questions (the chatbot is expected to come on stream by the end of 2020);

● contact centre with a hotline to help solve any client issues. Scheduled for launch in Q3–Q4 2020, the contact centre will assist customers in mastering new digital tools and collect feedback to improve the services;

● digitalisation of analogue processes with the ultimate goal of automating all processes across the sales cycle;

● integration of financial and logistic services into sales.

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