Samsung has announced the opening of a new consumer care center in Greenville, South Carolina. The center is 34,928 square foot big and will host support personnel for all kinds of Samsung products. Samsung says that 400 new jobs will be added by 2020.
As Samsung marches towards the goal of having all its devices be connected, it stands to reason that its customer support becomes more integrated as well. Samsung is already known for pioneering connected “Family HUB” fridges, but fewer people are familiar with Samsung WiFi routers or with its PC-to-phone communication capabilities.
In addition to hosting tech-support, the new facility also has two training centers, along with a showroom for Samsung products, a “connected living lab” which allows training in real-world conditions, including with competitors’ products. We have visited Samsung showrooms in Seoul, but also during CES 2018 – they are quite a show.
Training is essential because the interaction between the different class of Samsung devices will bring new situations and challenges to the support staff. Samsung has an opportunity to outperform competitors that don’t cover the market as widely, and therefore have a hard time to maintain coherency in the way home appliances work with one another.
In today’s press release about the facility, Samsung gave eye-catching numbers: it says that 71% of all U.S household has at least one Samsung product, and ~30% have three or more.
With that in mind, Samsung is well aware of the expectations and realities in the consumer space, where the overall user experience is a primary force in purchase and upgrade decisions.
“The way consumers are using technology devices is changing. We are entering a world in which the way consumers use and switch technology products is constant and seamless,” says Michael Lawder (SVP of Customer Care at Samsung Electronics America).
I admit that I don’t use tech support much, but looking how the steps Samsung is taking, it seems very likely that the average level of tech support should increase. From a consumer standpoint, it can be very irritating when dealing with poorly trained support staff who are following a script. A training facility like this is a possible way to much better support.
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