2020 brought on new challenges that all evolved due to the Pandemic. As a result, we had to provide our customers support remotely.  This re-iterated the need for us to increase and improve our knowledge base materials across the board.   

Thus, our goal in 2021 will be to work on building our knowledge-based library to better assist our customers with the tools they need to be successful.  

Here are just a few new tools Open Options plans to roll out in Q1 2021: 

1. A new LMS system will be our first order of business, and will include several self-paced courses, including a method to re-certify and maintain DNA Fusion certification.   

2. Software Maintenance Agreement – added benefits that will include 1 hour bi-annually of one-to-one custom training to aid our customers in better understanding their DNA Fusion Access Control System.  Virtual DNA certification courses, as well as one-to-one custom courses, will have more availability in 2021 as we understand the health concerns with face-to-face classes as well as the additional financial cost to our customers that are incurred with travel.    

3. Quick Guides to cover specific topics, more tech bulletins on high priority issue items, and more videos to cover common trouble areas.   

Other improvements: 

The success and growth of the company have continued to see an increase in calls to Support this past year.  We drastically reduced the number of calls that went to voicemail in 2020 by right at 80%.  The Support team’s increased experience and knowledge led to shorter call times which allowed our customers to have faster resolutions when they needed assistance.  This also opened more phone availability to prevent calls from rolling to voicemail and forcing our customers to wait on a call back for an issue resolution.  To further tackle this issue, we expanded our available support by introducing support chat as well as a new tracking system for email support.  We know reaching our voicemail is not ideal and that the demand for support is high when the customer is on-site ready to tackle an issue or project.  In 2021 we will be introducing the ability to schedule time with Support during regular business hours to assist our customers when they are on a scheduled trouble call or project.     

2020 did not allow the opportunity to have in-house training sessions with our integration partners, but we did manage to complete a couple remote sessions.  We will continue to work with our integration partners in 2021 to build our knowledge on integrated products as well as strengthen the relationship with our partners to better support our mutual customers. 

2021 will be the year that the Customer Service Team explores new and innovative ways to provide support to our customers as well as to continue to improve the overall customer experience.   

Nic Roban 
Vice President, Open Options Customer Support