Improving Customer Support and Training: Ricoh Japan Digitalizes Multiple Processes with TeamViewer Solutions

– Seamless knowledge transfer and training-on-the-job powered by Augmented Reality

– Reduction in travel costs and increased attendance rate in employee training

– Response time for customer service requests decreased by two hours per case

Ricoh, a global leading imaging and electronics company, has implemented TeamViewer’s remote connectivity software and the Augmented Reality (AR) based remote assistance solution to digitalize processes in technical customer support and employee training and onboarding in Japan. Since the first use case in 2019, Ricoh has subsequently realized more and more use cases with TeamViewer’s solutions and is constantly exploring additional ways to digitalize and simplify processes along its value chain with TeamViewer.

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Technical customer support: average response time reduced by two hours per case

In technical product support, Ricoh Japan is using TeamViewer’s secure remote connectivity solution to remotely connect to the customers’ computers. The support staff can then help clients to set up the connection between computer and printer or multifunctional devices. Many of these issues, that previously required a visit from an on-site technician, can now be solved remotely. As a result, the response time for service requests decreased by an average of two hours per case.

As the next step, Ricoh is working on embedding TeamViewer’s software directly into the printers. This will enable clients, as well as the customer support staff, to access the printing devices directly. The expected outcome is to provide even more advanced remote support to the customers.

Training-on-the-job: Ensuring knowledge transfer with Augmented Reality

Nevertheless, not all issues can be fixed remotely, and sometimes the visit of an on-site technician is inevitable. When working locally on a customer’s device such as a Ricoh printer or copier, junior engineers can easily seek AR-based remote support through TeamViewer’s solution Assist AR via smart phones and smart glasses and solve the specific problem together with a remotely connected senior Ricoh engineer. The senior employee can share the view of the junior colleagues on-site and enhance their field of vision with virtual instructions or markers. This enables Ricoh Japan to maintain its high level of customer satisfaction, even with less senior engineers. At the same time, the solution ensures the seamless knowledge transfer between senior and junior engineers.

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Switch to remote training: reduced travel costs and increased attendance rate

Ricoh Japan has always provided extensive training programs for their employees. When it came to training for the printers, employees from all over Japan used to gather in Tokyo or Osaka for the training, because of the equipment required. However, due to the pandemic, the company was required to change its training process. Using TeamViewer’s remote connectivity solution, the participants are now able to remotely access and operate the training PCs and participate in the sessions from their offices or from home. Thus, Ricoh Japan could achieve the same training effect as in the former on-site courses. Furthermore, travel costs were reduced by more than 6m Yen (ca.  46.000 €) in a year, and the participation rate in the training sessions increased due to easier access and less travel efforts.

TeamViewer as a partner for digitalization of processes along the entire value chain

Fumiharu Suzuno, S&S Division, Technical Center, Software Technical Support Department, CS Technical Support Group, at Ricoh: “At Ricoh, we are currently transforming into a truly digital service company. We are therefore constantly looking for ways to strengthen our support  with the goal to ensure that our customers can make the most of our products. Our business relation with TeamViewer has continously grown and they have greatly supported us on our digital transformation journey with cutting-edge and high performaning as well as easy-to-use and extremely scalable solutions leveraging remote connectivity and Augmented Reality.”

Sojung Lee, President APAC at TeamViewer: “The various use cases we enable at Ricoh Japan are great examples of how TeamViewer supports companies in digitalizing their entire value chain. Significantly decreasing response time in customer support, establishing new ways of training and onboarding, and ensuring proper knowledge transfer in times of global shortage of skilled workforce are tangible results of the value that our products bring to both our clients and their customers.”