How an SAP-integrated contact center unified global customer service at Mirka

For 80 years, Mirka, a family-owned Finnish company part of the KVH Group, has been at the forefront of surface finishing technology, offering a broad range of sanding solutions for the surface finishing and precision industry. They’re the only company that develops and produces both abrasives, tools, and polishing compounds under the same roof.

Mirka needed a unified contact center solution to streamline customer communications, eliminate data fragmentation, and create efficiencies across its 20 subsidiary markets.

Challenge: Streamlining customer service operations across 20 markets

Mirka recognized the need for a global, consolidated customer communication system years ago. However, it wasn’t until the company started using SAP C4C that they saw an opportunity to find a global contact center solution that would complement their investments in SAP platforms.

“When we went for the SAP solution, we knew our ambition was to have all customer data in one system, and communicate with customers in one system,” said Christina Strand, Customer Excellence Manager at Mirka.

Mirka used different local contact center solutions in each subsidiary market — meaning there wasn’t a straightforward way to monitor monthly inbound and outbound calls and that all customer communications were tracked in disparate places. This led to much higher costs and inefficiencies in their communication processes with customers.

Solution: A global, SAP-integrated contact center solution

With 80 customer service advisors in 20 markets using SAP C4C, Mirka’s customer excellence team set out to find a global contact center solution that would help consolidate communications for its 20 subsidiaries. The team came across several different solutions, but none really fit the bill — until they found Sinch Contact Pro.

“When we really started looking into Sinch contact center solution, channels, and connectivity, we found it met our nitty gritty requirements,” said Strand. “For example, we needed to have good voice quality when a customer calls, and to always be able to show a local number to a customer. So, if a customer calls Mirka from the UK, they should be dialing a UK number, and if they’re calling from the U.S., they should be dialing a U.S. number.”

Sinch Contact Pro’s seamless integration with SAP C4C also allowed them to optimize their SAP investments and achieve greater value.

Mirka started rolling out Contact Pro for inbound and outbound calls in late 2021, introducing it on a country-by-country basis to ensure proper agent onboarding.

Results: Improved agent and customer support experiences

Since consolidating their customer service operations with Sinch Contact Pro, Mirka can now track monthly inbound and outbound calls (on average, 4,000 and 1,200 monthly calls respectively) — something they weren’t able to do before with so many local solutions in place.

If they need to make software updates, the team can roll them out without having to make updates and troubleshoot issues market by market. No need to find local solutions for each new subsidiary, either — Contact Pro will work seamlessly in Europe, North America, and other regions.

Plus, Contact Pro and its integration with SAP means all customer information is consolidated in one place. When a customer calls, Mirka agents will see all customer data and open customer support tickets.

“We even have a mash-up from our ERP solution for C4C,” said Christina. “So, if a customer is calling about an order and they want to change something, delete something, or add something, the advisor can immediately do that through the C4C solution, working in our ERP system. It’s really a smooth way of handling and completing the issue with the customer,” said Christina.

Next, Mirka is heading towards a 24/7 support experience for its customers, allowing agents to transfer phone calls from one country to another when needed.

Additionally, they’ve just started a pilot for a Sinch Live Chat solution on their partner portal, where distributors can live chat with a customer service advisor — a smooth and easy process when all conversations are linked to each customer in SAP C4C.

“This ensures that we’re truly transparent with the customer communications between sales, customer service, and marketing as well,” said Strand.

In short, Sinch helped Mirka solve the puzzle of omnichannel global customer communications with a unified contact center for its subsidiaries, in turn improving its customer service experience.

Find out more about Sinch Contact Pro — the only SAP-endorsed contact center solution.