I can’t reach my website anymore, my provider is not available, and now I have got a request for payment by post from DENIC. What do I have to do with DENIC? And what is a domain, by the way? The customer at the phone is really upset because their website is essential for their business. “Good afternoon”, answers a friendly voice from the other end of the line, “don’t worry, we will explain you what DENIC does, the relation of domain and website and the options you have in your situation to make your website available again as quickly as possible.”
The DENIC customer support is the first point of contact for all questions around domains and thus a sort of flagship of DENIC. The department comprises three specialist teams that answer customer requests by phone or in writing. Their top priority is first-class service. Together, the 17 team members can rely on 220 years of experience in the domain business. They have most different backgrounds and draw back in their daily work on experience from the service industry, IT or the commercial sector and a good command of a wide range of foreign languages to provide fast and uncomplicated assistance with empathy.
The fact that all of them have been here for quite some time shows how very good the spirit is in the team and that working with and for people in the sphere of .de domains never becomes boring.
Our customer support knows the domain business and the associated community inside out, and each team member could tell one or another interesting and often also quite funny story. Once, for example, a domain was not available which was used to run a horse breeding game. Some mothers of little horse lovers called DENIC and complained that we were (supposedly) depriving their children of their beloved game. Every now and then, people want to make hairdresser or doctor appointments and sometimes they want to share personal joys and miseries since when a website is not accessible because the domain is in TRANSIT, they are referred to a DENIC information page, which also provides our customer support data.
However, very often the tasks the teams perform go far beyond an initial contact by phone or in writing, for instance when it comes to accounting tasks, specific information requests, the support we render to our subsidiary DENIC Services GmbH & Co. KG with the direct administration of .de domains, and much more.
So, the challenges are quite varied. Extensive specialised knowledge as well as empathy and a neutral stance are required. Experience has shown that listening calmly immediately creates a pleasant atmosphere. When our customer service specialists then help to solve the customer’s domain problem in a friendly manner and with ease, the world usually is alright again.
That the DENIC Direct Services Team can do its job so confidently is due to the good preparation they get to manage the multiple and versatile concerns of our customers. A comprehensive onboarding phase provides every new member of the team with the specific DENIC knowledge they need. Thorough updates in due time about any novelties keep the team up to date. It goes without saying that the Direct Services staff is profoundly familiar with the DENIC homepage, so that they can quickly call on any information on the website they need for themselves and also easily navigate a customer to the right page to solve their problem. If necessary, they ask other specialist departments for assistance, like the legal department or the DBS Team, which we already presented in an earlier article of this blog.
Customer satisfaction is high. Especially the fact that a real human being answers the call after only a few rings, yields particular praise. That they even give their name and are available for further questions is a welcome surprise to the caller. It is not uncommon that customers explicitly express their thanks for the competent and friendly assistance after their concerns have long been settled successfully. What can prove better that DENIC’s team for end customer support is organised perfectly.
"Not every company can boast such a well-established support team with so many different backgrounds and skills and so much shared experience. I really enjoy working with this team and am proud of the quality of service we offer the German internet community", says Direct Services Manager Jill Doil.
Jill Doil - DENIC Direct Services Manager
