Customer service at the speed of light

For a company that operates distinctly regionally, good service is essential: those who fall short can be held personally accountable. This is certainly true for Stiegeler, a rapidly growing provider of fiber optic connections in southern Germany.

Fiber optic is the standard for high-speed internet. Fiber optic providers who want to be successful must not only invest in innovations to transmit more data per second over the same infrastructure, but also manage their networks as intelligently as possible and offer their customers excellent service, because the competition is often – literally – just around the corner.

The fiber optic market is a capital-intensive sector with fierce competition, confirms Felix Stiegeler, founder and CEO of the eponymous fiber optic company. In his company's early stages, the focus was on the leasing model to achieve growth without excessive capital expenditures. Or, as Felix Stiegeler puts it: operating networks without excavation work. "But we've also been building our own fiber optic networks for several years. We brought an investor on board for that in 2018. Operation and development are now equally important to our business model."

Close to the customer

Stiegeler has seven locations in the region and places great value on being literally close to its customers. This isn't an empty promise, but a conscious decision. Research shows that German consumers highly value personal contact. Before making a decision, they research a company's reputation for service, for example.

For Stiegeler, good customer service is the catalyst for solid and sustainable growth averaging 20% per year and a customer churn rate of less than 4%, which Felix Stiegeler believes is exceptionally low for the fiber optic market.

Onboarding requires good support

This growth strategy requires scalable processes. Part of that is being optimally prepared for the onboarding of new customers, says Felix Stiegeler. "Onboarding new customers remains a complex process, partly because the expansion of the fiber optic network can be delayed, which is beyond our control. This leads to additional questions from potential or new customers.

Moreover, there are many questions about the various stages of the process until the connection is operational. Installing cabling in-house is often a relatively complex matter for our customers. We offer a lot of information about this on our website, but customers often prefer personalized advice. Therefore, it's crucial to invest in information provision, knowledge management, and AI tools that enable our employees to assist customers effectively.

Knowledge management as a success factor

"The more we can automate our processes, the better, because that reduces errors," says Stiegeler. "Of course, there are also areas where automation isn't possible. We believe this applies to a large part of customer contact. Two things need to be properly arranged: our IT department must provide customer contact representatives with the correct information, and the representatives must always provide the correct answers. In short: knowledge management needs to be sound."

Outsource

"In the early stages, we outsourced customer service to an external service provider for several years, but the quality steadily deteriorated," Stiegeler recalls. "There's a huge difference between explaining a fiber optic connection and accepting a restaurant reservation."

That's why the fiber optic company started looking for alternative service providers a few years ago. "Although we initially considered distributing our calls across multiple partners—we didn't want to be dependent on a single supplier again—we quickly decided to rely entirely on Vanad Interactions. The company made a very professional impression, and we also got along well personally."

Stiegeler had set clear and strict requirements for the new service provider upfront. The company wanted to eliminate all risks related to quality and accessibility. Therefore, the availability of FTTH expertise was one of these strict requirements. Vanad Interactions already had a branch in Essen and had previously completed a project in the fiber optic industry.

But Stiegeler also appreciated Vanad's preparatory approach. After intensive preparation, with a strong focus on employee training, the collaboration began in 2022. Initially, it involved a limited number of customer contacts, but this quickly expanded to the majority.

The collaboration – Vanad Interactions provides support and assistance to Stiegeler's employees with various services, including helpdesk, after-sales, back-office support, and 24/7 support for both business and residential customers. Vanad also handles contract changes and relocations. For this purpose, Vanad has a permanent core team of nine full-time employees and a flexible pool of approximately 30 additional staff.
Based on previous outsourcing experiences, Felix Stiegeler describes the collaboration with Vanad Interactions as a significant improvement. “When I travel to Essen, where Vanad Interactions is located, it feels like I'm in our own company. To start the new year off right, we had a joint meeting that began with a company quiz. It consisted of ten very in-depth knowledge questions. There were even questions I didn't know the answer to myself. A Vanad employee won with eight out of ten correct answers. Vanad employees receive excellent training, at least as good as ours.”

Success factors

The success of the partnership is based on several factors, explains Felix Stiegeler. At the operational level, there's stability, meaning low staff turnover. This creates a strong bond with the region and the company, as well as a high level of commitment to the company. "Vanad employees feel connected to our customers and are intrinsically motivated to do a good job. This is perhaps because they are fully integrated into our company. They participate in our kick-off meetings and attend our Christmas party. We're always happy when they visit. The workspace is practically the only difference between Vanad colleagues and Stiegeler employees. That's rare in the contact center industry and a sign of quality. I'm also convinced that customers who interact with us for the first time receive the service I envision, according to my standards for quality and customer service."

Process improvement

A second success factor lies on the process side. “Since partnering with Vanad, we've implemented countless improvements together. For example, employees can log into the customer portal on behalf of the customer and make simple changes directly for them. Over the past year and a half, we've been working on our own artificial intelligence solutions, including knowledge management. Employees can ask questions about our internal company information. I use this tool myself.”

The collaboration isn't just about "revising processes." Decisive action in daily customer interactions is also essential. Felix Stiegeler explains: "The employees seamlessly switch to our second-line support when needed. For business customers, we use an escalation matrix. A short response time is crucial: as soon as a customer reaches 50 percent of the SLA limit, they are immediately connected to someone who can make a quick decision. And in the event of outages, for example, business customers can reach me personally relatively quickly."

Internal chatbot

The company is also investing in AI applications. "We're currently making our internal AI bot 'Frag Hilde' even smarter by further integrating it with our systems: not only the knowledge base, but also the live systems, so the bot can also collect all service information relevant to a specific customer. This is moving towards agentic AI. This allows us to process even more questions in first-line support, so our customers get the right answer even faster."

Customer interaction and personalized advice absolutely take place with human staff – not computers, Stiegeler assures. "Our customers are too important to leave answering questions to an AI system. At the same time, we don't know what the future holds."

Continue to grow flexibly

The collaboration between Stiegeler and Vanad Interactions has resulted in 400% growth in one year and an increase in customer satisfaction from 3 to 4 (on a scale of 1 to 5). These results are achieved without the Vanad team growing proportionally to the size of the customer base. Felix Stiegeler is therefore very enthusiastic about the collaboration. "This partnership is intended to further develop our business. We can continue to grow and scale smoothly and worry-free. This makes us truly flexible and future-proof."

About Stiegeler – Stiegeler Stiegeler is a regionally focused, fast-growing internet provider in Baden-Württemberg. The company has been providing internet, telephone, and television to residential and business customers in rural areas for over 15 years. With the introduction of various mobile subscriptions, Stiegeler has been a full-fledged telecom provider since the summer of 2024. The company also promotes the expansion of modern fiber optic networks and advises municipalities and associations on this matter. Currently, around 90.000 households and businesses in various districts of Baden-Württemberg have access to internet, telephone, television, and mobile services. A wide range of tariffs ensures an optimal offering for all aspects of connected living and working.