Insight | Customer care you can rely on

Customer care you can rely on

Summary
  • Our innovative new Inmarsat Maritime customer care portfolio brings shipping companies and seafarers peace of mind, as they can be assured that their connectivity will operate effectively no matter where they are in the world.
  • This article outlines the outstanding new levels of care that our updated customer support program offers. It details the offering which is offering reassurance to crew around the world by removing the burden of equipment maintenance and providing instant access to necessary information.

We’re taking our customer care portfolio to the next level because we understand that when it comes to communications at sea, reliability is paramount.

We’re seeing more and more fleet owners and operators adopt smart technologies to enhance safety, improve cost efficiency and drive environmental performance – and these innovations all rely upon always-on connectivity.

Since our very beginnings, we have harnessed the world’s best technology to bring the maritime industry satellite communications it can count on. With an unrelenting focus on innovation, we continue to offer outstanding and dependable connectivity at sea, and we understand that being innovative requires more than just cutting-edge technology in space – our customer care on the ground and at sea needs to be exceptional too.

We’ve listened to our customers and have created a holistic approach to caring for their needs because maintaining reliable services requires complete and ongoing customer support.

Fleet Care - a reliable service that keeps you a step ahead 

We want to be sure that the equipment onboard our customers’ vessels is always in good operational condition, so that they can leave port confident and feel reassured that if there is ever a problem, help won’t be far away. That’s why we created our Fleet Care portfolio. Forming part of our customer support program, Fleet Care offers a combination of remote checks and onboard engineer visits.

Remote health checks see our skilled teams remotely access the vessel’s equipment to carry out diagnostic checks and ensure the system is configured correctly and operates efficiently. Then every two years, onboard engineers visit the vessel to physically check equipment to ensure there's no damage, all the cabling is in place and that the system is operating as it should.

“The addition of the remote health checks in 2019 has left customers more satisfied, as we can check the system without having to manage the logistics of getting an engineer to board the vessel very often,” explains Inmarsat Maritime Product Manager, Chris Capon.

“If there are any areas of concern in between checks, crew can send pictures and in cases where a problem is identified, we’ll get engineers onboard as soon as we can. With engineers on location in 180 ports around the world and many more available to travel to more remote locations, we have our customers covered,” he continued.

As our Fleet Xpress service continues to evolve, so does our customer support offering. This year, all Fleet Xpress customers are automatically enrolled on our Fleet Care basic plan, ensuring that timely support is on offer whenever and wherever needed. Moreover, we have introduced additional benefits to the Fleet Care Premium maintenance plan.

These changes are aimed at ensuring maximum reliability and performance for our clients around the world – for instance, the Fleet Care Premium plan now additionally covers hardware-related value-added services such as Infinity, Fleet Secure UTM, UPS and Fleet LTE. Additionally, the purchased warranty coverage for Premium subscribers has been extended from 36 months to the lifetime of the contract.

 

Customer Service Portal – easy and secure access to all your information 

Ensuring that lines of communication remain open with our customers is important too, so we also developed a comprehensive self-service portal, providing our customers with instant access to information whenever they need it. The portal provides assurance metrics, so they can see the committed information rate (CIR) bandwidth and maximum information rate (MIR) bandwidth performance, enabling them to assess the delivered service against what they've subscribed to

This means that if a customer is having service concerns, they can check their connectivity status in real time, gain insight into which applications are using their bandwidth, follow any issues raised in the case management system and even access things like invoicing information and training materials. Our customers value this complete transparency and keeping an open dialogue with them means that we can provide the very best service.

Fleet Link – a platform to monitor your everyday operations 

The newest addition to our customer support program is Fleet Link, a vessel side assurance portal that is hosted on our Fleet Edge device. Hosted locally, Fleet Link uses onboard systems rather than the web for connectivity and provides a view of the connectivity service the vessel is receiving. This means that without needing to reach out to our customer support, the crew can get a full picture of service availability, including a diagram of potential antenna blockage zones, keeping them updated. The easy-to-use dashboard shows when you have been automatically switched to FleetBroadband, which can explain changes in performance. 

  As the power of digitalization grows, so does the need for connectivity. Well-planned maintenance is vital to ensure smooth day-to-day operations and cost effectiveness, while remote maintenance reduces unplanned downtime.  We are here to help manage the responsibility for onboard asset performance, by taking the burden of the maintenance plan away, and providing ongoing support and transparency. We care about keeping you connected.