Altium Online Digital Experience: Going “All-In” on Customer Centricity
Judy Warner: Lawrence, you are working on a new groundbreaking Online Digital Experience that will further advance our focus on customer centricity; tell us about what this is and what it will mean for Altium users.
Lawrence Romine: This is very exciting, Judy! As you well know, Altium’s success is built on our focus on the users of our products and services versus a classic value proposition aimed toward executive decision-makers. In our world, the users are the decision-makers, and providing more options for those users to connect easily with us on every front is very exciting.
Warner: With this capability, will people who still prefer more traditional ways of interacting with Altium, such as phone calls and form completions, remain available, or will those things be eliminated?
Romine: Yes, those things will remain available. This digital experience is really about options. If someone wants to connect to us more traditionally, we are there for them. In fact, we anticipate that the more traditional methods of connection will become more efficient as this provides a parallel means to manage your account, renew your subscription, access technical support, or just ask a simple question.
Warner: I’ve heard you and others expressing this as making our Users “First Class Citizens?” What does that mean, and why is Altium investing resources to create this experience?
Romine: Well, as I said previously, our success is tightly coupled to our customer’s success. For us, we make no distinction between our customers with large install bases or just a single seat. I’ve told this story from a conversation I had at AltiumLive 2019 many times, but I asked a customer who ran a Service Bureau how he decided on Altium Designer as his choice for PCB Design. His response was profound to me. He said, “Simple; you were the only ones to call me back.” His answer speaks volumes about how important each customer is, and these new capabilities give us even more avenues to connect with and support our users. Only now, they don’t even have to wait for us to call them back. Go to any of our digital properties and instantaneously be connected to us.
Warner: What types of things can visitors accomplish when visiting our website and engaging with our Online Digital Experience?
Romine: When visitors come to altium.com and its sub-domains, you have 24/5 access to people that can support you technically, people that help you to manage your account with us, reset your passwords, update your account information, get technical support. Anything that you would normally do over the phone or via email exchanges can now happen instantaneously online. Financial transactions can be handled with or without our assistance. You can purchase your first license, renew your subscription, add additional assets or products with ease, 24 hours a day.
Warner: These efforts seem wide-reaching. Will there be adequate people and resources available to make these functions available 24/5, as you mentioned above?
Romine: Yes, as a global organization, we have team members located worldwide, which means we have more available hours to be there when you need us. Currently, we have over 130 people with chat access. Therefore, when you see that chatbot pop up, please understand that these are real Altium employees that can provide immediate help and support.
Warner: Thank you, Lawrence, for taking the time to share these insights. This latest investment in customer centricity sounds like a challenging but exciting one!
Romine: Always happy to share what we’re working on behind the scenes, Judy. It’s all designed to ensure customer success. We are excited about making sure people can connect with Altium in a way that helps them succeed by granting greater access to Altium and the solutions they need.