• Best mark for 'Global satisfaction'

• Also benchmark with respect to performance aspects covered

Like no other company in its industry, Miele stands for quality and durability – and for service excellence. Once again, this is confirmed by the large-scale 'Kundenmonitor Deutschland 2021' study based on the in-depth questioning of more than 1500 consumers. In this survey, Miele not only came out top in the 'Global satisfaction' category; the company also excelled in terms of quality of advice, friendliness, fast delivery and clear and precise working patterns. When it comes to waiting times for appointments and adherence to agreements, Miele also sets standards – and is working on ways of making further improvements.

The evaluation is based on 1539 interviews conducted throughout Germany with consumers who had their major domestic appliances serviced in April, July and October of 2021. The poll involved awarding marks on a scale of 1 (= fully satisfied) to 5 (= dissatisfied). With 64% fully convinced and 20% satisfied customers, the Gütersloh company secured top position for customer satisfaction, well above the average for the branch. In terms of friendliness to callers, accessibility by telephone, expert advice over the phone and dealing with callers' problems, Miele is also in first place in the competitive comparison.

'Due to Covid and associated precautions on the one hand and an increased number of enquiries from customers on the other, 2021 posed special challenges to Service', explains Guido Geller, Regional Director Domestic Appliance Service DACH, and thanked Miele Germany's 450 service technicians and the backoffice service team for their efforts in these challenging times. The repeated award is once again proof of their excellent work and also an indication of the esteem in which the entire Miele service team is held.

'In particular over recent years, we have worked intensively on optimising our processes and have introduced many key changes', Geller claims. In order to deploy the best qualified technicians to meet the needs of individual customers and to keep waiting times down to a minimum, Miele calculates ideal appointment times and the best routes based on service enquiries received and jobs already assigned – in real time and using map-based navigation data. Alongside the benefits to consumers, Miele was able to cut distances travelled by almost one million kilometres year-on-year, contributing in a big way to greater sustainability. In order to solve smaller problems without direct assistance, Miele now also provides more than 100 do-it-yourself-videos in 19 languages. These abridged instructions on use work without spoken explanations. Instead, a brief video addresses concrete issues, using superimposed texts, symbols and machine data to present the few easy steps needed to remedy a problem.

Work is also in full swing at Miele on giving Miele service technicians the ability to access machines remotely in order to rectify faults or prepare themselves for a call-out – consent permitting. This saves time and reduces the number of visits needed as the correct spares are always on board the service vehicle. It is already possible on connectivity-enabled machines to upload updates automatically, without a technician having to visit a customer's home. 'This ensures that a Miele machine is always up-to-date in keeping with the company motto of being 'Immer Besser' and can continue to provide many years of reliable service in the interests of sustainability', Geller explains.

Company profile: Miele is the world's leading manufacturer of premium domestic appliances including cooking, baking and steam-cooking appliances, refrigeration products, coffee makers, dishwashers and laundry and floor care products. Their product portfolio also includes dishwashers, air purifiers, washing machines and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilisers for use in medical and laboratory applications (Miele Professional). Founded in 1899, the company has eight production plants in Germany, one each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Romania and Poland as well as two production plants belonging to its Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco. Sales in the 2020 business year amounted to around € 4.5 bn (thereof 29.5% in Germany). Miele is represented with its own sales subsidiaries and via importers in almost 100 countries/regions. Throughout the world, the family-run enterprise, now in its fourth generation, employs a workforce of around 20,900, of which approx. 11,050 employees work in Germany. The company has its headquarters in Gütersloh in Westphalia.