Advancing customer experience and expanding sales reach
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Ava Telepresence + Hillrom Connected Care
Advancing customer experience and expanding sales reach
SNAPSHOT
Industry: Healthcare - Connected Care Products and Technology
Use Case:
Sales Enablement & Access
Customer Engagement/CX
Product Demonstrations
Results:
· Extended sales reach by including unlimited remote attendees or subject matter experts in the buying and decision-making process.
· Increased accessibility for rural/satellite and government facilities with limited travel budget and capabilities.
STORY
Ahead of the Curve: Virtual Telepresence for Customer Experiences
Anticipating and putting customer experience first is what led Hillrom to mobilize and enhance their sales and education processes using Ava Telepresence Robots. With virtual options as the way forward, Hillrom builds upon their ability to provide customers with easy remote access and meaningful interactions with sales and education experts.
Well before pandemic tech disruption, Hillrom explored new ways to use technology for product demos, educational workshops, and promotional events. The team identified the opportunity to offer better digital experiences with Ava in two premier product showrooms located in Irvine, CA and Batesville, IN. “There is momentum and excitement around tech, like Ava. But if we aren’t comfortable figuring out how to best use and package our technology, we can’t expect our customers to be,” says Hillrom Area Vice President Sales, Pete Zawodniak.
Better Sales Confidence and Outcomes
As a leading provider of healthcare connected care products and services, Hillrom serves a high-profile customer base of large hospital and healthcare system executives. Accommodating schedules for on-site visits in their showrooms, even for small groups of 3-5 people, proves challenging. Inevitably, someone can’t make the trip, for professional or personal reasons. The sales process stretches, creating a disjointed, elongated experience for reps and prospects.
“The ability to give easier showroom access to a customer, or an entire group, so they can interact and benefit from being with the equipment, in the space, is what sets Ava apart from other solutions,” says Hillrom Customer Experience Center, West Coast Showroom Manager, Rossana Fernandez.
Shortly after deploying Ava, a large customer requiring extensive preparation and multiple defined scenarios teleported via Ava into the Irvine showroom for a presentation. At the debrief following the presentation, the customer said it was the most professional, well-prepared presentation they had seen yet, commending the team for leveraging technology better than any company with whom they had worked. “With Ava, our team feels confident that we can deliver a better customer experience than our competitors, and that confidence spreads beyond the sales team, throughout the company,” says Zawodniak.
Integrating & Customizing Ava
In order to optimize the viewing experience on both sides of the screen, Ava worked closely with the Hillrom team during onboarding and beyond to customize the Ava session experience for multiple remote users, plus the presenter(s). It was important to sales experts to see what the audience was seeing while they were presenting, giving them more confidence in efficacy. Customizing the screen for the presenter view helps ensure the best customer experience while also seeing all participants.
Initially focusing on using Ava independently for demos and presentations, the team recognized an opportunity to further the experience by bringing in existing equipment and additional screens to expand perspectives. Ava Telepresence is fully-integrated with Webex collaboration technology but also offers flexibility to use multiple video conferencing platforms, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Efficiencies and Cost Savings
Hillrom was able to test and advance their approach around perspectives so customers can see physical products, how they’re used, as well as supporting content and presentation materials in various formats. “Ava in conjunction with a variety of physical pieces, that’s where the magic happens for us,” said Zawodniak. In one case, the team was able to share content from three different locations at the same time.
Deploying Ava robots in their showrooms created cost-savings opportunities on travel/hosting expenses, as well as static technology implementations in only certain locations within Hillrom’s showrooms.
“Outfitting just one room with static video, audio, and conferencing capabilities is just about cost-equivalent to an Ava robot that gives Hillrom the mobility to navigate from the ICU to the OR in seconds” explains Fernandez.
Virtual Sales and Education is the Future
As a customer-centric industry leader and role model, Hillrom recognizes the challenge their customers face in trying to satisfy complex schedules, geographical limitations, and budget concerns. Embracing similar technology their customers use in Telemedicine, their teams can live-stream product demonstrations, globally.
Ava Telepresence Robots provide a compelling, reliable platform for streaming virtual meetings and demonstrations without limits—showing what can be achieved and how workplace robots enable hybrid work.