Case study
Airbus Helicopters
Discover how Airbus Helicopters uses Sinequa by Argonos to accelerate technical support, reduce complex case resolution times by 5–10%, and improve customer satisfaction by 7%.
At a glance
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The challenge
Handle 30,000 technical support requests per year, 10% of them urgent, while giving agents faster access to information for an in-service fleet of 12,000 helicopters.
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The approach
Use Sinequa by Argonos to provide a 360-degree view of customers and support cases, combining intelligent search with proactive recommendations.
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The deployment
Building on its existing enterprise search deployment, Airbus Helicopters worked with Sinequa and Atos to integrate technical documents, databases and applications.
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The outcome
A 5–10% reduction in turnaround time for complex requests, greater customer self-service and a 7% increase in customer satisfaction.
Customer Overview
Airbus Helicopters, the world’s leading manufacturer of helicopters, uses intelligent search to support its customers and improve access to the technical information essential to aircraft safety, maintenance and innovation.
With an in-service fleet of 12,000 helicopters and 23 customer centers worldwide, Airbus Helicopters handles approximately 30,000 technical support requests each year. Its support teams need to retrieve information from extensive technical documentation, previous cases and specialized systems to help customers resolve issues and return aircraft to service.
Challenges
Airbus Helicopters operates 23 customer centers around the world, handling approximately 30,000 support requests annually, 10% of which are urgent. Supporting an in-service fleet of 12,000 helicopters requires agents to find reliable technical information quickly, particularly when dealing with time-sensitive maintenance and operational issues.
Information was spread across multiple databases, applications, drawings and technical documents. Support agents needed to consult different sources to understand customer situations, identify relevant previous cases and determine appropriate solutions.
Airbus Helicopters needed an application that could provide a 360-degree view of customers and support cases, accelerate case resolution and help agents make better use of existing technical expertise.
Solutions
Airbus Helicopters had already deployed Sinequa as an enterprise search engine. Recognizing its potential for technical customer support, the company extended the platform to help agents identify the most relevant information and solutions for incoming requests.
Working closely with Sinequa and technology partner Atos, Airbus Helicopters integrated structured and unstructured content from thousands of technical documents, databases and applications.
These sources include:
- Webtek: Technical helicopter events and incidents, RETEX (experience feedback) and Service Bulletins.
- ORION and Superseded: Technical documentation and related information.
Sinequa by Argonos provides intelligent search and proactive recommendations, helping support agents retrieve relevant documentation, identify similar cases and find existing solutions more efficiently.
Results
With Sinequa by Argonos, Airbus Helicopters has transformed its technical customer support operations, improving the efficiency of support agents while enabling customers to resolve more questions independently.
Improved efficiency
For simple support requests, 20% are answered using technical documentation available to customers. Among those cases, 80% find answers immediately in the search results list.
For more complex requests, Airbus Helicopters reports a 5–10% reduction in turnaround time by identifying previous cases and solutions that match current issues. This can eliminate the need to involve the design department when an existing answer is available.
More customer self-service and reduced support workload
Customers have gained greater autonomy in finding technical information. 4% find exact answers on their first search, while only 60% of answers require confirmation from Customer Centers.
This increased self-service capability helps reduce the burden on support teams and allows agents to focus on more complex requests.
Customer satisfaction increased by 7%
Airbus Helicopters reports a 7% increase in customer satisfaction. Faster access to relevant technical information helps reduce repair times and enables customers to return their equipment to operation more quickly.
We lose a lot of time searching through our various databases and existing tools, along with drawings and technical documentation. We selected Sinequa’s search engine because of its high performance and the fact that it’s straightforward to index databases
