Published : 02/03/2026 - 5 minutes read
Customer Success Stories
Agency for Agriculture and Fisheries evolves from fragmented customer contacts to a streamlined and efficient customer service with Salesforce
In a world where strong customer service is crucial, the Agency for Agriculture and Fisheries aimed to organise theirs more efficiently and professionally.
The challenge was clear: transforming a maze of phone numbers and email addresses into a streamlined, efficient and customerfriendly experience using an easytouse tool. Together with Inetum Belgium, they implemented a seamless gateway to their services through Salesforce.
The central point of contact for farmers
Together with the minister, the Agency for Agriculture and Fisheries shapes policy on agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and rural development. The agency implements, monitors and evaluates this policy. They also stand ready every day to answer all kinds of questions from farmers, consultancy offices, and more. They handle around 100 calls a day.
The initial challenge the agency faced was that customers had to search specifically for the right phone number based on their question and province. Each number had to manage its own workload, resulting in a less efficient organisational structure and fragmented customer knowledge.
Although customers were well supported at that moment, confusion sometimes arose when they called back and reached a different staff member. It was difficult to trace what had been discussed during the previous contact. To make customer interactions more traceable, the agency wanted to implement one central phone number and one email address. This would allow communication history to be easily consulted, ensuring consistent service.
Salesforce Service Cloud as the ideal solution
After a thorough evaluation of potential solutions, the agency chose Salesforce - specifically Service Cloud - because it offered the best user experience for their staff. With Salesforce, they now have a single access point for customers, can register inquiries, and have a 360° view of customer interactions.
Caller identification has improved, enabling them to track the history of submitted files and previous questions. In addition, employees now have access to a knowledge base containing extensive inhouse expertise. The capabilities of the tool also facilitate strategic discussions on how proactively they want to support their customers.
“Our journey with Inetum Belgium began in the summer of 2022, and by November 2023 the project had been successfully delivered. Although the licensing process was challenging, we are very enthusiastic about the collaboration during development. The Inetum Belgium team was quick to respond, resulting in smooth cooperation. Together, we brought the project to life and set our entire organisation in motion.”
Jan Jacobs, Head of IT, Agency for Agriculture and Fisheries
The importance of the human factor
During the implementation of LV Connect, the new contact centre, change management proved to be an underestimated factor—despite the attention it received from the very start. Employees had to adopt a completely new way of working, and organisational changes were also needed. To highlight the importance of LV Connect, the agency’s management will spend a day working on the front line, answering calls and emails. Several other strong initiatives around change management and user adoption have also been rolled out, such as numerous demos for staff.
Farmers are responding positively to the new approach. Challenges remain—such as reducing waiting times and limiting the need to transfer callers to secondline staff—but the agency now has the data needed to address these issues. They continue to strive for further improvements. The knowledge base, for example, can be leveraged more effectively, which is why they are working on introducing a ChatGPTlike chatbot for employees to help them navigate it more quickly. A customerfacing chatbot could be developed in the future as well to further enhance service delivery. For this, the agency is also exploring the possibilities offered by Salesforce Einstein.