As a customer support professional of several years this question has formed the basis of all performance measurements. Not withstanding the touch of individual psychology in customer support, measuring quality of support performance merely on the basis of Turn-Around-Times seems rather trivializing the entire experience.
What then are some measures that can help bring the Wow! factor in the entire interaction?
The Association of Support Professionals surveyed support managers and service delivery experts from 142 companies to get insights on what made their support organization one of the bets. The report, with inputs from inputs from Intuit, BlackBaud, Nokia, Palm, RWK Enterprises and several others sheds light on what would constitute the Wow! factor in customer support delivery.
Some excerpts ...
Anticipate customer needs:
...what if we anticipated a question a customer may encounter, and presented them with an answer before they reach for help?
Stellar Support Reps:
...No software system can ever truly be perfect, but when you have really spectacular support people behind it, that just doesn’t matter.
In the Web 2.0 era:
...Your customers... they buy them— all this happens without a single visit to your site. You can’t fight this phenomenon. So join it.
Speed Demons:
...There’s one surprisingly simple way to astonish and delight customers: provide a lightning-fast answer.
Expectations:
...So really all you can control is how well you meet or exceed existing expectations.
‘Wow’ vs. ‘Ow’ Service:
...the customer sensing your overriding wish for his or her well-being.
Empowerment:
...a KB that even comes close to this ideal is bound to be seen as dramatically more helpful at solving user problems
Measured response:
...Only if a situation warrants it, should the customer service experience be delivered in a surprising way.
Wake up in the morning test:
...The Best Service is No Service
Quoting the closing statement; "From a customer’s perspective, great technical support is not about process, policy, toolsets, or technology. Rather, it’s about the interaction between two human beings."
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Following up on this, in a webinar on CEM (Customer Experience Management) that I atteeded yesterday, the importance of Qualitative performance metrics v/s traditional Quantitative metrics was discussed.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite interesting.
Here is the link to the webinar: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/819420491
ReplyDelete"From a customer’s perspective, great technical support is not about process, policy, toolsets, or technology. Rather, it’s about the interaction between two human beings" - nice but if you ask me " It's about who has patience!and ,boy do I need it!! Patience is certainly a virtue!
ReplyDeleteHa, ha! That's why you are the provider and customer is ... well.. God! ;-)
ReplyDelete