Support has two imperatives: satisfy the customer and keep costs low. The problem with maintaining both of those extremes is that if the customer perceives that a company is skimping on support in order to keep costs low, satisfaction with the support automatically goes down…even if their problem is fixed.

Does my last statement surprise you? It shouldn’t. Think about the last time you were in need of help and received a favor from a friend. If keys to your friend’s truck so that you could move that couch were given freely and without counting the actual or potential cost of the gift, then you were full of gratitude. On the other hand, if the favor was granted the least bit reluctantly, your response to the gift changes drastically. “after all the…He doesn’t even want to…”. Same keys, same truck, polar opposite response. Bitterness instead of gratitude.

This creates real consternation for support organizations squeezed between the conflicting demands of low cost and high customer satisfaction. It’s easy to find oneself fixing a customer’s problem but not improving the customer’s perception of the company’s quality of support. So what can be done?

I believe that, at its center, the problem is one of margins. Not profit margins, or budget margins. The real issue is whether the customer truly believes at the end of a support incident that he or she could have asked for one more thing and received it freely. Think back to your friend and the truck. In the first example, your friend let you walk away with the keys to his truck with a smile of approval, but that does not mean that he would also let you borrow his dune buggy with the same spirit of abandon. Everyone has their limits, and people understand that…you just don’t want to bump up against those limits. The fact that your friend was gracious about lending the truck meant that you had not yet reached the limits of his generosity. There was still a margin between your request and your friend’s limit. Your friend might have come with you to help move the couch if you had only asked him, you never know.

That margin (let’s call it the Magic Margin), can make the difference between a serviced and happy customer and a serviced and bitter customer. A lot of focus has been put on efficiency and effectiveness in support, and for good reason. If you are not fixing people’s problems in the most effective way and in the least amount of time, then you never get the chance to add margin to your customer’s support experience. You are not even invited to the dance, much less ushered into the center. However, efficiency alone just gives you the chance to shine, it doesn’t make you shine. The key is to use a portion of the efficiency gained by new techniques and tools and use that to create support margin… the stuff that really makes customers feel special.

Sorry if this post has been philosophical, and not very practical. You’re probably thinking at this point “so great, ‘add margin’, how the heck do we do that?”

The answer is not simple (this is code for “It would be hard work to write about it now and it’s almost time to go home”). Let me leave you with at least one practical note, though:

1. Buy NetworkStreaming SupportDesk
2. Decrease incident handling times by 30-50% (I’m not kidding. Try driving home with your eyes closed and you will see why it is more effective to be able to see a customer’s problem)
3. Use a portion of the efficiency gained by PC remote control support and say things like:
1. “well, I think that fixes it… Is there anything else I can help you with, or did you have any other questions”
2. “If you need help with anything else, please don’t hesitate to call; we get bored when we are not solving problems”

Or even better:

3. “I’m done troubleshooting, but I wanted to take a minute and show you a way that I think you can use that feature better”

And don’t say:

a.       “Is that all Mr. McNeill?”

b.      “That should do it. Have a good evening”

c.       “I’m sorry, your thirty minutes has expired, you’ll have to reenter the queue if you need further assistance.”

4. Enjoy customers who think you would help them move their couch across town (don’t worry, they seldom ask).

Bookmark/Search this post with:
| | | | | | | |