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Can Too Much Self-Service be a Bad Thing?

Customer Prefer to Help Themselves

Where is the first place your customers go when they need help with your products?  Chances are they are searching for an answer to their question using Google, Bing or another search engine.  In a study of 150  technology users – both individual consumers and business professionals – ServiceXRG finds that 83% prefer to attempt to find an answer on their own with remainder indicating they go directly to the vendor of service provider for assistance.  Of the individuals that attempt to solve their own problems most (50.4%) are likely to search for an answer on the web using a search engine; A third (31.4%) will seek guidance from a friend or colleague; 15.7% will start their self-help exploration with vendors’ web sites and the remainder will rely on social networks for help. Read more

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The Case For Dedicated Support Sales Teams

Technology services support and maintenance contracts have become an established and vital source of top-line corporate revenues. In fact, for many technology companies today, these contracts account for a third or more of total corporate revenues and, managed properly, deliver both a predictable and renewable revenue stream. Yet, despite the contribution of support and maintenance to financial viability and overall corporate health, companies’ sales processes and practices remain largely product-centric. Organizations must recognize the value that lies in developing best practices around their support sales process, including hiring sales teams dedicated to support and maintenance activities. Read more

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Service Channel Strategy Imperatives

Technology vendors have long looked to channels to broaden their access to markets that expand their geographic reach and enhance their skills and resources. While many vendors form channel relationships to sell products, more than two-thirds (69.7%) of technology vendors surveyed for this report use channels to sell, deliver and renew support and maintenance services.

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Why You Need a Service Segmentation Strategy

A service-specific segmentation strategy provides insights into the needs and expectations of customers. As a result of this greater insight it is possible to better respond to the needs of unique customer segments and improve overall support sales and delivery effectiveness. Companies with service specific segmentation can efficiently allocate resources based on customer needs and relationship value. Further by providing offerings targeted at specific customer segments it is possible to improve sales effectiveness as measured by attach rates, and customer retention as measured by contract renewal rates.

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Recent Articles

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Support Implications for a Connected World

We live in a connected world.  We expect to be able to access and share content from wherever we are whenever we want to do it.  As users we often take for granted our ability to create and share new ideas and information.  From a support perspective move devices, more capabilities and more connections mean more complexity to the support environment.  The attached presentation describes how our increasingly connected world will introduce new challenges to support organizations. Read more »

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Predictions for 2012: Rethinking Customer Relationships

Over the past decade it seems that we have been so mesmerized by the vast array of enabling service technologies and platforms that we risk losing our focus on the importance of sustaining and retaining customer relationships.  Clouds, community, knowledge and self-service are all enablers of the mission to listen and respond to customer needs, but should not be used as a surrogate for meaningful relationships. Read more »

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Social Media: Implications and Opportunities for Service and Support

Social media: Its transformation of the communication landscape is unprecedented, impacting individuals from every demographic and business sector. Social media’s ability to empower consumers by giving them the voice to discuss their problems and perceptions publically has dramatically shifted the business/customer relationship. The very nature of social media offers the potential for customers to influence the perceptions and behaviors of other customers as well as the companies they do business with.

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Efficiency and Effectiveness Metrics for Measuring Service Level Performance

Service level metrics and benchmarks are indicators of service delivery efficiency and effectiveness. Service level efficiency metrics are a measure of time and cost while service level effectiveness metrics measure the degree to which the desired results of a service are achieved. Optimized support operations must be able to achieve a balance between service delivery efficiency and effectiveness. Read more »

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How Customer Preconceptions Affect Maintenance Contract Sales

All of the time, effort and planning you put into crafting the perfect portfolio of services may be for naught unless your marketing message is equally well crafted. Customers carry a lot of baggage that can affect their decision to buy support and maintenance contracts even before they evaluate costs and benefits. In many cases these preconceptions are based on situations that have little to do with the services you are selling. Fortunately many preconceptions can be overcome through effective sales and marketing. The key to maximizing support contract sales (attach rates) is to understand primary objections, or preconceptions, and then to craft a compelling response.

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Voice of the Community

Are Traditional VoC Initiatives Enough in the Age of Social Media?

Countless metrics and performance indicators are used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of support, yet it is the perceptions of customers that matter most. If customer service efforts fail to meet customer expectations, companies diminish their ability to leverage services to compel loyalty and generate continued revenue streams.

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