Phil Verghis Savvy Support

Quick definition Customer exception –Anything that inhibits or prevents the user from getting their job done

Traditional ‘tiered’ support model –Level 1 –Level 2 –Level 3 – often can write code –Development/Engineering/Product Management

Historical Rationale Computers were expensive Computer ‘experts’ were rare and expensive Users didn’t know much Protect expensive staff from inane, repetitive questions

Customer perspective Customers hate it Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Help Desk = 10,000 calls Do they really think I’m an idiot?

Front line perspective Front line hates it Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Help Desk = 10,000 calls How many times must I answer the same thing over and over again?

Second/third level perspective Second and third level hates it Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Help Desk = 10,000 calls How many times must I train the ^%$* Help Desk?

Company perspective Company should hate it Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Solve 80% 2, ,000 Solve 80% 80 Help Desk = 10,000 calls Hero complex

What did we do? Put in an online Knowledge Base, Encouraged customer ‘self service’, took away phones ‘we will get back to you in 24 hours’ Expected cost savings Reality: Ouch! More calls came in as people could get through Over time, call times went up

Changing reasoning From ‘we know best’ to ‘together we know best’ Consumer world has far surpassed enterprise –Who do you call for help when your home pc/mac goes down? –Can you find anything on the corporate intranet?

How to start? Culture where support is the voice of the customer Create a CAB Consider creating forums –They will say bad things! Of course –They will gang up on us. Of course. –Liability –Control Get a solid knowledge management process in place (consider KCS from the nonprofit Consortium for Service Innovation) –Publish in real time, not legal time Focus on new vs. known issues

Two issues Understanding new Vs known –What is the current ratio of new to known in the assisted support process? –What is the nature of the known ? –What are the opportunities to remove known from the assisted support process? As the work shifts to be mostly new … –How do we improve the process (speed and accuracy) of solving new? –How do we best align people to the work No more ‘hero complex’ Intelligent swarming

New world of Savvy Support No more ‘tiers’ Your best problem solvers are on the front line, empower them and get out of the way –Excellent connectors and collaborators –Entire ecosystem involved –Intelligent swarming ‘Virtual’ account teams provide personalized service

New metrics Shift from ‘activity’ based to ‘outcome’ based Fuzzy metrics -- triangulation, like balanced scorecard Old Measures: # of Calls handled Time to resolve $/incident First Contact Resolution Customer Satisfaction Employee satisfaction Sample New Measures: Total demand (exceptions) % New Vs known in assisted Time to solve known Time to solve new Time to publish % of product improvements identified Vs accepted Time to cure Time to adopt Time to stability Collaboration health, health of the network People loyalty (customer, employee, partner)

Prerequisites for Savvy Support Leadership –will need to work with HR and other departments to implement changes in compensation, rewards and metrics. Support team that relishes solving new problems –Recurring issues are ruthlessly eliminated and fixed so they don’t reoccur. Solid organizational culture of sharing knowledge and collaborating

Final thoughts Look at everything from the customer’s point of view The main measure should be customer success Culture eats strategy for lunch every time Tools matter, eventually Consider the entire customer ecosystem If you don’t have it, consider putting in your own VHT system Value, Health and Temperature – remember, the most important things –Blessed by CFO and company leadership –Relatively correct, not necessarily absolutely correct

Resources – book, support assessment, newsletter, blog and morewww.verghisgroup.com – non profit, look at ‘Knowledge Centered Support’ – KCSwww.serviceinnovation.org – Association of Support Professionalswww.asponline.com – local group of service executiveswww.first-wednesday.com Phil Verghis (617)