When a customer has questions or found errors he doesn’t always need to
contact you. The less you get disturbed for minor issues, the more time you can
spend on the more heavy cases. Frequently asked questions and solutions to
known problems (including software fixes) can easily be handled by the customer
himself. The only thing you need to do is make them available and
searchable...
Not all Self-Service options fit the needs of your customer base. Evaluate
frequently if a service still meets the needs of your customer. Ask, at least
once a year your customer for feedback on the self-service options
provided.
Self Service options do not make your Support staff redundant. It is a
service tool for those customers who are able to work with it quite well and
find the answers they require (quite quick).
Solution Store and Knowledge Base
The Search option of the Solution Store and Knowlegde Base has to be really
user friendly. Keep in mind that your customer is searching for solutions for
his problems. He knows what his problem is, not what the solution will be. The
provided search mechanism should be based on problems and errors, not on
solutions.
When you also provide software fixes, the customer must be able to down load
and install them easily. The mechanism you use for the installations of
solutions should support software and data integrity. When you provide
individual solutions this becomes even more important. A software fix should
always go along with an explanation of the problem and solution provided. In
some cases even installation instructions should be provided, like table
configuration.
Easy download of manuals and such makes life of both parties a lot easier.
The more information provided the more a customer can do himself. A list of
available documents makes it easier for you to refer to.
To provide all above described self-service options you probably require a
large and complex database. The market has several options and search engines.
A thorough investigation is required before you decide to implement one. Make
sure you are convinced you made the best choice by investigating the
consequences of all pro-‘s and con’s of each product.
When customer requires a software and maintenance contract for using the
self-service options you need to put these options behind a login and pass
word.
Service and Feature Pack information should be available via the Solution
Store and Knowledge base.
The Solution Store and Knowledge Base should be able to handle questions
based on the following search criteria:
- natural language
- keywords
- latest solution for a session
- release, version, package, module, session
Selected solutions based on the used search criteria should be ranked
and displayed. From the displayed list the customer must be able to go to the
details of each and every individual solution. When solutions are not meant for
all customers these ssolutions should be marked in a way the Solution Store and
Knowledge Base can limit access to them.
When a customer does not want to use this service or can not find what
he is looking for make sure you can be approached easily by phone or email. Do
not put them on hold by referring to this service.
When you set up such a service or maintain it a customer requires:
- accurate content
- immediate answers
- a user friendly way to get answers on "personal" questions. Read personal
as: for its own specific 'company' situation.
- a well maintained website
Discussion forum
Customers could help each other via a discussion forum. When you provide it
you can easily follow what your customers are working on or are thinking of
your product. Every discussion forum is subject to censorship. Not all remarks
or actions can be tolerated. Keep in mind not to be to strict else customers
will not use it. Criticism helps you to improve your product and your
organization further. Respond to it in an open manner. Acknowledge when you are
wrong. Customers will appreciate it.
Email notification
Customers would like to be informed, as upfront as possible, on changes,
improvements and defect solving solutions of the product(s) they are using. Via
email you can easily inform them frequently. Ask them to tell you via a profile
in what they are interested to receive from you. The profile should contain
your products (packages, modules) and your actions you wish to inform your
customer about. Collect all data on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis and send
them via an email, based on their profile, the collected data.
System Check Tool
When a system is running for a longer period of time, often more data is
held by the system. Sometimes more data leads to a lesser performing
system. To help the customer keeping his system optimal, provide tools that
check his system. It will help the customer a lot when the tool provides:
- advise on archiving actions
- advise on changing parameter settings
- advise on database settings
- advise on logging
- advise on performance increasing actions
View and update own incidents
Next to all possible options to get information, documentations and
solutions from you, the customer needs to be able to follow and
update his own reported support issues. Of course of each reported issue
he requires to see the history as well as the current status. Access to your
support system via the web provides the service to do this 24 hours *
7 days.
To help the customer with the registration of his incidents make sure his
master data can be checked and updated by himself. Master data like:
- Contacts details
- Used Product(s)
- Product name
- Product version
- Hardware configuration
- Operating system
- Database system
The more is known about the customer the better the Support Analyst can act
upon his support issues.