Customers really depend on their software to earn their living. When they for example can not send out invoices, they have a major problem. When they can not send invoices they will not receive money from their customers. When they do not receive money they can not pay their own bills. Such a situation could end in bankruptcy.
Do not think such a scenario is exaggerated. It is a nightmare for your customer. He will act accordingly. When you do not respond properly he will strike back furiously. You will go down under with him.Tag - Satisfaction
Thursday 18 August 2011
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! when a business stand still is logged
By Jan Verlaan on Thursday 18 August 2011, 11:13 - Business Stand Stills
Monday 18 July 2011
Develop the skills of your Support Team
By Esther Verlaan on Monday 18 July 2011, 15:58 - Support Policies
Support and Maintenance contracts could bring in a lot of money. Money you can spend on new development. To keep customers paying for Support and Maintenance contracts you have to offer them a good return of investment. Services and actions from your side influence the customer's return of investment for a very great deal.
Services and Actions like:- Direct response on business standstills
- Error analysis and solving on the customer system
- Bug Fixes
- Advices and Workarounds
- Enhancement requests and Customizations
- Guidance during installation, upgrade or migrations
- Documentation
To be able to provide all these services and actions it requires a reliable and knowledgeable Support team. A team that knows how to approach a customer, minimize his anxieties and problems. Training, policies and procedures have to be a daily concern to management to improve further and to keep the customer's return of investigation high.
Are your customers satisfied enough?
By Esther Verlaan on Monday 18 July 2011, 15:55 - Support Policies
What do you know abofut the satisfaction levels of your customers? Are they satisfied on all levels? You have to ask them to get the picture. You have to execute on their complaints to get grip on the satisfaction levels.
Levels of satisfaction
A customer could be satisfied with the software but not with the way you deliver solutions. Customer satisfaction is based on how well you perform on several levels. Measure customer satisfaction on the following levels will give you a good picture:- Functionality of the software
- Response times on Reported Support Issues
- Way of approach by Support Analyst (communication)
- Quality of the solutions provided (Bad fixes)
- Quality of the Self-Service options
Several ways to measure
Friday 8 July 2011
Workarounds available
By Esther Verlaan on Friday 8 July 2011, 10:33 - Second Line Support
Although your customer reported a defect it is not always necessary to provide a software fix as solution. When a work around is available you should consider not to solve it in the version of the customer. When the work around is acceptable for the customer close the reported issue. Of course you have to log a defect. Such defects should be considered for the product currently in Development mode.
For customers work arounds are very acceptable as long as you do solve their real serious issues.It is not up to you to decide if a work around is acceptable for your customer. When a work around is annoying or not workable for the customer, he will not agree with the proposed work around. He will demand a solution. Discuss the matter with the customer to get a clear view on his arguments. You require these arguments to convince maintenance to create a solution. Maintenance has to follow the same policy as you have. When you have no good argument they should not solve the defect in maintenance mode.
Thursday 7 July 2011
Customer is more satisfied when it receives quickly good answers
By Esther Verlaan on Thursday 7 July 2011, 10:52 - First Line Support
The goal of First Line Support is to provide an answer as quickly as possible. Quick and good answers provide the customer with a good feeling about the provided service. The quicker you are able to tackle reported issues the less costs are involved... The knowledge level of Support analysts on First Line Support should be very broad to be able to tackle a large range of issues the customer could report.
Directives on how long First Line Support should take should be provided but not strictly followed. Half an hour is more or less a good time indication. If the situation is not clear after half an hour of investigating the problem it should move to Second Line Support for further analysis. When within half an hour the error is clear and it can be solved within two to three hours it should remain at First Line Support else transfer time will be too large in ratio to the handling time.
The findings should always be reported by the Support Analyst on the reported Issue. This information prevents asking questions twice or executing several actions twice.