The FT Word – September 2011

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Welcome

Welcome to the September 2011 edition of the FT Word. Feel free to forward it to your colleagues. (They can get their own subscription.)

Topics for this month:

  • The FT Works indicator – 6.2%

  • Moving customers to very satisfied

  • Making the most of the users’ conference – how to increase the visibility of support and the opportunity for feedback

  • Last call to register for the Tech Support Skills workshop in Santa Clara, CA on September 12-13!

The FT Works Indicator: 6.2%

The “number of the month” will henceforth will known as the “FT Works Indicator”, but will continue the tradition of using a current metric to reflect on a particular aspect of the support industry.

In June, IDC reported that CRM sales enjoyed a year-over-year growth of 6.2% in 2010, with a higher rate of 7.6% forecasted for 2011. Nice numbers in what is essentially a mature market, and they feel right to me, as I am getting numerous requests from clients who are in the process of upgrading their tracking system or are thinking about it.

Is it time to rethink your CRM tool strategy?

Moving Satisfied Customers to Very Satisfied

Many thanks to David Williams for suggesting this topic.

If you have dissatisfied customers, your first concern should be to turn them into satisfied customers (hint: start with the basics, decent offerings, robust processes, well-trained and personable staff). But what if you already have lots of satisfied customers and would like to push them to the very satisfied level? Here are 10 thoughts:

  • Moving from satisfied to very satisfied is a whole lot harder than moving from dissatisfied to satisfied. In plain terms, moving from a 5/10 customer satisfaction rating to a 6/10 rating is easy; moving from 8/10 to 9/10 is hard. Pace yourself.
  • A competent execution of the basics translates into satisfied customers. If you want very satisfied customers you will need to deploy more inventive strategies in addition to doing the basics very well.
  • If you don’t already do so, reach out to a few very satisfied customers (here’s hoping you have at least a few!) and ask them what makes them so happy. Many times it comes down to good chemistry between them and the support staff they work with, which is not easy to capture, let alone replicate.
  • Upgrade your team’s soft skills. There’s no way you can reach the peaks of customer satisfaction without strong people skills. You may also need to change your recruiting techniques.
  • Reduce case handoffs. Customers don’t like handoffs since they mean delays and added overhead on their part to brief the new support staffer. Can you streamline the routing of cases so handoffs are rare?
  • Remove bureaucratic obstacles. Need a manager’s approval to escalate to Engineering? Why not trust and verify instead? Customers can tell when there is what is, for them, a useless delay.
  • Consider proactive features such as personalized support metrics or support newsletters. It’s hard to get beyond satisfaction if all you do is reactive support, even if you do it very well.
  • Open an online customer community – and invest into it so it’s active and vibrant.
  • Upgrade your managers’ skills. A good manager creates an atmosphere where each team member is valued and wants to help customers. A poor manager, not so much.
  • Be more open with customers. For instance, consider posting current metrics online for all to see (even when they are down from the last period!). Be transparent to create more trust.

Want help pushing customer satisfaction to the highest levels? Ask me how.

Making the Most of the Users’ Conference

Many thanks to Murali Krishnan for suggesting this topic.

Want to improve your connection with customers? You should jump at the chance to attend your Users’ Conference, where the most devoted (rabid?) customers are sure to congregate in one place – but be strategic about your attendance.

What are your goals?

It sure is nice to interact with customers outside the constraints of a standard support case. It’s precious to be able to meet face-to-face and to relate as human beings first. And it feels good to hear about all the clever and rewarding uses of the product rather than be hammered with bug reports. But to get full benefits from attending the users’ conference you need to go beyond the fun aspects and decide in advance what you want to get from it. Do you want to showcase a new support offering (the new premium support program, perhaps) or a new support feature (communities, perhaps)? Do you want to gather feedback on support’s performance? Do you want to get input on new features you are considering? Your specific goals will help you choose the type of interaction to seek out.

What are your tactics?

There are typically many avenues to interact with customers over the course of a users’ conference. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the organizers for additional suggestions – and start early: formats and schedules are often decided months ahead of time and even the most flexible organizer won’t be able to conjure up a room out of thin air for you, open up a new track, or even sneak a short description into the program. Here are some favorites:

  • Host a presentation or (better!) a birds-of-a-feather discussion about support. You can have a specific theme, such as introducing a new support feature (e.g. online communities, or other improvements to online support) but always be open to questions about anything. I also like to give a “state of support” presentation to show how we are doing with customer satisfaction ratings or whatever other metrics you can share. Whatever you do here don’t make it too slick, but rather invite customers into candid exchanges. This is a great way to present a new support offering  or an idea for a new offering.

  • Host a “Tech Support table” at meals where customers can interact with support managers and engineers. This is ideal if you want to want to put a human face on support and it puts a very low barrier to entry for shy support engineers or shy customers.

  • Have a “meet the support engineers” booth staffed with real support engineers and encourage them to invite customers to meet them in person. I’ve found that to be a nice draw. Add pictures of the support engineers who are back at the ranch.

  • Host a “stump us” booth where customers can bring questions and you have technical folks on hand to answer them in real time. Be sure to have a good network connection on hand and put your best folks there. Advertise work hours so customers can seek out their favorite support engineer. Organize a way to funnel items that need long-term attention into proper support cases.

  • Use the booth as a testing ground (or demo ground) for online support innovations. Record feedback gathered from customers. Of course it’s a certain profile of customers who attend the user conference but they also tend to be the heavy users.

  • Schedule a “meet the support execs” time at the booth. This can be done whether or not you have a support presentation scheduled. By scheduling specific times you can make executives’ time more effective without preventing one-to-one meetings as appropriate.

  • Join forces with training and consulting. The user conference is a good place to show customers that you are not organized in airtight silos. A booth for all post-sales activities makes for good camaraderie and a logical stop for customers.

  • Definitely plan for fun tchotchkes. They help to draw crowds. Make sure they do not look cheap compared to what the other company booths are doling out.

  • Host a reception for the Platinum-level customers so they can interact with each other. Customers like to feel they are special and since they are likely to be the larger customers they probably have much in common.

  • Create a very short presentation that can play as a loop in the support booth to highlight key features. By all means focus on a few key points – more than 5-6 slides is probably too many, and they should be pleasant to look at with plenty of pictures and graphs, not boring text.

  • Advertise the support presence on your support site, ACD, and through the support team for 1-2 months before the event, with a specific message on what customers can expect. You can even reach out to specific customers you know would be interested in the specific type of interactions you are planning.

  • Brief the booth workers on what specific actions you want them to take during the event. For instance, if you host a “stump us” event you probably don’t want them to spend oodles on time with one customer while others are waiting. And be sure to brief them on booth etiquette, including dress (a team shirt is great) and demeanor (e.g. no sitting down while waiting).

  • Debrief at the end. I like to do a daily debrief for longer conferences so that no good idea is left unrecorded.

Did you make the most of your users’ conference? Tell me how.

FT Works in the News

The Tech Support Skills workshop with open registration – Last call!

Over the years I have received many requests for an open-registration version of the popular Tech Support Skills workshop – and yes, it’s coming to Santa Clara, CA on September 12th and 13th. The workshop is for support engineers and support analysts and covers all aspects of working with customers, from picking up the phone or the electronic case all the way through resolution. With an open registration you can easily sample the workshop to decide whether to bring it in-house, or train just a handful of support engineers.

The Tech Support Skills workshop will be followed by a three-day KCS workshop facilitated by my colleague Adam Krob. You can register at http://www.eventbee.com/view/event/845817384 and use code SEI2011 for a special discount.

Third Tuesday Forum Breakfast – not? –  on September 13th

Breaking with tradition and messing with your mind and the calendar, The Third Tuesday Forum will meet on the second Tuesday of the month in September, September 13th. Join  David Kay and me as we host Rizwan Dhanani of OSIsoft, who will speak about recruiting and training high-performing support engineers for a fast-growing, demanding support environment. If you are planning to hire in the next months, or wonder how to train effectively, join us for a PowerPoint-free, spirited discussion. You can register here. The full calendar is here. You can also sign up for the mailing list and join the Third Tuesday Forum groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Curious about something? Send me your suggestions for topics and your name will appear in future newsletters. I’m thinking of doing a compilation of “tips and tricks about support metrics” in the coming months so if you have favorites, horror stories, or questions about metrics, please don’t be shy.

Regards,
Françoise Tourniaire
FT Works
www.ftworks.com
650 559 9826

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