* Help desk case study
In September I wrote an article that looked at the sometimes thankless yet critically important job of the help desk technician. Since then I had the opportunity to speak with a European help desk manager, Paul Ross, who works with a large electronics company that sells imaging technology and a host of consumer electronics.
Paul had the responsibility earlier this year to create an aggressive service strategy and a centralized help desk for the company. There had been less than satisfactory service, particularly in the area of consistency, and his goal was to correct any outstanding issues.
Defining this strategy was an evolutionary process. Initially, the goal was primarily technical – focused on improvements to technology support. Various approaches were considered, including providing this support internally or outsourcing it to a help desk service provider. Three outsourcers were considered: Tech Team Global, Stream and Sitel.
In the end, Tech Team Global was selected because it has its roots in technology and this company felt that Tech Team Global personnel would be best able to relate to its customers, resulting in a smoother customer experience. Tech Team also “offered a balance between cost and quality,” says Paul, a balance that appealed to this vendor. Plus, it could handle multiple languages – an obvious prerequisite for the European market.
Requirements evolved over time. The corporate offices in Japan pushed to view this service as an integral part of managing the customer relationship. The specific capabilities of the service were refined to capture information such as feedback on product quality, details about buyer interests, and usability issues that could then be rolled back into products.
Though it is still a bit early, the implementation has now been in place for about three months (and piloted before that), and overall results are positive. The beauty of this approach is that it is essentially non-invasive for the customer – no telemarketing and no interviews to interrupt their days. The vendor has been able to gain a much better perspective of what’s happening and what is needed in the European market with its products. Cost savings have been in the range of 30% to 40% so far.
There have been challenges, however. For example, there have been organizational alignment issues that have arisen between the companies involved. Service-level agreements (SLA) were defined to address technical and marketing aspects of the service that have not had adequate attention. Paul expects these SLAs will be re-evaluated in the coming year once the service has been in place a bit longer, along with refinement of business and tracking processes.
What does Paul like best about the approach? This answer came very easily. His firm is well on the road to providing consistent support for “230 million European customers representing about 100,000 questions each month in 10 different languages.” The best part is that it creates a closed-loop system where technical support now can participate in the development of new products and enhancements by contributing market insight, where the marketing department uses this information to prioritize and strategize on its product plans, and where the product development team has access to “on the street” perceptions.
