|
Customer Support Research Services
In today's competitive landscape it may no longer
be your leading edge, hi-technology achievements that will give
you the high ground. These days, the defining difference between
you and all the others may simply come down to how you treat your
customers. And what will particularly give you the edge will be
how well your customers' expectations are met by the support, with
which you surround your products and services.
A Sobering Thought
| Most people's perception of a supplier is often most
acutely shaped by what happens when things go wrong! And most
people are quick to tell their friends AND WORK COLLEAGUES if
their customer support experience was a bad one! |
Key Questions
What support services do you offer?
How do your customers perceive them?
How can you improve them?
How do your support service offerings compare with those of your
competitors?
How does your published service stand up in terms of actual delivery?
Business Advantage
One of the research service areas Business Advantage
has specialised in, since our formation in 1992, is helping leading
hi-tech companies to understand how well their support services
are received by their customers and what they can do to realise
significant improvements in levels of customer satisfaction, increased
revenues and decreased costs.
Benchmarking
Additionally, Business Advantage helps companies
to benchmark their customer service performance against their competitors.
This specialist service takes many forms, from simply comparing
the scope of one supplier's support offering to that of it's competitors,
to a more complicated and costly process of comparing a sophisticated
battery of actual customer experiences as they contact their respective
suppliers for support.
Do you benchmark your support services against your
competitors?
| Support Services Benchmarking - comparing an organisation's
support services, support staff or any support or service performance
measures, usually against similar organisations - is an important
way for firms to get an objective verdict on the efficiency
of their customer support services. |
Benchmarking metrics can be displayed in many ways
and you will see one example in the table below. The coloured cells
helped our client to see at a glance those areas where their competitors
were offering a level of service that was the same as, worse than
or better than the service our client was offering. The red boxes
are areas our client needed to be most concerned about as it was
in these that their service offering was least competitive.
| Worse
than you |
Same
as You |
Better
than You |
|
|
You
|
Competitor A
|
Competitor B
|
Competitor C
|
|
Registration
for Warranty
|
Multi methods Detailed
info
|
Via Channel Detailed
info
|
Multi methods Limited
Info
|
Multi method Detailed
info
|
|
Length of standard
warranty (yrs)
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
|
Cost of standard
warranty
|
Included in product
price
|
included in product
price
|
Included in product
price
|
Included in product
price
|
|
Scope of standard
warranty
|
Next business day
swap
|
Swap within 2 business
days (replacement sent by courier)
|
Next business day
swap
|
Onsite intervention
within published response times
|
|
Options to extend
warranty
|
None
|
Extend for 1-5
years
|
Extend for 4-5
years
|
Extend for 3-5
years
|
|
First contact
on fault occurrence
|
Reseller in first
instance
|
Vendor direct
|
Vendor direct
|
Reseller in first
instance
|
|
Support coverage
|
Working hours
|
Working hours
|
Working hours
|
Working hours +
to 8pm
|
|
Provision of
repair service
|
Outsourced
|
Vendor direct
|
Outsourced
|
Vendor direct
|
|
Telephone support
|
Free helpdesk Working
hours
|
Free helpdesk Working
hours
|
Free helpdesk Working
hours
|
Free helpdesk Working
hours + to 8pm
|
|
Online support
|
Provided - extensive
|
Provided - extensive
|
None
|
None
|
Prior To Benchmarking
Before a benchmarking service, an organisation should
have a clear idea of how satisfied end-users are with the current
support service under scrutiny.
Without a before and after survey of end-users, Directors cannot
know whether their post-benchmarking improvements have been noticed
or appreciated by their customers.
Not only can Business Advantage carry out the before
and after satisfaction study to measure the effect of the improvements
you make, but more importantly we have the specialist skills and
experience to benchmark your customer support services against your
competitors.
Case Studies
|
1. Channel Warranty Services Competitive
Benchmarking
For this leading hardware manufacturer we conducted hundreds
of interviews with resellers, distributors and manufacturer
personnel for six competing brands to understand issues such
as the standard warranty offering, upgrades/extensions, pricing,
and variations across countries etc.
|
|
2. Customer Support Value Innovation Research
For this leading provider of audio, video, communications
and information technology products, Business Advantage carried
out a research project to gain a penetrative insight into
the motivations for their professional customers to register
into a specific support scheme. Level of awareness, understanding
the value placed on maintenance agreements, identifying desired
changes to contracts, investigating the current competitive
landscape and understanding the usage and perception of competitive
offerings were all elements of this in-depth research project.
|
|
3. Competitor Customer Support Service Satisfaction
Research
For one of the world's leading providers of supply chain planning
application software Business Advantage undertook a global
competitor customer satisfaction study. This project identified
areas that had the most impact on customer support service
satisfaction. It also explored satisfaction with incumbent
suppliers solutions and the weaknesses and strengths of competitors'
service offerings.
|
|
4. Customer Satisfaction - EMEA Technical
Support and Software Maintenance Programme
This study was carried out for a leading supplier of infrastructure
engineering software to evaluate the satisfaction levels of
members of a premium support package. This involved measuring
the importance of various service attributes, investigating
the service levels required, identifying strengths and weaknesses
in our clients offering and receiving early warnings of a
change in Members' expectations. This was an on going study
carried out across seven EMEA countries, in-depth interviews
were carried in the following languages, German, French, Dutch,
Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish,
Italian and English.
|
|
5. Fault Reporting Experience - Desktop,
Handheld and Laptop Computers
This research study was carried out for one of the world's
leading IT companies. We investigated the real time experiences
of business end-users when requesting support from product
suppliers. Business Advantage developed fault-reporting scenarios
to be used when contacting the relevant customer support organisations.
The sample of over 150 was made up of respondents from the
small to medium sized enterprises (SME) sector from the UK,
France and Germany. The respondents tracked and recorded their
total experiences as they reported faults. The results were
analysed and recommendations provided. The findings enabled
our client to benchmark its own services against their major
competitors and gain competitive advantage in the process.
|
|
6. Fault Reporting Experience - Peripheral
Devices
More than 250 fault-reporting experiences were analysed in
depth in this research project. Respondents were drawn from
both the SME sector and the consumer market and were located
in the three biggest geographical markets of Germany, France
and the UK. The objective was to benchmark our client's services
against two of their major competitors. The study revealed
many areas where they could make adjustments to their current
service and support procedures and achieve real improvements
in the level of their customers' satisfaction.
|
|
7. Fault Reporting Experience - Digital Cameras
Its one thing buying a camera bulging with the latest digital
technology, but what happens when the camera doesn't work.
That's when you really know whether you have bought the right
product. This research project tracked in real-time the experience
of over 470 camera owners who reported faults to their manufacturer.
How were they treated? How quickly were they attended to?
How well was the problem resolved? How satisfied were they
with the process? These and many other questions were answered
in this three-country project. Interviews were conducted in
German, French and English amongst owners of three major camera
brands.
|
What To Do Now?
If you would like to discuss any B2B research or business
development need please call us on +44 (0)1689 873636, or alternatively
email your enquiry to david.eaton@business-advantage.com
Business Advantage is an international B2B research and
marketing consulting practice operating in the information and communications
technology sector. Formed in 1992, Business Advantage delivers insight,
intelligence and innovation to leading hi-tech companies throughout
the world enabling them to achieve a sustainable business advantage.
Marketing & Management
Consultancy B2B
market research Database
Marketing Services Sales & Marketing
Services
Top
|
|
