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| In this issue: |
September 2005 |
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Customer Profiles and Customer Lifecycles
- Part 2 Faced with seemingly endless demands to do more with less, it's no wonder customer support executives find themselves scrambling to provide the best service they can, given the time and resources they have. Unfortunately, in some cases this means that they simply aren't able to give good service to everyone. In the last issue of The Verghis View, we talked about sorting your customers into a few distinct profiles. Each profile should contain customers that share similar support characteristics, and should be easily identifiable by the rest of the organization.In this issue, I'll present
the second of two powerful, yet simple techniques that can help you deliver exactly what your customers need, at
the exact moment they need them. The effectiveness of the second technique lies in the fact that customers have
different needs at different points in their customer lifecycle.
Begin with an understanding of your customer’s lifecycle Remember, customer support teams exist for a reason – to help our customers succeed. A one-size-fits-all strategy, when applied to diverse customers, results in wasted resources. For example, a customer who has recently purchased your product or service has very different needs than a longtime customer.
For the context of this article, let’s focus on one specific technique that we used, based on lifecycle analysis. A careful analysis of customer and reseller queries found that the bulk of queries came in the first 30 days after the sale. In addition, we discovered these calls were not always technical in nature, yet they were going to a highly technical team. (Masters and Ph.Ds were not uncommon for front line support staff, given the complexity and mission critical nature of their tasks.) From an internal perspective, it was clear that these non-technical and "how to" queries should go to the Account Management team, the business experts - not squander the energy and limited resources of our Technical Support team. Solution: HyperCare The
solution was to introduce HyperCare, a series of 12 support steps
that began the moment a new contract was signed. They began with a warm
handoff from the Sales team that lasted through the first 30 days of the
customer being on board. The 12 steps also included a welcome letter from
the Chairman, training the new customer's staff on how to use our tools
and services, tips on industry best practices, and follow-up courtesy
calls. This broad-ranging support initiative was tremendously successful.
Among other metrics, HyperCare reduced the number of calls to our
technical team by a whopping 50%. If a customer purchased a new service,
or our contact at the customer changed, we restarted the customer through
a modified version of HyperCare. Result:
Rather than providing highly technical support to customers who
didn’t need or value it, we offered each customer the right type
of support, at the moment they most needed it. It was a win-win for both
sides. Questions? For more information, contact Phil. |
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| Phil's
Reading List: A
Short History of Nearly Everything
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson gives readers a very compelling (albeit mostly western) account of science and its major players. Of particular interest are sections that remind us that even the most brilliant people go through trials and setbacks. For example, after reading Darwin's On The Origin Of Species, an editor of the "British Quarterly Review" politely suggested Darwin write on a subject that might be of interest to a larger audience. Say, a book about pigeons. More at http://www.powells.com/biblio?inkey=65-0767908171-2& |
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| Phil’s
Book: The Ultimate Customer Support Executive
Many of you have asked, so I'm pleased to offer an autographed copy at no extra charge if you order directly from me. (I have a few books available directly from the publisher.) To get your own autographed copy, please order from my web site and specify to whom you'd like it dedicated. There are absolutely no shipping or handling charges for this service. For
those of you who have read the book, please take a moment and post your
online review at Amazon. Your
honest reviews make a big difference in spreading the word about the
book outside the usual support channels. For us to earn and demand
respect and take our place as senior executives in our Coming Soon: Verghis Customer Service Workshops for Executives Customer support professionals have the awesome responsibility of acquiring and retaining the customers that keep companies profitable. Yet in many companies, these professionals struggle just to earn a seat at the decision-making table. Once there, a second struggle is the effort to make an impact on company strategy. My experience has shown that earning respect, then demanding respect, coupled with being able to speak the language of different business units, can help you unleash what I call the "power of the customer". This means that you're involved in the entire customer lifecycle. Throughout the company, customers' needs must be the priority, rather than internal departmental silos. This knowledge and your use of it can propel your company -- and your career -- to new heights of success. To help you achieve these important goals, The Verghis Group has developed professionally- designed workshops based on my book. We will soon offer these workshops around the world. Customized workshops will be available for in-house sessions at organizations and at universities. Want to learn more about workshops offered by The Verghis Group? Want to know when they'll be offered in a location near you? Drop us a line at workshops@verghisgroup.com. |
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| Upcoming
Events:
I'll be attending these upcoming events and hope to see you there.
October 2005: New Orleans, LA -- SSPA Tokyo, Japan -- HDI Japan workshop Other events: Currently in the planning stages are trips to China (Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong) and Taiwan in October followed by a trip to Australia in November. |
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We want to hear from you! What would you like to know more about? What other topics or books would you like to see discussed? Who would you like to see interviewed? Your comments, questions, ideas, suggestions, feedback and contributions are welcome. Send them to the editor here. Please feel free to forward this to colleagues, friends and anyone you think might be interested in improving the quality of their customer service. To obtain a subscription, visit our website. Privacy Policy: Your email address and personal information will never be sold or shared with any third party. Previous
issues: |
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About The Verghis Group: We are vendor-neutral. Our mentorship and facilitation based model emphasizes the speedy transfer of knowledge to your internal teams. For more information or a no-obligation initial consultation, contact:
This publication is a presentation
of The Verghis Group, which is solely responsible for its
contents.
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Here's
one example. When I worked at 
Continuing a
very popular section of the newsletter, I'll share another book I've enjoyed reading.
The
Ultimate Customer Support Executive: Unleash the Power of Your Customer
