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Support Budget Finally
Increased? Before You Jump in, Here's a Critical Investment
by Phil Verghis
President, The Verghis Group, Inc.
It isn’t just you.
Everyone, it seems, is doing more with less. After years of productivity
gains driven mostly by longer hours and working nights and weekends,
support budgets are increasing — finally. Often this means filling
positions that have been vacant apparently since the last Ice Age, and
taking a second look at support tools that haven’t been upgraded in
years. This is the position a number of my clients and prospects are in
now.
 But don’t be too hasty. Before you jump in and simply upgrade, replace
your tools or hire new people, take a step back. Look carefully at where
you are now, and where you want your support organization to be in the
future. Sure, it is tempting to take the simple route and fill in
obvious existing holes. But this is an ideal time to adopt a broader
perspective. Look around and see how you can help the entire
organization, rather than just your team. Consider the entire customer
lifecycle and see how an appropriate blend of people, process and
technology can turbocharge your customer’s experience.
Look beyond the usual suspects — the departments you normally work
with. What do Sales and Engineering need, for example. If you handle
support for external customers, what does your counterpart in Internal
Support need? (Or vice versa.) Does your Marketing Department want or
need an email tool with call tracking? What about the Human Resources
Department? Can they use a knowledge base? What does your customer base
want? Your channel or reseller partners?
Sure, reaching out will take time. But the effort will pay off, both for
you and your company. Armed with an understanding of how your customer
works (if you do external support) or how your company works (if you do
internal support), you have an opportunity to really help your
organization — and further your own career at the same time. Executives
are always on the lookout for people who see beyond their own domain and
look out for the big picture.
Try it — and let me know how it works out.
If you want to get started, we offer a very actionable set of answers
to the 'How are we doing?' and 'Where do we want to be?' questions. For
more information, or a free initial no-obligation conversation, call me
at (800) 494-9142 to get started.
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Fuzzy Metrics Are Getting
Clearer
In the
last
newsletter, we talked about "fuzzy metrics." Those are the
hard-to-measure metrics like:
"How many customer
queries did we NOT get because we added
a self-healing component to our product or software?"
Great news! Greg Oxton,
Executive Director of the
Consortium
for Service Innovation just wrote to let me know that he will be
ready to talk more about what the Consortium is doing to untangle fuzzy
metrics.
Stay tuned!
Expanding Your Network
We
all know one person in our work or personal lives who has an amazing
network and seems to know just about everyone. For most of us in
support, reaching out and connecting with people is natural. I was
reminded about the power networking while volunteering to put together
the Boston conference of The Association
of Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
TiE began when a handful of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with roots in
the Indian subcontinent met by chance in 1992. Out of that initial
meeting came an organization that brings together high achievers of the
region for the purpose of networking. TiE has since evolved into
an active, vibrant organization with three objectives:
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To
network and facilitate networking among members
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To
foster entrepreneurship and nurture entrepreneurs
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To
help its members integrate with the mainstream community.
 Today, TiE Global has over 10,000 members in 42 chapters worldwide.
The Boston chapter’s members range from students to CEOs of
multi-million dollar companies, all pitching in to help one another.
Later this week, the Boston chapter will hold a conference on
Innovation in a Flat World, focusing on the creation and growth
of enterprises in a global environment.
It's a chance to network with innovators, investors and world-renowned
thought leaders like Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United
Nations, Ray Kurweziel (inventor, author and futurist), marquee
professors from multiple schools (including Clay Christensen of Harvard
Business School), CIOs and CTOs from multi-million and multi-billion
dollar companies. If you're in the Boston area,
check out the conference here.
But get this – all those big names were recruited by the volunteers and
are speaking for free. That’s incredible firepower for a regional
conference – and a perfect showcase for the power of networking!
What are you doing to increase the power of your network?
Here are a few
suggestions.
Pick up the phone and call someone you haven’t spoken to in years, but
have always meant to. Walk down the hallway and meet up with someone
from another department, maybe someone you don’t get along with. Take
them out for lunch and see if you can understand what is going on. Build
up your network today. It will help you – and your customers.
A World Cup Tip
For
the next month, you have one of the greatest opportunities to bond with
your global teams, resellers and partners – thanks to the
World Cup (of
football/soccer).
 Nothing
else on the planet ignites the passions of the world as reliably as the
World Cup – not even the Olympics. In 2002, when South Korea and Japan
jointly hosted the World Cup, one billion watched the final game between
Brazil and Germany. That’s about three times the entire population
of the United States! (By the way, Brazil won, 2-0.)
Take a moment to learn about the different countries and players that
are involved, and you’ll be amazed how positively even non-sporting fans
are likely to respond to your interest. You get this opportunity only
once every four years – don’t waste it!
For a quick run-down on different teams,
check out the BBC’s site.
Upcoming Talks:
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June
TiE Boston
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July
MRO World,
Orlando, Florida
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August India
(Let me know if you want to meet me or have me talk to your executive
team. I may have a few slots open, most likely in Bangalore,
Trivandrum and Chennai.)
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September
Egypt
Book News
about The Ultimate Customer
Support Executive
The latest:
Looking for creative ideas on how you can help spread the ideas in the
book?
A
senior vice president of a large software company purchased ten copies
to give to his vice presidents as required reading. Another company
bought 100 autographed copies and distributed them to their clients and
partners.
What do you plan to do with the
special discount
available on our website?
I'm also available to speak at corporate sites, user conferences or
management offsites, with advance notice. Please let your marketing team
know that, and I'll do my best to add it to my schedule.
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What Do You Want to
Hear About?
Your
ideas, insights and feedback are important to me. I want to hear from you!
What 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.
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invite you to forward this
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Previous
issues:
May
2006
April 2006
February 2006
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 About
Phil Verghis
A preeminent expert on global service delivery, Phil was vice president of
Infrastructure & Support at Akamai Technologies and a member of the
Senior Executive Operations Group. Among other responsibilities, he
launched Akamai's award- winning Customer Care Department and ran the world's largest IP network:
15,000 servers in 66 countries
handling billions of hits per day. More
about Phil.
About The
Verghis Group
We unleash the power
of your customer (SM).
The Verghis Group
brings years of expertise with innovative solutions that
enable companies like yours to conceptualize and implement world-class customer
support strategies that delight your customers and enhance your bottom line.
Our strategies encompass your people, processes and technology. For the right clients,
we can add significant value by taking
a comprehensive look at issues from your customer's point of view.
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:
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Phil Verghis
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Box
123, 1770 Massachusetts Ave.
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The Verghis Group
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Cambridge, MA 02140-2808
USA
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info@verghisgroup.com |
Toll-f'ree: (800) 494 9142
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www.verghisgroup.com |
Phone: +1 (617) 395 6613
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Fax: +1 (617) 395 6643
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This publication is a presentation
of The Verghis Group, which is solely responsible for its
contents.
©2006
The Verghis Group. All rights reserved.
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