The technical support
department is probably the final stop along the way for a customer
either about to leave a company forever, or about to convert to a
lifetime loyalty. It’s the ultimate place for every enterprise to make
good on all its promises.
There is no telling how many quiet
stories of customer satisfaction emanating from support never see the
light of day, but this one sure did.
I submitted to e-mail technical support for the product not expecting any easy solution.
Within several hours I received an email indicating
that Jabra was going to send 2 pieces replacement pieces free of
charge. I indicated that I could see these breaking fairly easy for me
and asked to BUY 5. The next day I received an email from tech support as follows:
“Thank you for providing your mailing address. I am sending you five complimentary JX10 ear hooks. Please allow about a week for delivery”
...Even though Internet marketing and CRM have gone hi-tech, a good company must always remember the fundamentals of business – Jabbering with Jabra: What happens when CRM goes right?
Of course it’s a lot easier to say that a company
should remember the fundamentals than it is to put this into practice,
especially as the technology of the times imposes its own dictatorship
on the business processes of the enterprise. In an article wondering, Is After Sales Service A Myth Or Reality In Most Organizations?, management author Tim O’Connor lists a number of obstacles to achieving the ideal state, of which he reminds us:
Effective customer service is not a slogan,
advertising program, button that everyone wears or a banner touting a,
“We Care attitude”. It is a consciousness or attitude that penetrates
every nook and cranny of the organization.
This is a little outside our scope to ponder, but it does seem that it takes an extremely strong CEO, or else a sole owner, to saturate an enterprise with a specific strategic attitude. Richard Branson is the obvious example:
In a world where companies routinely bedevil customers, the Virgin chief is an angel, because he truly puts customers first. – The Enlightenment of Richard Branson
But for the typical enterprise – comprising a
myriad of imperatives, managed by teams at multiple levels, and facing
an ever more powerful and demanding customer – it’s hard to encompass a
sea change in culture. Even more crucial then becomes the role of
support. As is well known, a customer with a problem is the greatest
opportunity for any business, as well as the time of greatest jeopardy
for the relationship. And when a customer relationship slides all the
way to support, agents need all the tools and empowerment at hand that
the enterprise can offer.
