the evolution of support a demand based view of support consortium for service innovation greg oxton...

The Evolution of Support

A Demand Based View of Support

Consortium for Service Innovation

Greg Oxton

[email protected]

www.serviceinnovation.org

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.serviceinnovation.org/

@copyright 2004-2006 Consoritum for Service Innovation www.serviceinnovation.org

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Agenda

• What is the Consortium? • Developing some context

– The dynamics of the big picture

• Knowledge and connectivity changes everything!

• A value proposition for customer support• A recommendation for multivendor support


3

What is the Consortium?

• An alliance of support organisations

• Focused on improving the customer’s

service experience

• Member funded, not for profit

• The members are the Consortium


4

Board of Directors

• LaVeta Gibbs – Cisco

• Rob Schauble - HP

• Kurt Samuelson – Microsoft

• Mike Lyons – Novell

• Brad Smith - Openwave

• Sallee Peterson – VeriSign

• Mike Runda – Symantec

• Greg Oxton – the Consortium


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Our Work…

• Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS)– Demand driven, just-in-time knowledge creation

and maintenance

• Betty (aka the Adaptive Organisation)– Knowledge enabled networks– Improving the relevance of interactions– Organisational learning

• Articulating the value of support– A leadership model– A simulator; a holistic view (the bigger picture)

• Collaborative support model– Dealing with multivendor and open source

support issues

The Dynamics of theBig Picture

Looking at support from the point of view of user demand


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An exception is anything that inhibits or prevents the user from getting their job done.

Exceptions include issues with:• Usability• Installation• Configuration• Interoperability• Defects

CustomerExceptions


10

CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

To handle exceptions we have built the

Support Center

DevelopmentEngineering


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CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

To handle exceptions we have built the

Support Center


Each Level Solves 80%And Escalates 20%

10,000

2,000

400

80


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CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

Support Center

10,000

2,000

400

80DevelopmentEngineering

Assisted Support

Create A Knowledge Base (KCS)

KCS dramatically Improves the operational efficiency of the funnel . . . And, creates web consumable content.

Fix it once use it often

Knowledge Base


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CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

Support Center

10,000

2,000

400


Assisted Support

Self-help

Customer Access to the KB

10,000 +30,000

Customers will use a good web site for more exceptions than they ever called us about…

…A lot more!

Knowledge Base


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Product Management

CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

Support Center

10,000

2,000

400


Assisted Support

Self-help

Closing the Loop with Development

Now Development and Product Management have a more complete view of the customer experience.

10,000 +30,000

Knowledge Base


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Product Management

CustomerExceptions

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

Support Center

10,000

2,000

400


Assisted Support

Self-help

Customer Success on the Web Changes the Funnel

10,000 +30,000

5,000

Success on the web removes many of the known exceptions from the funnel.

The mix of work in the funnel changes – from mostly known to mostly new!

Knowledge Base


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CustomerExceptions

Support Center


Assisted Support

Product Management

KnowledgeBase

Self-help

Product Management

Move From Streaming to Swarming

Most Problems have to be escalated to be resolved

The tiers of support become ineffective

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

10,000

2,000

400

5,000 Knowledge Base


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CustomerExceptions

Support Center


Assisted Support

Product Management

KnowledgeBase

Self-help

Product Management

Move From Streaming to Swarming

We still need generalists and specialists

Collaboration replaces escalation

The KB has content and profiles of people

5,000 Knowledge Base


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CustomerExceptions

Support Center


Assisted Support

Product Management

Self-help

Product Management

Acknowledge the User Community

CommunityConversations

Community

Knowledge Base


19

CustomerExceptions

Support Center


Assisted Support

Product Management

Self-help

Product Management

Integrate the User Community


Community

Knowledge BaseA network that

connects people with content and people

with people


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CustomerExceptions


Assisted Support

Product Management

KnowledgeBase

Self-help

Product Management

The Real Customer Experience = 70,000 Exceptions!


Community

10,000 +30,000 +30,000

ImprovedProducts &Environmen

t

User

Experience


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CustomerExceptions

Support Center


Assisted Support

Product Management

KnowledgeBase

Self-help

Product Management

Integrate the User Community


Community

Knowledge Assets• Solutions• People profiles• Systems/products• Customer profiles


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The Role of Support Changes

• Support’s role: – Resolution experts for new, complex problems– Collaborators instead of escalators– Facilitators of relevant connections

• Connect people to content

• Connect people to people– Based on: Context, Need, Legitimacy (identity and

reputation)

• The knowledge base is the enabler– Content (the collective experience)– People profiles, identity, reputation

Support is the Network


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Value Proposition for Support…

• How much demand is there?

• How much demand can we satisfy?

• How efficiently can we satisfy it?

• In what ways can we contribute to reducing demand?

–Learning and improving

• And, how much should the company care about

support demand?

–Impact of demand satisfaction on customer loyalty?

The Value Support Creates is not Realized in the

Support Center!

It is realized in;• Customer success and productivity• Customer loyalty• Better products – more usable, more relevant• Company profitability


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Emerging Support Metrics• Loyalty; customers, partners and employees

– link to revenue & profit?

• Support cost as % of total company revenue• $/Exception• Channel mix (demand)

– % assisted, % self-help, % community

• % New Vs Known in the assisted channel • Diversity of source - enabling contribution

– % from internal, % partners, % customers

• Time to solve (customer view)• Time to cure (remove source of issues once known)

– Updates available to customers

• Time to adopt– Customer adoption of new releases or products

• Time to stability (after new release)


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Support’s ContributionChange the Ratio of

Support Cost to Revenue

$

Total Revenue

Time

Actual Support Costs

Expected Support Costs

AdditionalProfit

Customer Experience and Better Products


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Critical Success Factors

• Knowledge management practices in the funnel (KCS)– Internal efficiency – solve it once, use it often– JIT publishing of content to the web (in minutes)

• Excellent web based self help– Satisfy pent-up demand– Support center shifts from mostly known to mostly new

• Nurturing the user community– Knowing who your power users are

• Persistent learning– Closed loop processes and metrics– From a more complete view of customer demand– Patterns and trends from the web use and user community


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Critical Success Factors (continued)

• Leadership model that is focused on:– Alignment to a compelling purpose – The value proposition– People as human beings (Vs resources);

people are the creators of value:• Relationship, knowledge, innovation

– Process and technology as people enablers– The health of the knowledge and the

network that creates it• Collaboration and learning• New metrics


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You Know you are “Doing KCS” When . . .

• Time to publish for 90% of customer consumable content is measured in minutes

• Customer use of and success on the web is 80%+– Timely content in the customer’s context– Good portal design

• The work shifts from mostly known to mostly new– Perceived incident complexity in the support center

increases

• Support process evolves to a non-linear, collaborative network (no more tiers)

• Support analysts morale is at an all time high– Turn over rate is at an all time low– Analysts don’t tolerate their peers messing up the KB


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You Know you are “Doing Betty” When . . .

• Interactions are highly relevant– Context, need and legitimacy drives connections

• Interactions cross traditional organizational boundaries– Customers, partners, employees

• “People” loyalty is at an all time high– Customers, partners, employees

• Metrics are about;– The creation of value (loyalty and relationships)– The health of collaboration – The speed of learning– The customer experience drivers

• Direct cause and effect is elusive

The Consortium for Service Innovation

www.serviceinnovation.orgGreg Oxton

[email protected]

+1.650.596.0772

the evolution of support a demand based view of support consortium for service innovation greg oxton...

Documents

consortium slide

multivendor support

view of support consortium

service innovation greg

service delivery

customer demand

values innovation

user demand slide