Put Customer Support out of Business

“The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind -- the mind of a fighter -- in which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree man's first beginning.”

~ Eric Hoffer

Properly approached, Customer Support's evolutionary goal is to put itself out of business by transforming from a Cost Center to a Profit Center.

Correct utilization of a Customer Support department is to ascertain customers' needs, then systematize an automated solution. The vision is to comprehend your customer and provide for their needs and wants in the most simplistic and universal way. Ask yourself, "Why is your product(s) failing to meet all of your customers' needs up front?" A company cannot successfully blame the customer - this is an arrogant approach that seeks to excuse the company from accountability and stifles ingenuity.

Following are common evolutionary stages of Customer Support. Each stage represents a varied level of change in the culture of the Support division, but the complete evolutionary change will not be realized unless the changes are supported and implemented throughout the company. Hopefully by appreciating the stages listed below, companies may be able to avoid most pitfalls. Not all stages need to be gone through to realize the final product, but the lessons and growth of each is critical.

1. Scramble to get triage in place to address product / service failures. Provide answers, troubleshooting, and to place orders.
2. Evaluate internal processes to identify gaps in being able to assist customers (the gaps are typically the lack of knowledge and skills in employees, IT infrastructure issues, lack of operational efficiency, poor management, lack of empowerment, and a sense of disorganization because a lack of experience and knowledge at all levels).
3. Begin the cycle of process improvement to address gaps. Unfortunately, Customer Support progress is hindered by a lack of executive support in either finances or assistance. The executive level is notorious for viewing Support as a necessary evil and a financial black hole. NOTE: this is the point at which most evolution is stifled, and improvements are minimal, slow, and driven by fear of losing one's job. Most progress during this time can be attributed to those team members who take personal pride in not giving up and keep pushing.
4. Typically, the executive team believes that failures in Support are due to the inabilities of the Support staff. Consultants are commonly brought on to evaluate the needs of the Support division. The executive team commonly expects the consultants to provide them with information that supports their predetermined notions, and at times finds it hard to look beyond these notions.Executive team hires new leadership (permanent or consultants) to drive improvements. This is most likely needed since Support leadership is initially comprised of "buddies" of the founding executives, who do not contain the required skill-sets to take the division to the next level.
5. Determine customer contact drivers (items driving customers to call for support). This involves the categorization (qualification and quantification) of these drivers.
6. Evaluate the contact drivers for areas to improve Support processes. The identification of gaps now loops in contact drivers.
7. Realization that new / improved IT tools need to be put into place to properly support the customer, product life-cycles, maintain legal history, and capture data for further evaluation.
8. With a new plateau of progress in cost savings and revenue generation, executive team brings in a new set of consultants to change the culture of the Support division. These changes typically involve the development of management skills, better approaches to resolving issues (customer and employee), performance-based incentives, and an occasional leadership change if there are significant issues. It is recommended that the consultant perform "skip-level" interviews with "lower-level" staff (including front-line, supervisors, and etc.) to get a more complete picture of the division and areas of opportunity.
9. Based upon consultant recommendations, new processes, procedures, operational structures, and etc. are typically implemented.
10. Customer satisfaction data collection and evaluation. The identification of gaps now loops in the needs and wants of customers. This is a huge evolutionary step.
11. Set attainable, yet aggressive, goals on improving customer satisfaction. Goals need to have measurable components to track and report progress.
12. Implement process / product / service improvement teams. The feedback and goals should be 360, with insights being provided and utilized by all divisions of the company - executive financial commitments, product development, Support empowerment, and etc.
13. The final ingredients require: A) a company culture that is cohesive and committed 360 (across all divisions); 2) A comprehensive view of contact drivers and customer satisfaction needs. With these items in place, the company will be better able to design products / services that transform the front-line Support team to not only become part of the product / service, but a "value-add" - an enhancement to the company's products and services.
14. The Support division becomes a part of the company, not just a "clean-up" team.

The moral is: To realize the evolutionary change from Cost Center to Profit Center the culture change must occur throughout the entire company and not just a division. The Support division is part of the product / service that the company is offering. Like a chain, the product / service is only as good as the poorest quality component. Make Support your strongest component... because it will drive the quality of the whole.

~ Jason Saetrum