A recently published white paper urged the industry to build “high performance customer contact centers,” and offered three questions to enable managers to assess whether or not their centers would qualify as such. “Does your operation work in tandem with the rest of the enterprise on key operational and performance metrics such as cost controls and service quality?” “Are individual workers aware of clear performance goals aligned with business objectives, and do workers have timely and accurate access to their progress towards those goals?” “Is the flow of information into and out of the center controlled and channeled so that appropriate managers and analysts can interpret the raw data and use it to create specific prescriptions for change that improve performance?” A contact center that was recently shut down and its entire staff laid off could have answered all three questions affirmatively. They’re still just as unemployed as if the answers had been No.
Customers will always have questions about the products that they buy, both before and after the sale. Every complex tool inherently has a support burden; the user must make an investment in learning how to use it in order to gain the promised productivity benefits from the purchase. Most traditional software (and far too many SaaS ones, too) company senior managers, knowing this basic reality, ask themselves “how can we provide the answers to customer questions as cheaply as possible?” The question alone is very revealing, and those who consider themselves support professionals need to understand the meaning in it. A company that only talks about the importance of cutting costs in the contact center sees no real value in the support function; it’s an unfortunately necessary evil. When it can be gotten rid of; it will be. Nor does such a company truly consider its support employees to be professionals making a valued contribution. When they can be gotten rid of, or replaced by volunteer “community support;” they will be.
The questions asked by the white paper are not themselves inherently bad. The problem is that absent an appropriate vision, they inevitably lead in the wrong direction. Failing to look past the immediate performance and cost questions being asked by Senior Management to see what prompted them can be expensive. The price can include derailed careers and economic hardship for a lot of people — one of whom may be you. If cutting costs is the only acceptable answer, it’s likely that the wrong question is being asked. Shuttered centers and laid-off support staff members lie at the end of that road. If you don’t want your center and staff to be another example, it’s time to turn back and to rewrite the questions.
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“The SaaS & Support Project Report provides by far the most comprehensive data we’ve seen on SaaS support benchmarks and metrics, but perhaps even more valuable is Mikael’s candid and insightful analysis of what’s going on in this emerging corner of the support world. Some of his observations are frankly a bit depressing; others will make you sit up and say ‘Aha!’ Either way, this is a report that’s bound to get you thinking.” Jeffrey Tarter, Executive Director; Association of Support Professionals
The Research
The research of The SaaS & Support Project began in early 2006 with interviews of executives, managers and key players at all levels of the then-fledgling SaaS entities, and has continued since. In the fall of 2009, a comprehensive online questionnaire was opened to gather data in a number of pertinent strategic and operational areas of concern. Sponsored by the Association of Support Professionals (ASP), the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and TechAmerica.org, responses were received from a wide variety of SaaS-only, hybrid and traditional-model companies that were intentionally moving towards the launch of their own SaaS-based applications.
The Report
At the end of 2009, the first Report of the Project was published to the respondents and to the members of the sponsoring professional associations, and is now available here through The HotLine Magazine for ongoing members of the Project.
TSSP Report 2009 Contents
- Origins
- Executive Summary
- Key Assumptions
- The Different Profits-Realization Strategy
- Product As A Relationship
- The Importance of Ownership of the Customer Relationship
- The Effect of the Move to the Cloud Upon the Support Burden
- Focal Points of the Research
- Revenue Conduits & Customer Retention
- Ownership of the Customer Relationship
- The Quality of Customer Support
- Organizing for Success
- Methodology
- The Research: Questions & Findings
- Strategic Findings
- Revenue Conduits
- Minimum Required Contract Duration
- Designated Owners
- Retention data
- Departure Drivers
- Process Findings
- Operational Hours
- Access Channels
- Case Volumes by Access Channels
- Case Categories and Volumes
- Contact Center Process Mgmt Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction Measurement
- Social Media, Community & Self-Support
- The Role of the Channel in Customer Support
- People Findings
- Support as a Distinct Dept.
- Ownership of Support
- Support Staffing Levels
- The Structure of the Support Team
- Corollary Duties
- Time to Competency and the Training Inventory
- Turnover
- Support Staff Performance Metrics
- Technology Findings
- Access Channel Management Technologies
- Case-Incident Management Technologies
- Integration of Tools & Systems
- Strategic Findings
- Commentary
- Observations
To download a copy of the Report (membership required), click here. To become a member, follow this link.
“What I really like is that the 2009 Report is not a dry collection of numbers: It’s an *expert* document based on the insights of a knowledgeable advisor. I just wish more people created this kind of analysis.” Jeffrey Tarter, Executive Director: ASP
Benefits of Joining The SaaS & Support Project
Members of The SaaS & Support Project may download a copy of the TSSP Report 2009, and they will also receive a copy of the Report for 2010 when it is published towards the end of the year. Members will have access to restricted articles and other content concerning best practices, job descriptions, case studies and commentary, etc., here on The HotLine Magazine as it becomes available, and may engage in ongoing conversations with other members in the private Project Forum on LinkedIn.
To become a member, please click here.
Revised: July 25, 2010