PROFITABLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT

OVERVIEW

Customer support is often provided "free" - bundled in with other costs or, in the case of in-company support, not charged at all. Why? For suppliers, Customer Support can be a useful 'value added' service - even leading to lucrative consulting assignments. For in-company support activities, support often becomes a soft target for cutbacks. This two day workshop shows how to turn an overhead into a profitable activity or simply creates a justification for investment in customer support activities.

OBJECTIVES

The workshop will provide a road map to implementing chargeable customer support services.

Why you should attend

What isn't paid for isn't valued. You will discover how to turn an undervalued asset into a valuable - and valued - activity.

Who should attend

Customer Service, Customer Support, Help Desk, Support Centre, Service Desk, Hot Line and Call Centre managers and staff; Problem and Solution managers and teams, second line support personnel; account managers, all service and support professionals who wish to update their skills with techniques in customer care; staff having regular interface with customers.

How you and your organisation will benefit

You will learn:

• How to move from "free" to "fee" for customer support services
• How to analyse the customer market and align support services to match
• Marketing techniques for customer support
• Sales approaches for customer support

and hear real case studies of organisations that have successfully made the transition.

Programme

• New Roles for Support and Training

  The support environment.
  Competitive identity.
  Cost-effective use of resources.
  The relationship between support and sales.
  What customers can you afford?

• What Does it Mean to Sell a Service?

  The characteristics of selling an intangible product.
  What does this imply for marketing?
  Putting a price on consultancy.
  Sales channels.
  Motivating and rewarding the sales force.

• Divining and Defining

  Seeking out opportunities for profit
  To charge or give?
  Defining the product.
  Designing the service and mapping customer needs.
  Balancing revenue with customer satisfaction.

• A Supplier Example

  What problems have been experienced by a supplier
  who is making money from customer support?

• Applying Marketing to Support Services

  Marketing to sell Support.
  Key marketing phases.
  Developing a marketing plan.
  Developing promotional material.
  Controlling marketing costs.
  Internal and external marketing

• Introduction to Case Study Exercise - in Syndicate Groups

• Case Study Review

• The Customer Perspective

  How do customers view these changes?
  What are their expectations?
  What is the role of 'added value'?

• Supplier Case Studies

  Real-life cases of profitable customer support.

• Skills and Career Development

  How do these changes impact 'traditional' Support skills profiles?
  What new skills are needed?
  Developing new skills.
  Sources for recruitment.
  Alternative career paths for Support
  personnel.
  Management, motivation and remuneration.

• Developing a Business Plan

  How much does it cost to run a Support function?
  How should those costs be allocated?
  How should the product be priced?
  Planning against the downside.
  Fixed and variable costs.
  Developing and managing a budget.
  The price for promotion.

• Summary and Close.

Books by Kingswell Consultants

Books on Service Management

Hiles, A. N. The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements, Matching Service Quality to Business Needs.. ISBN 0-9641648-2-5 published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The standard work on IT Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for ISPs, ASPs, *SPs and CLECS.  Published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The first book to deal specifically with e-commerce Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. Service Level Agreements, Winning a Competitive Edge for Supply and Support Services.  ISBN 0-9641648-4-1published by Rothstein Associates Inc. This book applies Service Level Agreements to services other than IT. Real case studies and example SLAs are provided ranging from Human Resources, Logistics, through Training, Livestock Handling, Logistics and Field Service Engineering.

Hiles A.N. and Gunn, Dr. Y. Creating a Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-6-8 This book has the support of the Help Desk Institute www.helpdeskinst.com

Books on Business Continuity

Hiles A.N. Business Continuity Management: Best Practice. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-3-3.  This book explicitly covers all the ten areas of business continuity competence required for membership of the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

Hiles A.N. Enterprise Risk Assessment & Business Impact Analysis – Best Practices ISBN 1-931332-12-6 Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. Covers many techniques and methods of risk and impact assessment with detailed examples and checklists.

e-Publication. Kingswell books on Business Continuity, Service Level Agreements and  Help Desk Management will shortly be available by page download in conjunction with Rothstein Associates Inc and Books24x7.com.

New and updated books. Existing  books Business Continuity Management – Best Practice and IT Service Level Agreements have been extensively updated. See our products page or visit www.rothstein.com .

All the above books can be obtained from:

Rothstein Associates Inc.
4 Arapaho Road
Brookfield
Connecticut
0608-3104 USA

www.rothstein.com

e-mail pjr@rothstein.com

Telephone: USA: 1-888-ROTHSTEIN
Worldwide: +1 203 740 7400

Hiles A.N. Guide to Risk Management. Published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Hiles A.N. and Barnes, P. (Editor and main contributor) The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0 471 98622 4.

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Croner’s Purchasing and Supply Guide to I.T., 1994, ISBN 1 85524 271 0

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Guide to Business Continuity Management, 1999, for the Confederation of British Industry by Caspian Publishing

Hiles A.N. (contributor) Business Continuity Management, 2000, Institute of Directors / Department of Trade & Industry.