How Much Duct Tape Does It Take? Good customer service tools increase customer retention
Posted by Hoyt Mann on Mon, Apr 13, 2009 @ 08:21 PM
Written by guest blogger Jack Sumrall, Sales, PhaseWare, Inc.
As my wife can testify, I'm a lousy handyman. She's known this for a long time, but I have been completely delusional about this flaw in my otherwise moderately complete male résumé. The evidence was there - over the years, we've had to have cars towed to real mechanics after I've tuned-up a well running vehicle or lost fragile, family heirlooms when they've fallen from a wobbly bookshelf project. Not to mention the numerous blackened fingernails or the more dangerous near death experiences that ended in an emergency room - like the little mishap with a knife cleaning up a window caulking job. However, it was the latest episode with a simple dimmer switch installation that finally shocked me into reality - belatedly, but with amped intensity. I have now been forbidden to pursue any project regarding the house. My family role has been reassigned to Assistant Gardner - meaning I get to dig holes wherever my wife points.
Several days ago I was bemoaning my demotion to a neighbor as we watched my wife from a distance. She was talking to some guy dressed in overalls. He was standing next to his small, dirty van that proclaimed "Mr. Handyman - no job too small". His overalls had several loops and pockets filled with a tape measure, a hammer and several devices I could not identify. I couldn't hear their conversation, but it was quite animated and every now and then they would laugh.
"You know, don't you," my sympathetic neighbor offered, "that unless you're a Joe Fix-it, like that guy, there are only two tools that you really need."
"Please continue," I said.
"WD-40 and Duct Tape."
"Say that again."
"WD-40 and Duct Tape," my neighbor said louder. "If it doesn't move and it should - lather it in WD-40; if it does move and it shouldn't - wrap it in Duct Tape until it doesn't."
I'm afraid that too many Help Desks have adopted my neighbor's philosophy. Their tools are limited to what they've always had. It may have worked in the beginning, but their needs and customers have outgrown the capabilities they were designed for. Maybe they never were adequate tools, but with sheer manpower and determination they were able to keep their support efforts satisfactory for awhile. It's not that they aren't trying to improve their processes, or that they have an unmotivated staff. The problem is that they no longer have the correct tools and that they are alienating their customers with the trials and delays of trying to use duct tape to fix everything that's broken. And, guess what? They are also frustrating their Help Desk personnel.
Obsolete tools. Frustrated Staff. How long before Missing Customers?
And let's face it - when times are tough and money is tight, it always tempting to get by on the support side with what's already in place. However, how much time and money was invested in acquiring the customer? How much has been invested in the support personnel? What is the benefit of making them more productive? What if they had the tools they needed? Good tools + motivated people = more productivity, right? Who knows - an investment in good tools could actually pay for itself in a short period of time. Your support staff handling more issues and resolving problems faster could free up valuable resources.
It's hard to quantify, but there is one measurement that doesn't require a cost accountant to be quantified - your customers will notice the difference.
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