Customer Care & Fault Management

UOW IACT418/918 Spring 2001 Bob Brown

Overview

Service success and customer satisfaction comes from the benefits that the enterprise is constantly able to provide to its customers, including design and features of its products and services, quality, service-courtesy, friendliness, having what the customer needs when needed – and image. Value is real, and hard-won: it is not created by advertising campaigns or hype…

Hilmer (1989)

Customer Needs

Service should be determined by customers’ wants & needs. Therefore, all enterprises must research and understand:    Which products, services and service characteristics are important to the customer The relative importance of these customer wants The level of performance on each product and service characteristic which will meet customer expectations Without a clear understanding of these, there will be a ‘gap’ between customer expectations and the products/services delivered by the enterprise

Cost of service failure

Costs much more than the loss of just one customer Technical Assistance Research Program (TARP) (Clemmer 1992) results indicate that a dissatisfied customer tells 16 others, whereas a satisfied customer only tells 8 others!

The original customer who wont return Potential customers lost because the original customer told them how dis satisfied they were Potential customers NOT gained because the original customer didn’t tell them how satisfied they were

Total customers lost from ONE unhappy customer 1 16 8

25

Clemmer 1992

Customer service gaps

Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

External communications to customers

Gap 1:

Customer & Company expectations of service Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations External communications to customers

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

Gap 1:

Customer & Company expectations of service

Inadequate marketing research orientation    Insufficient market research Research not focussed on service quality Inadequate use of market research Lack of upward communication    Lack of interaction between management and customers Insufficient communication between contact employees and managers Too many layers between contact employees and upper management Insufficient relationship focus    Lack of market segmentation Focus on transaction rather than relationships Focus on new customers rather than relationship customers

Gap 2:

Customer & Company standards of service Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations External communications to customers

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

Gap 2:

Customer & Company standards of service

Absence of customer-driven standards    Lack of customer driven service standards Absence of process management to focus on customer requirements Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals Inadequate leadership  Perception of infeasibility  Inadequate management commitment Poor service design    Unsystematic new service development process Vague undefined service designs Failure to connect service design to service positioning

Gap 3:

Customer standards & delivered service Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations External communications to customers

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

Gap 3:

Customer standards & delivered service

Deficiencies in human resource policies    Ineffective recruitment Role ambiguity and role conflict Poor employee / technology job fit   Inappropriate evaluation and compensation systems Lack of empowerment, perceived control & teamwork Failure to match supply and demand    Failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand Inappropriate customer mix Over-reliance on price to smooth demand Customers not fulfilling roles  Customers lacking knowledge of their roles and responsibilities  Customers negatively impacting each other

Gap 4:

Delivered and ‘advertised’ service Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

External communications to customers

Gap 4:

Delivered and ‘advertised’ service

Ineffective management of customer expectations  Failure to manage customer expectations through all forms of communications  Failure to educate customers adequately Overpromising   Overpromising in advertising Overpromising in personal selling  Overpromising through physical evidence cues Inadequate horizontal communications    Insufficient communications between sales & operations Insufficient communications between advertising & operations Differences in policies and procedures across branches or units

Gap 5:

Expected and perceived service Expected service Customer Company Perceived service Service delivery Customer-driven service designs and standards Company Customer perceptions of expectations

Source: Zeithaml (1996)

External communications to customers

Gap 5:

Expected and perceived service

The ‘gap’ between the service which the customer expected and that

perceived by the customer

to have been delivered.

This ‘gap’ is directly attributable to, and results from any and all of the other four ‘gaps’.

Addressing each of the other ‘gaps’ (which the enterprise

can

control) will narrow the all-important “service gap” which is not itself directly within enterprise control.

Service quality in telecoms

In telecommunications, there are four principal areas where customer satisfaction can be gained or lost

Technical Performance Network response time Signal to noise ratio Call completion rate Fault clearance time Customer Interface Busy signal Wrong numbers Timed out before call completed Service to the Customer Service Comparison Call answered promptly problems dealt with on first contact Range of products ‘Spread’ of network

FAULTS are a large factor in customer satisfaction!

Who are your customers?

What is the product/service of a network?

The Users of your network are your customers Sometimes the Users are internal members of your organisation … ie: STAFF & EMPLOYEES

Fault Management

Help desk    Single point of contact with users Staff trained to contact help-desk for any problems with communications equipment Standardised procedures & questions Trouble ticket   For large organisations Allows multiple operators to action the fault Automated fault tracking systems  Registers trouble-tickets in a database  Fault details can be made available to managers, help-desk staff, technicians and even users

Levels of support

Level 1: Operator who takes the call can quickly resolve 80~85% of faults Level 2: technicians with higher skills/training can resolve 10~15% of faults Level 3: communications technical specialists or vendor specialists resolve the 5% most complex issues

Fault Escalation

Network management plan must include procedures for escalating the status of a fault    How long has the fault remained unsolved?

How critical is the fault?

The more critical the fault, the faster it is escalated  Printers can be down for a day or more  Critical servers shouldn’t be down for more than a few minutes

Escalation procedures I

  Two approaches Deploy additional technical resources to assist in finding resolution Advise users and management of the actions being undertaken to resolve the problem

Escalation procedures II a generic technical approach

1.

2.

3.

Level 1 (help-desk) pass to next level after 15 minutes Level 2 (technician) after 1 hour, advise supervisor and continue working Level 3 (appropriate network specialist) called in after no solution in 4 hours.

Level 2 still “owns’ the fault and monitors progress keeping user & supervisor updated every 2 hours

Escalation procedures II a generic managerial approach

1.

2.

3.

4.

After 1 hour level 2 technician advises help desk supervisor After 2 hours help desk supervisor advises network operations supervisor After 4 hours network operations supervisor advises telecomms manager (who contacts manager of the user’s dept. to discuss any extraordinary actions) After 8 hours telecomms manager advises appropriate senior manager to discuss longer range plans & possible involvement of vendor management

References

Carnegie, R. & Butlin, M. (1993)

Managing the Innovating Enterprise,

Business Council of Australia, Melbourne Clemmer J. et al (1992)

Firing on all Cylinders: revised edition,

Piatkus, London Hilmer, F.G. (1989)

Work in Competitive Industries: New Games, New Rules,

Angus & Robertson, Sydney Rowe, S.H. (1999)

Telecommunications for Managers 4 th Ed.,

Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Zeithaml, V. (1996)

Services Marketing,

Hill, New York McGraw-