Achieving certification under the SCP Support Standard requires organizations to meet specific criteria that represent best practices in the industry. The standard measures 12 areas of performance, each of which contains a set of business elements associated with it. Included below is a brief summary of the criteria.
Customer Feedback
Customer feedback involves all the activities associated with collecting, analyzing and acting on feedback provided by the customer. Customer feedback mechanisms can include surveys completed by the support organization, an external organization or input submitted directly by the customer through face-to-face communication or other means such as online interactions. Feedback from customers is a vital tool that the management team can use to drive change and improvement in service delivery process.
Service Delivery Processes
Service delivery processes define the methods and procedures used to communicate with customers, manage problem resolution and handle other aspects of the customer relationship associated with delivering high quality services. Setting customer expectations and proactively communicating with customers are also important to managing these relationships. All of the processes associated with service delivery contribute to creating and maintaining strong customer relationships.
Performance Metrics
Measuring performance is a key aspect of managing any service operation. Without quantitative measures for the key performance indicators, it is difficult to determine how well an organization is meeting customer requirements. Service organizations should establish clear goals and track their performance against those goals. Distributing performance reports to both management personnel and service staff helps ensure everyone involved understands how well the organization and individuals within the organization are performing relative to defined objectives.
Employee Development
Employee development is a critical part of any service operation. Properly trained personnel can have a significant impact on how customers perceive the quality of service provided by a company. If not trained properly, staff may take longer to resolve issues, thereby leading to customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, managing the development of the staff is critical to the success of the organization.
People Programs
The business of delivering service and support is all about people, with the staff representing the "service product" delivered by the company. Personnel costs also typically represent the single largest expense for most service operations. Therefore, it is critical that the staff feel they are contributing to the success of the organization. Service organizations must ensure that they have processes, procedures and programs in place to manage their personnel effectively.
Corporate Commitment and Strategy
In today's competitive marketplace, it is critical that companies demonstrate a strong commitment to deliver top quality service to customers. In many instances, service can be a differentiator in the product purchasing decision. Therefore, companies must ensure that they provide the highest levels of service possible and maintain a strong commitment to satisfying their customers. The strength of commitment to deliver exceptional service must begin at the executive level.
Productivity Tools
Organizations continue to make good use of automation tools to assist in delivering services to customers. These tools are essential to managing customer interactions. They provide the necessary automation to streamline access to qualified service staff, record critical customer information and provide resources to speed the problem resolution process for service personnel. The result of implementing productivity tools is a more effective and efficient service operation.
Electronic Service Delivery
In today's marketplace, electronic service delivery channels have become a common means of providing technology service. Customers expect to be able to interact through a company's Internet site and access product and service information. However, many companies are either still struggling to establish or are working to refine their electronic service delivery strategy. While most companies provide some form of Internet presence for their service operations, few have reached an optimum state.
Total Quality Management
The quality of the services delivered by a company can significantly influence its ability to acquire and retain customers. Service has become a differentiator in the current "service oriented" marketplace. Companies need to implement processes and procedures that ensure every customer interaction is a quality one that leaves the customer feeling good about the company they are dealing with. By implementing processes and procedures to monitor and improve service quality, companies can drive higher performance from the operation and generate greater customer loyalty.
Research & Development Interface
The relationship between service and research and development (R&D) organizations is a key factor in the success of any technology company. The relationship should be one of open communication and provide for knowledge transfer between the two groups. While the R&D and development staff is typically only involved in a small amount of the total service activity, they have a tremendous impact on the overall supportability of products. By having clear lines of communication and strong working relationships between these two groups, customer identified issues can be addressed rapidly and changes incorporated into product updates and future releases.
Sales and Service Interface
The relationship between the sales and services organizations is a key factor in the success of any technology company. Sales, services and support are typically the most customer facing organizations in a company. Since the sales and services organizations set the customer's initial expectations, it is critical they have a full understanding of the services that will be delivered after the sale. Sales, services and support must have a strong relationship and work together to meet customer needs and manage relationships on an ongoing basis. By having clear lines of communication and strong working relationships between these groups, customer expectations can be set properly and the number of customer complaints reduced.
Financial Management
In many instances, service and support can provide a significant contribution to corporate revenues. Therefore, companies must ensure that they provide the highest levels of service possible, while efficiently managing operations in order to maximize the financial contribution of the organization. While service is often considered a net contributor to the operating costs of the company, more and more organizations are realizing that maintenance and support services can also be highly profitable. As a result, it is increasingly important for the service and support organization to effectively manage both the tangible fundamentals of cost, revenue and profitability as well as less tangible elements such as customer satisfaction and loyalty.
To learn more about the SCP Support Standard, please contact Service Strategies today.