Communication Breakdown, Long Hold Times Top List of Customer Complaints

In the latest Ouch Point study from Opinion Research Corporation, one in five US respondents (20%) cited hard to understand representatives with thick accents as their biggest frustration in dealing with customer service departments. Running a close second was the length of time it takes to get through to a representative (17%).

A list of top customer service Ouch Points ranked as follows:

Reps that are hard to understand because of a thick accent - 20%

Length of time to reach a representative - 17%

Reps that are not knowledgeable about their organizations products/ services/ process - 14%

Being transferred to the wrong person or the wrong department - 13%

Reps who promise to follow through and don’t - 9%

Reps that are not empowered to handle a situation - 8%

Reps who don’t understand your situation - 7%

Reps who want to debate your situation - 3%

More information on Customer Service and Support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Average Spending on SOA Software and Services Reached $1.4 Million in 2007

Companies adopting service-oriented architecture (SOA) spent $1.4 million on software and services in 2007, according to a report released by AMR Research. Survey respondents represented a cross-section of companies with 500- 10,000+ employees in the process and discrete manufacturing, retail, wholesale/distribution, telecom, and financial services industries. According to the survey, SOA adoption and spending largely varied across vertical industry, location, and size of company.

Additional highlights of this report include:

SOA adoption is broad based and growing rapidly -- China, Germany, and the United States all showed adoption growth rates of over 100%.

SOA spending is significant -- 45% of SOA adopters reported spending over $500K on SOA software and services in 2007.

More information on Customer Service and Support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Research Reveals Most Subscribers Are Satisfied, But Many Will Switch Service Providers for a Better Customer Experience

The results from the new Experience Matters Index from Amdocs, a study of consumers of wireline, mobile, cable and satellite services, found that most consumers are happy with their providers, but many would switch for a better experience. The results also showed that personalization and mobile advertising are growing factors of importance for consumers.

The recent study measured the impact of the customer experience on service providers by surveying the attitudes and behaviors of more than 2,000 subscribers of mobile, wireline, cable and satellite services in the United States and the United Kingdom. The findings include:

--Better Experience Drives Switching: While fewer than one in five subscribers said they are likely to switch providers in the next year (18 percent in the United States and 15 percent in the United Kingdom), interest in switching increases significantly when subscribers are offered a better experience – up to one in three U.S. subscribers (33 percent) and one in four UK subscribers (23 percent).

--Satisfaction Alone Doesn’t Cut It: While subscribers are generally satisfied, with eight in ten (79 percent) rating their customer experience as positive, subscribers who have switched service providers were almost twice as likely to have switched due to a compelling offer from a competitor than for a problem they had with their existing provider.

--Best Customers More Likely To Switch: Subscribers buying the most in services and new products were found to be the most likely to be disappointed and more likely to switch to another provider offering better customer experience.

--Many Would Pay More for Better Experience: Three in ten U.S. subscribers (30 percent) and one in five UK subscribers (22 percent) said they would definitely or probably pay an extra $5 or ₤5 per month for a better experience.

More information on Customer Service and Support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

Emerging Regions Will Be a Major Force of IT Growth by 2011

IT spending continues to rise in the emerging regions of Asia/Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Eastern Europe at a pace far outstripping that of the industrialized world, according to Gartner, Inc. These emerging regions will generate IT spending of $1.1 trillion in 2008, and will grow to $1.3 trillion in 2011, becoming a major force of IT growth worldwide.

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for IT spending in emerging regions for 2006 through 2011 will be 8.5 percent versus 4.3 percent for mature markets. Gartner predicts that IT will become more of a catalyst for gross domestic product (GDP) increases in the years to come via more-efficient private organizations and competitiveness among countries.

Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) will reinforce their role as the driving forces for other emerging IT countries. BRIC will represent about 39 percent of all emerging markets’ GDP in 2011.

Asia/Pacific
Gartner projects that IT spending for Asia/Pacific will reach $590 billion in 2011, up from $447 billion in 2007. This region continues along its strong IT adoption path, with China leading and India rapidly moving forward. China is substantially driving growth in other emerging IT markets such as Latin America and Africa, via imports and direct and portfolio investments. This creates increased opportunities for IT providers given the needs of local companies immersed in the supply chain with China.

Latin America
Latin America IT spending is forecast to reach $279 billion in 2011, up from $210 billion in 2007. Latin America is the second-largest emerging region in IT spending, with rapidly maturing IT segments, such as telecommunications. IT expansion is rapidly moving beyond Tier 1 cities in many Latin American countries, with consumer and professional market segments in high demand of IT products and services.

Africa and the Middle East
The forecast for 2011 IT spending in Africa and the Middle East is $259 billion, up from $182 billion in 2007. Africa and the Middle East are strongly advancing in all IT areas and are narrowing the gap in IT spending with Latin America. The large size of the region, with its relatively lower IT penetration and its engagement in major telecommunication deployments, is making a strong IT trend. This region shows a forecast CAGR from 2006 through 2011 of 77 percent, which is the strongest of all the emerging regions.

Eastern Europe
IT spending for Eastern Europe is forecast to reach $155 billion in 2011, up from $125 billion in 2007. Eastern Europe's growth and dollar transactions are lower than in other emerging regions, as the region is the lowest in population among the four emerging regions. Russia is the largest IT economy in this region, but shows the lowest real GDP among the largest emerging countries, partially because of existing infrastructure. It faces challenges in modernizing business practices, expanding its small business base and diversifying to beyond oil, gas and minerals, which present large IT opportunities for IT providers.

More information on the Service and Support industry can be found at www.Supportindustry.com

Leading Service and Support Industry Experts Share Their Expertise on SupportIndustry.com

SupportIndustry.com, an online resource dedicated to enabling organizations to deliver world-class customer service and support, has announced the addition of several new articles, authored by leading industry experts, to the SupportIndustry.com web site.

These content-rich pieces are intended to be another valuable resource for SupportIndustry.com’s members, and can be immediately viewed at http://www.supportindustry.com/asktheexpert/index.htm. A selection of the latest offerings includes the following:

- How Customer Preconceptions Affect Maintenance Contract Sales by Tom Sweeny, ServiceXRG

- Calculating Support Center Staff Requirements by Penny Reynolds, Founding Partner, The Call Center School

- Are You Taking Care of Your Employees? by Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D., President of Human Technologies Global, Inc.

- A "Frank" Conversation by Pete McGarahan, McGarahan & Associates

- Emergence of Quality Management/Liability Recording Suites for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises by Donna Fluss, founder and President of DMG Consulting LLC

Check out these great articles today!

IT Governance Global Status Report—2008

In 2007, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was commissioned by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) to conduct the third global survey on IT governance, resulting in this IT Governance Global Status Report -- 2008. The IT governance survey was conducted from July 2007 until October 2007 and focuses on specific topics such as IT risks and value delivery. The purpose of the research was to reach members of the C-suite to determine their sense of priority and actions taken relative to IT governance, as well as their need for tools and services to help ensure effective IT governance.

Key Findings of the Survey

The 13 key messages that have been identified during the analysis of the survey reflect important findings from the results of the survey:

1. Although championship for IT governance within the enterprise comes from the C-level, in daily practice IT governance is still very much a CIO/IT director issue. The few non-IT people in the sample have a much more positive view of IT than do the IT professionals themselves.

2. The importance of IT continues to increase.

3. Self-assessment regarding IT governance has increased and is quite positive.

4. Communication between IT and users is improving, but slowly.

5. There is still substantial room for improvement in alignment between IT governance and corporate governance -- as well as for IT strategy and business strategy.

6. IT-related problems persist. While security/compliance is an issue, people are the most critical problem.

7. Good IT governance practices are known and applied, but not universally.

8. Organizations know who can help them implement IT governance, but appreciation for the available expertise and delivery capability is only average.

9. Action is being taken or plans are underway to implement IT governance activities. A large increase is evident when compared to the 2006 report.

10.Organizations use the well-known frameworks and solutions.

11.COBIT awareness has exceeded 50 percent, and adoption and use remain around 30 percent.

--a. Twenty-five to 35 percent of respondents apply COBIT to the letter or are very strict.
--b. Fifty percent of respondents indicate that COBIT is ‘one of the reference sources’.
--c. In general, there is high appreciation of COBIT, as has been seen in prior reports.

12.More than half of the respondents apply or plan to apply Val IT principles, but are not familiar with the Val IT brand itself.

13.Major obstacles to adoption and use of Val IT principles include uncertainty regarding the return on investment (ROI) and lack of knowledge/expertise.

More information about Customer Service and Support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com

High-Tech, Computer Firms Ranked on How They Treat Online Customers Looking for Support in Q1 2008

The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm, has released findings from its First Quarter 2008 Online Customer Respect Study of High-Technology and Computer Industry Online Support. The study evaluated the websites of a representative sample of high-tech companies that supply online support to customers. Using a common set of criteria, it is the only study to bring objective and consistent measure to the analysis of corporate performance from an online customer’s perspective. A directly comparable Customer Respect Index (CRI™) is provided for each company.

The average CRI score for the industry was 6.3 on a ten-point scale, which represents a slight overall gain since the last report; the increase was mostly concentrated in improvements measured in site simplicity (general usability). The leading company was Hewlett-Packard with an overall CRI ranking of 7.7, followed by Intuit and Xerox with 7.6. The most usable sites were judged to be Sun, Xerox and Microsoft.

Support sections have become critical in providing cost effective support to customers. All companies have separate support sections structured around the concept of specific product home pages from which information, manuals and drivers can be delivered. Eighty eight percent of support sites provide user manuals in various formats; all sites have product specific FAQs and links to updated drivers.

Support sites provide a wide array of navigation methods, and site search facilities are especially strong compared to other industries. Sites have been technically well architected, providing better support for various disadvantaged users such as those with poor eyesight. The industry recorded the highest average score for any industry for accessibility.

High-technology support sites exceed those from other industries in the provision of options for customers to gain information. Two-thirds now have user forums. Most companies are now fully invested in monitoring and updating such forums, preferring this option to allowing unofficial forums to grow in popularity. In most cases, forum contents are incorporated into general search results.

One-third provide some form of alert through the use of RSS or other mechanisms. Online chat has become common practice in the industry, with more than half providing this facility to customers, compared to 30 percent six months ago. Chat has started to challenge e-mail as the website dialog of preference. With less than 50 percent of email questions answered in a helpful manner within a 24 hour time period, real-time chat might be increasingly demanded by customers. Of special note was the strong performance of Intuit, Microsoft and Symantec in responding to customer questions. Interestingly, Apple provides no chat or email support options and encourages users to contact Apple through stores and by telephone to solve issues. This approach is closer to consumer electronics than the technical self-help nature of comparable sites.

Content relevancy has become a significant issue for many high-technology companies with the explosive growth in less sophisticated users looking for more basic “how to” information. The technical customer is generally well serviced on sites, but the new or less technical user in general is less supported. Ninety five percent of sites have incorporated feedback options on all advice notes, so this is obviously being monitored as the industry struggles to mature from technical roots to a more consumer electronic base.

More information on Customer Service and Support can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com