SAN DIEGO, Calif., August 18, 2006 --
The world’s top tech companies are increasing their focus on an important attribute to their brand: customer satisfaction. Leveraging the Certified Technology Service & Support program from J.D. Power and Associates and the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), major technology companies have begun driving a message of quality and satisfaction of their support services in popular print publications. This marks the first time that customer support has been featured on a broad scale via full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, CIO Magazine, The Economist and other top-tier consumer and business press.
New ads from companies that have achieved the certification, including Oracle, HP and Xerox, are reaching millions of technology buyers, helping to differentiate those companies that are delivering an outstanding customer service experience and committed to satisfying their customers. In addition to advertising, certified companies are including the familiar J.D. Power and Associates trophy in sales collateral, direct marketing campaigns, websites, customer publications and a variety of other promotional materials.
Tech companies are promoting their support services as part of a broader trend toward services in the technology industry. According to Bob Weis, vice president, Customer Operations of Consumer Products – Americas, HP, “Support and services is becoming much more critical for our customers and we know that most customers view support and services as being one of the most important criteria when buying a product.”
“We know that our customers highly value the quality service Xerox provides," said Bill Steenburgh, senior vice president, Xerox Services.” Earning the prestigious JD Power Certification Award not only recognizes the outstanding accomplishments to date, but provides us additional opportunities to better capture the voice of the customer and benchmark ourselves against the very best in the ever challenging technology services field.”
"The Certified Technology Service & Support program was launched last year to independently certify those technology companies that are delivering an outstanding customer service experience for their customers. Jointly developed by the SSPA and J.D. Power and Associates, the program is based on a library of best practices that have been developed through contributions from over 50 of the top companies in the technology industry. The program combines an expert audit of a company’s support policies and procedures with an independent assessment of their customers’ level of satisfaction with technical support. In addition to passing the audit, companies must earn customer satisfaction scores that rank in the top 20 percent of the industry, based on a J.D. Power and Associates industry benchmark of customer satisfaction scores.
To date, HP Consumer Products Division, Internet Security Systems (ISS), Xerox, Oracle and Cisco have achieved certification and other leading technology companies are currently enrolled in the program to earn their certifications.
To more about the benefits of J.D. Power and Associates certification, listen to a two-part SSPA Podcast, The Impact of Proving Superior Service and Support: Insights from Hewlett-Packard, with Bob Weis Vice President, Americas Consumer Operations, HP and Brent Potts Senior Director, Americas Consumer Service and Support, HP.
For more information on this J.D. Power and Associates certification program, go to the J.D. Power and Associates webpage.
About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is an ISO 9001-registered global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction. The firm’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers and businesses annually. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
