SSPA Report Answers the Question – What is a Customer Worth?

May 13, 2003

(San Diego, CA May 13, 2002) – The Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the leading industry Association for IT support professionals, today announced that SSPA Research has released a comprehensive report examining the strategies and best practices for maximizing customer retention and support contract renewal rates. The report, Customer Retention - Maximizing the Lifetime Value of the Customer Relationship, is the latest in a series of comprehensive reports by SSPA Research that examine critical areas of the customer service and support.

“SSPA Research hits the bulls-eye every time, with our precise, targeted analysis of the service and support industry,” said Bill Rose, SSPA Founder/CEO. “The Retention Report provides valuable insights that you need to assure that you will not lose even one customer.”

This study examines the concept of the Life Time Value (LTV) of a customer relationship and the strategies, practices and benchmarks used to maximize and measure customer retention. This study examines Support’s role in customer retention by examining customer interaction practices, support portfolios, and customer retention and support contract renewal best practices.

“Many companies struggle to find the right metrics to tell them how their support business is being run, this report provides insight into the most critical metric of all, the Life Time Value of a customer” said Tom Sweeny, SSPA Director of Research. “Companies can make decisions about staffing, technology and other investments based on the impact it has on customer retention and the overall value of the customer relationship.”

This report is a critical resource for executives of companies that want to maximize the value of each customer relationship.

About SSPA
Founded in 1989, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) was formed to focus on the specific needs of service executives who are responsible for support centers and overall customer relations. Today, the SSPA represents over 21,000 service professionals at over 2,500 support centers worldwide. These executives look to SSPA to provide insight into the future of support services, a road map of best practices within our industry and access to the best service and support vendors. SSPA has become the center of support providing a reliable and comprehensive resource for news, research, benchmarking, standards and collaboration.

SSPA was created for professionals, managers and executives that make their living in the IT support services community. It is not a generic, one-size-fits all website where nobody ever feels like they belong. SSPA is dynamic, interactive, living resource specifically designed for the unique needs of support professionals. This exciting virtual community creates a forum for constant interaction with peers, industry experts, technology vendors and much more.

About SSPA Research
SSPA Research is your primary source for up to date information and analysis about support industry practices, operational performance benchmarks and metrics. SSPA Research is the largest research organizations dedicated to the service and support industry. SSPA Research combines the unparalleled collection of industry performance and benchmark data with the expertise to help you understand what the data means to your organization.
SSPA Research publishes are wide variety of data rich reports, whitepapers and articles on the key industry trends and issues that shape the service and support industry. SSPA Research coverage includes: Support demand trends and drivers; Staffing and resource allocation; Hiring and retention; Salary benchmarks; Performance management practices; Training & certification; Customer Relationship Management; Customer satisfaction strategies and benchmarks; Global service delivery strategies; Call and electronic incident management practices and benchmarks; Problem escalation and resolution practices and benchmarks; Online services standards, strategies and benchmarks; Support budget & finance planning and management strategies; Support and financial ratios; and Support program definition and pricing. For more information about SSPA Research, please contact Tom Sweeny, Director of Research at 978.448.3166 or tsweeny@theSSPA.com.