What’s support all about, anyway?
by Francoise Tourniaire, Ph.D.

How to clue in non-support executives to the realities of your world

Most support executives have spent their entire careers in support, but executives in non-support functions, including CEOs, typically have no support experience at all. No wonder it’s difficult for them to relate to the challenges you face as a support executive, to realize that they sometimes create support issues by making inappropriate commitments to customers, and to understand what they should do with support escalations. In this article, we’ll explore how to educate your boss and peers on the reality of the support world, whether or not they’re asking for the education.

Where do you start?

Take it slowly -- What you know about support you accumulated over years, possibly decades of experience. Don’t expect your peers to get it all in one conversation.

Put your own house in order -- Putting the spotlight on support means more scrutiny for what you’re doing. If you have issues, fix them before inviting guests into your home.

Use just-in-time techniques -- Skip theoretical discussions and use real events as examples. While I wouldn’t delay a sale with an explanation of the negative long-term consequences of support giveaways, I would return to the topic after the quarter closes.

What’s support all about, anyway?

When trying to explain the support world to others, I’ve found these eight “support realities” to be a good start.

1. Support is forever - Unlike other sales negotiation points, support commitments tend to last forever. So if you give away support, you don’t just lose revenue for the first year, you compromise revenue for many years to come. CFOs get this one right away.

For the non-support executives, work out and explain the long-term costs of support giveaways.

2. Product quality is the top predictor of satisfaction with support -- Yes, the quality of support is important but customers care first and foremost about product quality. Even with a friendly, well-informed support staff, customers just don’t want to deal with problems. This is important when deciding whether a product is ready for prime time.

The message for non-support executives is this: If customers complain about support, first check whether product quality is an issue.

3. Support is the voice of customers - Although the sales team can rightly claim to listen to customers, they really listen to prospects. Support has a broader view. Bring summarized, critical support feedback to the executive level. It’s cheaper than market research.

4. Support is always on - It’s hard to appreciate the relentless nature of support if you’ve never worked on a support team. Support can never just close up shop, even for a company meeting or (in many cases) a holiday. While other groups in the company can kick back a bit after racing to meet a deadline, there’s no kicking back in support.

Encourage non-support executives to visit your support center on a company holiday to recognize the team and to find ways to include support in company meetings.

5. In support, big is beautiful - In support we get economies of scale. Larger teams are easier to staff and easier to schedule, and deliver better value to customers.

There’s a natural tendency to want to create specialized team for each new product or service. Make sure your marketing staff understands the “big is beautiful” principle.

6. Even great support centers have bad customer stories - Even worse, many have bad support experiences aired in public. Support escalations don’t automatically mean that the support team isn’t doing its job. Sales VPs and CEOs, who are often the target of customer escalations, may not realize that.

Encourage non-support executives to bring support issues to you and let you work your magic without interference. Conduct post-mortems for escalations and ask everyone to withhold analysis and criticism until then.

7. It takes special skills to deliver good support - Though support reps don’t have the in-depth technical knowledge of a development engineer or the polish of a pre-sales engineer, they do have the unique combination of interpersonal skills, technical skills, troubleshooting skills, patience, and perseverance required to resolve customer issues. Invite non-support executives and their staff to sit in the support center to get a feel for the variety of issues that come in and must be resolved. They will be amazed.

8. Support may not be tangible, but it can be measured - No release dates to meet and no quotas to achieve, life must be pretty comfortable in support, right? Create and share meaningful, easy-to-understand metrics about support including volume, productivity, profits (if you charge for support, this is the most important metric), and customer satisfaction ratings. Show your peers that you, too, have challenging goals.

Though it takes some time and effort to educate non-support professionals on the support world, it’s worth it. In the end, the knowledge makes for a more effective overall organization and less tension between support and other divisions of the company. Good luck.

About the author
Francoise Tourniaire is the founder and principal of FT Works, a consulting firm that helps technology companies create and grow their support operations. She is the author of “The Art of Software Support”, a practical guide to creating and delivering training for support centers. For more information, visit www.ftworks.com or call 650 559 9826.

How do you handle price increases to your support maintenance?
› View Answer