By Mike Davison, VP Advanced Programs, SSPA
Over the summer the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Technology Service and Support (CTSS) Standards Board was hard at work. The board is made up of over 50 companies, representing a diverse range of technology service and support organizations, including computer, software, networking, internet and office products. After numerous conference calls, countless emails and four face-to-face meetings, the board is now completing its final review of the certification criteria prior to launching the program in mid-September.
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The CTSS program has two key components; standards criteria for all aspects of a world-class service organization, and customer satisfaction research. The customer satisfaction research measures the customer’s perception of the quality of service, and the standards criteria ensure that companies have the people, process and technology in place to deliver high quality service on a sustainable basis. The Standards Board has defined over 275 criteria covering a broad range of service functions including; business strategy, workforce management, tools and technology, replacement parts inventories, outsourced service readiness and many more. These criteria will provide a roadmap for companies seeking to establish and maintain industry-leading service organizations. They will also form the basis for an assessment of the company’s service in the first part of the certification process.
In the second part of the certification process, J.D. Power and Associates will conduct satisfaction surveys with each company’s customers. The results for each company will be compared to an industry benchmark for service satisfaction. Companies must score in the top 20% of the industry benchmark to achieve certification. J.D. Power is now in the field, completing the benchmark research. The benchmark will be based on over 4,000 completed surveys of both consumer and enterprise customers in a variety of technology product categories in major markets around the world.
Speaking of “around the world”, J.D. Power and Associates auditors are now completing the auditing guidelines and score sheets that they will carry with them for onsite audits of support centers in regions all over the globe. The audits will be used to determine how well companies are following the standards criteria. Auditors will visit selected sites to review documentation and to interview managers and staff about their policies and procedures. In addition to North American locations, auditors are getting their passports ready for travel to support centers in India, Australia, Europe and Central America.
As part of our final preparations for the launch of the CTSS program, the SSPA held our fourth Standards Board meeting in San Diego on August 31 st and September 1 st. As an example of the broad industry support for CTSS, representatives from more than 35 companies attended the meeting. During the meeting, Standards Board members engaged in active discussions to help finalize the structure, criteria and participant scoring for the certification program. The meeting also featured presentations from J.D. Power and Associates on the auditing phase of the certification process and on the survey methodology for measuring customer satisfaction.
Another presentation at the meeting, by SSPA CEO, J.B. Wood, highlighted research results on the strength of the J.D. Power and Associates brand in the enterprise IT market. The research is based on responses from over 300 IT organizations from mid-sized and large enterprises in the technology industry representing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. The results underscored the high value placed on excellence in customer service and support as well as J.D. Power and Associates as most credible brand for validating customer satisfaction claims. 91 percent of final decision-makers in companies over $1 billion reported higher confidence in vendors whose customer support is certified by J.D. Power and Associates. In addition, J.D. Power and Associates was most frequently named as a credible source for confirmation of a vendor’s claims about customer satisfaction. More results from the research can be found here.
Needless to say, it has been a busy summer for the CTSS program. As the summer winds down, we are starting the final countdown for the launch of version 1.0 of the CTSS program. Some companies have already signed up and others are preparing themselves to be the first in their segment to be awarded the J.D. Power and Associates trophy for distinguished service.
Comments? Suggestions? We would like to hear from you. Please email the editor at sspanews@thesspa.com.
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