A Brief History of Computing, Part III

It's not like Business totally ignored Support. He tried talking to him, but Support did not understand the daily life of Business -- what he was trying to do, or why he did the things he did. Support just played with what he had, and more often than not it was something Technology gave him. And, if he could help someone else in the process, so much the better. So much of what little Business said to him went in one ear and out the other. The problem was that Support, isolated as he was from his father, never got the context that Business took for granted. It didn't help that Support, though young -- and some would say niave -- found some of what Business did to be somewhat shady, and at times downright decietful. Worse, Support was even tasked with enforcing some of these policies. Support thrived on observing, discovery and the nuts and bolts of how things work; Business makes promises, deals and added value.

Occasionally, the two collided. Inevatibly, when the two worlds collided, Business trimphed. This was because Business' whole existance revolved around being in control. It was his culture, and how he set up his relationships. In this case, it was Business' phones and Business' office and Business' paychecks that kept Support in second place.

The tragedy is that the two never really got along. Business pays lip service to wanting customers to be satisfied, and even convinces himself this is what he really wants (as long as it isn't too expensive). Business even goes to the extent of checking up on his customers with surveys. (In customer support, customer satisfaction basically boils down to "did they get their problem fixed?) But I think there's an oppertunity being lost here, benefitting Business, Support and clients. For example, in the Sales model, if a customer wants to buy a product, they talk to their salesman. They know his name, ahead of time. What happens when you call support? you wait on hold to talk to a complete stranger, and you hope he knows what he's doing and he secretly hopes you're not an idiot. Where's the CRM in that?


Sales and support aren't really all that different. In both cases, a customer has a problem and needs a solution. In one case, it's often a goods transfer; in the latter case, it's knowledge. And in both cases customers respond to service.


I've seen a major company throw away an excellent customer service reputation in the name of cutting costs. They could have hired two more engineers for two years, which would have lightened the load on the existing engineers considerably, raised morale and shown some genuine concern for what front line engineers were facing. Instead, They were willing to spend waaay more than that would have cost on some trivial training program that took 1/3 of the already stressed support team off the phones for a week, pissing everyone off more than they already were, and letting slip comments about how replaceable they were. A trend of increasing hold times caught customers' attention. At a time when support was the only profitable section of the company.

And now there's a shift to moving support to India, so we can throw language speed bumps into an already painful process for customers. High-end industries would do better to consider offering high-end customer support. It is a market differentiator and one of the hardest places to gain and keep a good reputation.