7.

Customer
Service

Topics Covered
How IT Evolved Into a Service-Oriented Industry

Four Key Elements of Good Customer Service

Identifying Key IT Customers
Managing Customer Expectations
Identifying Key Processes and Suppliers
Integrating the Four Elements of Good Customer
Service

Four Cardinal Sins that Undermine Good

Customer Service

How IT Evolved Into a

Service-Oriented Industry
Initial emphasis was only on technology.
IT was the only game in town, so service
was not a priority.

As IT became a competitive advantage

for companies, customer service became
more critical
Outsourcing, co-locating, and facilities
management now competed with IT,
causing service to become a factor.

Four Key Elements of

Good Customer Service
Identifying Key Customers
Identifying Key Services
Identifying Key Processes

Identifying Key Suppliers

Identifying Key IT Customers

1. Someone whose success critically depends on
the services you provide.
2. Someone who, when satisfied, helps assure
your success as an organization.
3. Someone who fairly and thoroughly represents
large customer organizations.

4. Someone who frequently uses, or whose

organization uses, your services.

Identifying Key IT Customers

5. Someone who constructively and objectively
critiques the quality of your services.
6. Someone who has significant impact on your
company as a corporation.
7. Someone with whom you have mutually
agreed-upon reasonable expectations.

Managing
Customer Expectations
Validate that expectations are
reasonable
Negotiate to change unreasonable
expectations into reasonable ones
Escalate to management when
differences about customer expectations
cannot be resolved

Managing
Customer Expectations
An unreasonable expectation, rigidly
demanded by an uncompromising
customer and simplicity of nature agreed
to by a well-intentioned supplier, is one
of the major causes of poor customer
service.

Identifying Key Processes

Key processes comprise the activities
that provide and support the key
services of the customers.
The quality of key processes can be
measured with process metrics similar to
how the quality of key services can be
measured with service metrics, or
service levels agreements (SLAs).

Identifying Key Suppliers

-Key suppliers are those individuals who
provide direct input, in terms of
products or support, to the key
processes.
-The quality of key suppliers can be
measured by the quality of the input
they provide.

Customer/Supplier Matrix
Key Customers

Key Services

Key Processes

Key Suppliers

Customers whose
use of IT services
is critical to their
success and whose
expectations are
reasonable.

IT services that are

Processes that
Suppliers who feed
critical to a
produce the key
into the key
customers
services required
processes.
success and whose by key customers.
delivery meets
customer
expectations.

Integrating the Four Elements of

Good Customer Service
The left half of the
Customer/Supplier Matrix is the
customer-oriented half.
This half matches the key
customers with the key services
that they use.
Service Metrics are used to
measure the quality of service.

Integrating the Four Elements of

Good Customer Service
The right half of the
Customer/Supplier Matrix is the
supplier-oriented half.
This half matches the key
suppliers with the key processes
that they feed into.
Process Metrics are used to
measure the quality of the process.

Four Cardinal Sins that Undermine

Good Customer Service
1.

Presuming your customers are satisfied because

they are not complaining.

2.

Presuming that you have no customers.

3.

Measuring only what you want to measure to

determine customer satisfaction.

4.

Presuming that written service level agreements

(SLAs) will solve problems, prevent disputes, and
ensure great customer service.

Presuming your customers are satisfied

because they are not complaining.
No news is not always good news
Customers tend to not complain to
suppliers about poor service, but they
will complain to other customers
Proactive interviewing of customers can
help prevent this

Presuming that You Have No Customers

- Everyone has a direct customer; someone
directly benefits from you actions, even if it
is an internal customer. These individuals
need to be identified and interviewed to
improve customer service.
- A similar argument can be made about
suppliers; everyone has a direct supplier
who needs to provide high quality input to
ensure processes and services are delivered
in the best manner possible.

Measuring only what you want to measure

to determine customer satisfaction.
- Measurement of true customer
satisfaction can only come by asking
key customers directly how satisfied
they are with current levels of service.
- Service and quality measurements
should be based on what a customer
sees as service quality, not on what a
supplier thinks it is.

Presuming that written service level agreements

(SLAs) will solve problems, prevent disputes,
and ensure great customer service.
A written service level agreement is only as effective as the
collaboration with the customer that went into it.
Effective service level agreements need to be developed
jointly with customer and support groups.

An effective SLA must be easily, reliably, and accurately

measured.
An effective SLA must be followed up with periodic
customer meetings.