THE ACCELION SERVICE GUARANTEE

Group 6 –
Ken Koshy Jacob – b2536
Krishna S – b2537
Mathew Febin Charles – b2539
Karina Joseph – b2535
KS Dennis – b2533
 SUMMARY
• This case study focuses on Accellion Service Guarantee a young, high-technology firm headquartered in Palo
Alto, California with offices in North America, Asia and Europe.
• Accellion offers enterprises and government agencies the scalability, flexibility, control and security to enable
a global workforce with the tools they need to securely access, edit, share, and manage information,
wherever work takes them.
• The major concerns faced by users was sharing data with higher bandwidth, as a solution to this Accellion was
able to launch an Internet Service Provider (ISP) thereby avoiding the congested “centers” of internet.
• The key success factor for Accellion company was they were excellent in service delivery and customer
satisfaction. Accellion’s quality of Service Guarantee defines assurance and commitment providing the
customers with value added service which was incorporated in its customer contract.
• Customer service guarantee comes with an attractive package that is if they fails to meet the above two levels
of service they will credit the customers account with one month service fee for the month with which the
failure has occurred and provide the customer gives a written notice within five days from the date of failure.
CONTD.
• They have also got 24 hours customer care functioning for the customers.
• About the security and privacy policy Accellion has complete respect for the customers that
their customer data is being stored and kept secured and stored form unauthorized access,
and most importantly Accellion services does not require customers to provide any end user
private details for the data stored in servers.
• Overall we can see that Accellion is providing the best services to its customers. Form the
case its evident from the positive feedbacks of the customers.
 Case Analysis
• The company has set clear standards of performance for the employees.
• Due to the increased service quality and fulfilment of customer expectations, they have built
good reputation for their company.
• The well-designed guarantee causes the firm to give importance for fulfilling customer needs.
• The potential impact of a guarantee increases with its uniqueness, which differentiate them from
their competitors.
• A well-designed guarantee helps the management to identify, understand, and eliminate fail
points in the service delivery, which increase the relationship with its customers.
CONTD.
Positive impacts
• Set up standards of performance.
• Seek customer feed backs which help to improve the service quality of the company.
• Commitment to service quality.
• Clear code of conduct for the employees.
Negative impacts
• For the employees, they have increased work pressure.
• Expense on the management for training the employees.
• Over promising issues are faced by the company.
• Customers has to pay high amounts to avail the services.
Linkages and Usages in Services
Q1. What is the marketing impact of a well designed service guarantee?

A service guarantee is a marketing tool service used by the firms to

• Reduce consumer risk perceptions, signal quality, differentiate a service offering,
• Find opportunities to rectify a situation
• Set standards to cater to the expectations of consumers from the service provided

Details of Service Guarantee

• Performance Guarantee
• Availability Guarantee
• Customer Service Guarantee
• Security and Privacy Policy
 Marketing Impacts
Positive Marketing Impacts Negative Marketing Impacts

Company:
• Focus on consumer expectations
• Set clear performance standards for employees
• Increase service quality and service perception
• Increase reputation
• Attract new customers and increase market share
• Identify, understand, and eliminate and/or reduce potential
fail points in the service operation.
• Actively seek customer feedback in order to identify fail
points and/or improve service performance
Company:
• High Cost- Training, Research, Maintenance
• Over promising problems
• Bad impression in case of any security glitch
• Bad impression in case of equipment breakdown or power
system failure
• Negative impact in case of inexperienced or rude employees

Employees Employees:
• Increased workload
• Clear and defined guidelines for employees • Increased training costs
• Increased pressure
Customers Customers:
• Reduces the risk consumers perceive when deciding on
the purchase of a service. • High price
• Commitment to service quality • Deterioration in operations decreases brand loyalty of its
• Improvement in operations increases brand loyalty of its customers
customers • Deterioration in operations decreases positive word-of-mouth
• Improvement in operations increases positive word-of-mouth by its by its customers.
customers.
Q2. Evaluate the design of Accellion’s guarantee shown in Exhibit 1. How effective will it
be in communicating service excellence to potential and current customers? Would you
recommend any changes in its design or implementation?

Unconditional
• Provide clear contact with 100% service guarantee to customers
• Full time support center
• No condition for service guarantee
Easy to understand
• Wordings used are understandable and clear
• Language is transparent and easy for employees and customers
Meaningful
• Response complaints within 2 hours
• Service disruption notification at least before 48 hours
Easy to invoice
• Commitment provides excellent service and reduce risks
• No questions asked , customer’s discretion guarantee
CONTD.
Listening gap
• Adequate market analysis, but there has been a continuous change
• Suitable service recovery in case of service failure, but complex customer expectations can be difficult.
Service design and standard gap
• Good Service Design and privacy
• Efficient and Reliable
Service performance gap
• Employee clearly understand their role
• No intermediaries and have direct deliveries
Communication gap
• Over-promising
• 100% availability and risk free
Service Excellence
• Potential Customers are more willing to use the service so reduced perceived risks
• Current Customers if satisfied would increase brand loyalty
CONTD.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Design Recommendations
• Increase policy openness by daily report generation
• Must be careful with words
• When required, add disclaimers
• Must take advantage of competition

Implementation Recommendations
• More workers to ensure employee productivity
• Employee daily training to upgrade and empower workers
• Continuous progress by surveys and reviews to track consumer preferences.
Q3. Will the guarantee be successful in creating a culture for service excellence
within Accellion? What else may be needed for achieving such a culture? 

• Principles of Service Excellence

Vision & Mission Statement
Business Objectives
Service Standards
Intervention & Learning Strategy
Organizational Alignment
Measurement & Leadership Accountability
CONTD.
Attributes of Service Guarantee providing Service Excellence
• Performance Guarantee
• Availability Guarantee
• Customer Service Guarantee
• Security and Privacy Policy
Potential Challenges
• Communication
• Misalignment
• Teamwork/Engagement
• Conflicting Priorities
• System/Processes
• Service Recovery/ Problem Resolution
• Accountability
Q4. Do you think customers might take advantage of this guarantee and “stage”
service failures to invoke the guarantee? If yes, how could Accellion minimize
potential cheating on its guarantee?
Potential material gain - There is no strong relationship between amount of compensation and cheating
• Triggers -  due to external pressure, dissatisfaction, Machiavellianism, unethical situational variable
• Difficult to address if customers are unethical
To get long term relationship - To get high involvement in service, switching cost higher, achieving priority
• Triggers - due to personality variables, to become the locus of control
• Minimize by introducing customer loyalty program
Level of satisfaction - Cheating increases when the customer is unhappy, perceives unfair treatment, dissatisfied with
service
• Triggers - due to inhibitory situational variables and attitudes
• Minimize by providing seamless and high quality service to the customers
Ease of involving a guarantee - Chances to participate in unethical behavior can be a reason for cheating
• Triggers - due to inhibitory situational and personality variables
• Minimize by explaining conditions and specifying breach of contract
THANK YOU