Customer Care & Fault Management

1. Customer Care &Fault Management UOW IACT418/918 Spring 2001 Bob Brown

2. Overview • Service success and customer satisfaction comes from the benefits that the enterprise is constantly able to provide to its customers, including design and features of its products and services, quality, service-courtesy, friendliness, having what the customer needs when needed – and image. Value is real, and hard-won: it is not created by advertising campaigns or hype…Hilmer (1989)

3. Customer Needs • Service should be determined by customers’ wants & needs. Therefore, all enterprises must research and understand: • Which products, services and service characteristics are important to the customer • The relative importance of these customer wants • The level of performance on each product and service characteristic which will meet customer expectations • Without a clear understanding of these, there will be a ‘gap’ between customer expectations and the products/services delivered by the enterprise

4. Cost of service failure • Costs much more than the loss of just one customer • Technical Assistance Research Program (TARP) (Clemmer 1992) results indicate that a dissatisfied customer tells 16 others, whereas a satisfied customer only tells 8 others! Clemmer 1992

5. Expected service Perceived service Service delivery External communicationsto customers Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Company perceptions of Customer expectations Customer service gaps Customer Company Source: Zeithaml (1996)

6. Gap 1: Customer & Company expectations of service Expected service Perceived service Customer Company Service delivery External communicationsto customers Gap 1 Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Company perceptions of Customer expectations Source: Zeithaml (1996)

7. Gap 1: Customer & Company expectations of service • Inadequate marketing research orientation • Insufficient market research • Research not focussed on service quality • Inadequate use of market research • Lack of upward communication • Lack of interaction between management and customers • Insufficient communication between contact employees and managers • Too many layers between contact employees and upper management • Insufficient relationship focus • Lack of market segmentation • Focus on transaction rather than relationships • Focus on new customers rather than relationship customers Source: Zeithaml (1996)

8. Gap 2: Customer & Company standards of service Expected service Perceived service Customer Company Service delivery External communicationsto customers Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Gap 2 Company perceptions of Customer expectations Source: Zeithaml (1996)

9. Gap 2: Customer & Company standards of service • Absence of customer-driven standards • Lack of customer driven service standards • Absence of process management to focus on customer requirements • Absence of formal process for setting service quality goals • Inadequate leadership • Perception of infeasibility • Inadequate management commitment • Poor service design • Unsystematic new service development process • Vague undefined service designs • Failure to connect service design to service positioning Source: Zeithaml (1996)

10. Gap 3: Customer standards & delivered service Expected service Perceived service Customer Company Service delivery External communicationsto customers Gap 3 Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Company perceptions of Customer expectations Source: Zeithaml (1996)

11. Gap 3: Customer standards & delivered service • Deficiencies in human resource policies • Ineffective recruitment • Role ambiguity and role conflict • Poor employee / technology job fit • Inappropriate evaluation and compensation systems • Lack of empowerment, perceived control & teamwork • Failure to match supply and demand • Failure to smooth peaks and valleys of demand • Inappropriate customer mix • Over-reliance on price to smooth demand • Customers not fulfilling roles • Customers lacking knowledge of their roles and responsibilities • Customers negatively impacting each other Source: Zeithaml (1996)

12. Gap 4: Delivered and ‘advertised’ service Expected service Perceived service Customer Company Service delivery External communicationsto customers Gap 4 Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Company perceptions of Customer expectations Source: Zeithaml (1996)

13. Gap 4: Delivered and ‘advertised’ service • Ineffective management of customer expectations • Failure to manage customer expectations through all forms of communications • Failure to educate customers adequately • Overpromising • Overpromising in advertising • Overpromising in personal selling • Overpromising through physical evidence cues • Inadequate horizontal communications • Insufficient communications between sales & operations • Insufficient communications between advertising & operations • Differences in policies and procedures across branches or units Source: Zeithaml (1996)

14. Gap 5: Expected and perceived service Expected service Gap 5 Perceived service Customer Company Service delivery External communicationsto customers Customer-drivenservice designs and standards Company perceptions of Customer expectations Source: Zeithaml (1996)

15. Gap 5: Expected and perceived service • The ‘gap’ between the service which the customer expected and that perceived by the customer to have been delivered. • This ‘gap’ is directly attributable to, and results from any and all of the other four ‘gaps’. • Addressing each of the other ‘gaps’ (which the enterprise can control) will narrow the all-important “service gap” which is not itself directly within enterprise control. Source: Zeithaml (1996)

16. Service quality in telecoms • In telecommunications, there are four principal areas where customer satisfaction can be gained or lost FAULTS are a large factor in customer satisfaction!

17. Who are your customers? • What is the product/service of a network? • The Users of your network are your customers • Sometimes the Users are internal members of your organisation …ie: STAFF & EMPLOYEES

18. Fault Management • Help desk • Single point of contact with users • Staff trained to contact help-desk for any problems with communications equipment • Standardised procedures & questions • Trouble ticket • For large organisations • Allows multiple operators to action the fault • Automated fault tracking systems • Registers trouble-tickets in a database • Fault details can be made available to managers, help-desk staff, technicians and even users

19. Levels of support • Level 1: Operator who takes the call can quickly resolve 80~85% of faults • Level 2: technicians with higher skills/training can resolve 10~15% of faults • Level 3: communications technical specialists or vendor specialists resolve the 5% most complex issues

20. Fault Escalation • Network management plan must include procedures for escalating the status of a fault • How long has the fault remained unsolved? • How critical is the fault? • The more critical the fault, the faster it is escalated • Printers can be down for a day or more • Critical servers shouldn’t be down for more than a few minutes

21. Escalation procedures I • Two approaches • Deploy additional technical resources to assist in finding resolution • Advise users and management of the actions being undertaken to resolve the problem

22. Escalation procedures IIa generic technical approach • Level 1 (help-desk)pass to next level after 15 minutes • Level 2 (technician)after 1 hour, advise supervisor and continue working • Level 3 (appropriate network specialist)called in after no solution in 4 hours.Level 2 still “owns’ the fault and monitors progress keeping user & supervisor updated every 2 hours

23. Escalation procedures IIa generic managerial approach • After 1 hour level 2 technician advises help desk supervisor • After 2 hours help desk supervisor advises network operations supervisor • After 4 hours network operations supervisor advises telecomms manager (who contacts manager of the user’s dept. to discuss any extraordinary actions) • After 8 hours telecomms manager advises appropriate senior manager to discuss longer range plans & possible involvement of vendor management

24. References • Carnegie, R. & Butlin, M. (1993) Managing the Innovating Enterprise, Business Council of Australia, Melbourne • Clemmer J. et al (1992) Firing on all Cylinders: revised edition, Piatkus, London • Hilmer, F.G. (1989) Work in Competitive Industries: New Games, New Rules, Angus & Robertson, Sydney • Rowe, S.H. (1999) Telecommunications for Managers 4th Ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ • Zeithaml, V. (1996) Services Marketing, McGraw-Hill, New York