Yesterday's Presentation: When downtime costs a million dollars per hour

At yesterday's PM PM SIG meeting, attendees discovered in detail how to plan and implement service/support for semiconductor capital equipment. The speaker, Mette Alasti, completed my Foothill College course this summer and I recommended him to PM PM SIG Program Chair. Mette has led development and global implementation of several semiconductor capital equipment and associated subsystems consistently delivering profitable and award=winning products. He holds a BSME, MSME and an EMBA from UCLA. Contact me for more information on this presentation as well as the PM PM SIG and the Foothill College class.

At last; Famed service/support education on-line

In Silicon Valley, we have been fortunate to have outstanding training for service/support management since 2003. That year, a group of highly experienced service/support executives created the Technical Support Management certificate program at San Jose State University's Professional Development Center (PDC). Later those classes were condensed into a single intense class at Foothill College. This class will be offered on-line this Fall. In addition to the skills needed in service/support (business planning, communications, decision-making, leadership, problem-solving, teamwork, troubleshooting), the class also includes substantial project management. At $110 for California residents and about $600 out-of-state, the class is a terrific bargain. See http://www.chalkinstitute.org/bizskills.html for more information.

Using Web 2.0 to Enhance the Customer Experience

Web-based support rests solidly on Web Services, the backbone architecture of Web 2.0.

Now a more in-the-face aspect of Web 2.0 has emerged as an exciting way to provide Customer and Technical Support. An excellent summary of best practices and well-worth the $6.50 price is "How to Profit from a Better Virtual Customer Environment" by Satish Nambisan and Priya Nambisan in the MIT Sloan Management Review.

Quoting from the Abstract: "The authors describe five customer roles in innovation and value cocreation: product conceptualizer, product designer, product tester, product support specialist and. product marketer." Descriptions are included of projects at BMW, Microsoft, Volvo, and other firms.

See http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2008/spring/13/#buy

East vs. West in Contact Centers

Attrition is a major problem in North American Contact Centers. Retention is a top priority. A group of employees from a New York call center visited centers in Japan and found a very different scenario. Although there are no bonuses and few parties and other perks, Japanese contact center workers often stay in the job for 25 years! The secret: a deep understanding of the purpose of the position. Helping customers is a venerated role and those who are selected are honored.

Instead of handing the next recruit a headset and a script, consider a month or more of training and rotational assignments that include learning about the entire organization and how customer support fits into the grand purpose and direction.

For the complete story, see Customer Relationship Management magazine August 2008 page 26.