ISSUE 630: Currentz

Clay Braziller

Market buzz

Use the Web effectively as a way to help your clients

A customer frustrated by a bad Web site -- or clueless personnel -- is a lost customer

Some things I just cannot get enough of: the smile of my new son, the sound of snow under skis and great customer support on the Internet. While definitions of support may differ, I am confident that everyone would agree about its marketing power.

A great example was brought to my attention by Vida Morkunas, director of e-business for Lignum Ltd., a Vancouver forestry firm. Lignum sells a commodity-based product, which essentially means it has no control over price. Recently, Lignum spent some time figuring out what would make customers' lives easier. The company's research led to it creating an extranet, where customers can check order status or the location of a railcar.

According to Morkunas, the application, which was developed with the help of IBM, provides that extra level of service the client needs to run his or her business. And she feels that has definitely created a greater loyalty among their customers. And that's a good marketing strategy for difficult times.

Companies such as Lignum typify organizations that are attracted to Internet-based services to market their products. There are others, such as the large accounting firms, that are starting to offer products to help market their services. The transformations of these companies is fascinating and if you want a detailed explanation, I recommend reading the book Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy.

An extranet to provide support for a customer is a great service, but even the best Web site cannot make up for deficiencies in the product or the lousy attitude of an employee. Either can make the customer experience negative -- very bad marketing!

Vancouver's ResponseTek is one company that has its sights set on making certain that the customer experience is a good one. In its estimation, only two-to-five-per- cent of all customer complaints make it to the right ears. And this message is obviously reaching the ears that count: the Vancouver company has recently signed agreements to supply its software to such clients as The Forzani Group Ltd., North Shore Credit Union and Catalyst Corporate Finance Lawyers.

Executives at ResponseTek feel that good support should make great products. The software tools they have developed gather customer feedback in real-time from multiple contact points and report it back to the appropriate manager. A recent article in Information Week magazine supports the company's belief (October 15, 2001: "Help Technology Gets More Sophisticated"). It makes a case for ending the isolation of the help desk and having support become pre-emptive and richer in its ability to solve all business problems, not just tech problems.

Considering how sophisticated our customers are becoming, it would make sense that our support systems need to grow in sophistication alongside them.

The article from Information Week will provide excellent examples of what other people did to create their support systems. Just how sophisticated yours need to be is difficult to say; however, a few simple do's and don'ts will help in getting started:

Do make sure that you have alignment with your customer's needs before you start writing code.

Don't assume your customers all have the sophistication and equipment to take advantage of the great support centre you design.

Do start small with a pilot project that includes forgiving customers.

Don't isolate your help desk and product managers. They are one and the same.

Do read the book The Cluetrain Manifesto and understand the power of the "customer conversation."

Don't expect the job to be finished until the customer is fully represented at every meeting in the organization.

At the end of the day no matter what you call it -- customer conversations, customer experience management or pre-emptive support -- it is all still customer support. If I have learned anything over my years of being in business, good customer support is great marketing, And that's the strongest sales tool a company can have. z

Clay Braziller is the president of Triumph Communications, specialists in business strategy for technology companies, and a senior business analyst with the Canadian Institute for Market Intelligence. He can be reached at clay.braziller@triumphcommunications.com.