Embracing the Consumerization of IT

In 2008, Citrix launched a BYOD (“bring your own device”) program for its worldwide employee base. Already a leading provider of virtualization, networking, collaboration, and cloud technologies, Citrix set the stage for their IT support teams to begin embracing the transformation taking place...
Date Published June 12, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Best Practices for Chat Support

As consumers continue to seek customer support online, there is tremendous opportunity for companies to enhance their customer service in real time. While social media as a platform for CRM takes the spotlight these days, consider the value more traditional service channels offer to connect with...
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

The Practicalities of Adding Chat to Your Support Center's Contact Channels

According to the 2010 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report, only 19.9% of all centers are offering chat as a contact channel. With adding value and reducing costs at the front of most IT leaders’ minds, is this the right time to increase your support capacity by adding chat? And are the...
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Service Innovation: A Creative Approach to Service Delivery

Most businesses claim to use their customer service organizations as key differentiators in creating competitive advantage in the marketplace, but this claim does not withstand closer analysis. The service the vast majority of these companies provide is actually the same as their competitors, so...
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Continual Service Improvement

It all started in the spring of 2009, after coming in as the runner-up for the HDI Team Excellence Award. We knew we were delivering great service to our customers, making recommendations to be more effective, and creating a great working environment, but there was something missing. After...
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Customer Service in the Era of Social Support

Once upon a time, customers relied on advertising to shape their perception of an organization. Certainly, some money was poured into customer service, but only enough to keep things moving. If customers had problems, their complaints were usually isolated to a strongly worded letter to the company.
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Improving Customer Service from the Inside Out

When it comes to customer service, it really is only as good as the customer says it is. But what do you do when your customers think your service is great, but you know it could be a whole lot better? Think Lean! We did, and we were able to reduce our abandoned call rate from 28 percent to 9...
Date Published May 23, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

An Apple a Day: Creating the Strategic Service Desk

When Apple announced the launch of the Apple Stores in 2001, it was met with widespread skepticism. There was concern over the impact the stores would have on Apple’s existing retail channels, the fact that Apple had no experience in retail, and that the mere existence of retail stores would do...
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

Service Marketing and Relationship Management

As organizations multisource their IT services, push services to the cloud, and consolidate services into enterprise-shared services to reduce costs, their success increasingly depends on relationship management rather than the deep systems expertise that has traditionally been their core...
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016

In the Zone: Measuring and Improving Your Service Value

Customers and service providers sometimes have different opinions of what value is. Getting the right mix of benefits, features, quality, guarantees, and costs is paramount to happy customers and a good night’s sleep. Let’s call this right mix “the zone.” You want to be in the zone at all times....
Date Published May 22, 2012 - Last Updated May 11, 2016