The Technology Industry Service and Support

Accenture has issued their 2007 survey results for the technology industry. While I may discuss some of the gruesome details in another blog, the point I want to make in this blog is the dramtic chasm between the perspective of the executives of the technology companies and their customers toward customer service.

From the perspective of the technology executive, their priorities are (in decending order of importance):
1. Increase revenue creation
2. Increasing customer self-help capabilities via the web
3. Becoming more efficient in handling calls
4. Improving product quality through insight and action based on customer service data
5. Improving call resolution times
6. Improving underlying information technology systems for customer service and support.

The priorities from the customer's perspective are (in decending order of importance):
1. Completeness in solving my problem
2. Speed of solving my problem
3. Solve my problem with one service agent
4. Use a logical and efficient process to solve my problem
5. Ability for me to quickly reach a live service agent when desired
6. The ability for me to solve a problem myself with online tools.

WOW! The differences in perspective are so obvious that it seems obvious that the executives are more concerned with the bottom line than the customers. Until this perspective changes, these companies can expect to have significant defections from their customer base.

I will provide some of the details tomorrow.