Cobweb

The Best Support Representatives.

In Support World March/April edition the following statement was made:

"The best support representatives have extensive networks of contacts internally and externally, and call upon these self-support infrastructures when they are required"

This got me thinking; how does this statement fit into Cobweb's operational structure and do we really have the best support agents?

It is standard that most managers in a service department will state that their agents are the best equipped to service the organisations customer base; it is a natural loyalty to their staff.

However at Cobweb I really do have this belief and it is supported by the following facts:

The Cobweb service desk has three tiers of agent which all sit together which improves knowledge share and communication.

Every single agent has direct access to the Exchange and Windows engineers, for immediate escalation.

Each agent has access to extremely robust partner escalations, for example with Message Labs and Tiscali, which have been built up from years of service. Giving us highly streamlined support functions to our external partners.

A passion for customer service; many of our big customers know our agents by their first names and get the chance to meet them when they come for an office visit. 

As with anything there is room for improvement and we always strive to better ourselves, but I have one question.

What do you think makes the best support representative?

Thanks,

Russ - Service Desk Team Leader

Knowledge Base is under construction!

Hi all,

Most people are aware that Cobweb has a Service Desk where we can offer both support and advice on customers current services and future options; however were you aware that we also have a Cobweb Knowledge Base.

Here you will find documents on all our current services from ADSL through to the Hosted Exchange 2007. One of the projects that I am undertaking at the moment is to revamp and improve the content of the existing libraries, adding video guides and updated FAQ's.

One major new library under construction at the moment is Hosted CRM which is a new service Cobweb has released this week.

Take a look at the following link and let me know what you think.

http://www.cobweb.com/knowledgebase

Thanks

Russ - Service Desk Team Leader

Account Managers…. We are here for you

I have worked within Cobweb for over a year now, in this time I have seen major investment made in our department.  The recent addition of a new position for a Technical Account Manager now filled by Alec, who in the short time he has been with us has attended the Pub Club, made several visits to customers and is getting to grips with our customer base.

As Account Managers we are here as your voice within Cobweb.  To help and assist you with any query or concern you may have.  Now with the additional technical knowledge, we can go that little bit further for you.  In the event of an escalation we can kick and scream for your resolve.

Like we say, we are here for you, so please keep us informed.

Regards
Screaming Val

You learn something new every day

I had an interesting review with a recent new customer of ours this week - which has opened my eyes a bit...

This customer is truly global with near 1000 mailboxes running some 2GB mailboxes, Email Archival and BlackBerry.  They are very smart with their systems and we've been dealing with some very technically versed people, and have been undergoing a fairly lengthy and complex migration from their legacy mail servers to our platform.   There have been some challenges along the way - co-ordinating their resource and activities in remote offices, with the activities of our engineers in setting this up, combined with the impact to the end users, have given us both a few teething problems. But, we've worked these out and generally found that communication is the key to making this work (it usually is!)

So, I was expecting a few challenges about some of the slips along the way, but when it comes to platform availability and performance, generally things have been OK and there are no worries here... or so I was thinking. 

I heard about some of the real issues that have been causing pain to their administrators of the system - those IT admins that make our system work for their end-users.   I was to hear about issues that I thought were fixed, resolved, dead and buried - or so I thought...  These were not showstopping issues, the service still worked and mail still flowed, but some of the real-time admin data and interfaces used to administer the services or a provisioning action was repeatedly incorrect or failing for these administrators.    I heard about one issue that we've been having on and off repeatedly for many months, which on reflection is something that we will resolve for good now. 

So I learnt that fixing a problem and moving on, doesn’t necessarily mean that others (my customer in this case) has moved along with you.  Reflection is important, it’s easy to assume that a technical fix affects the customer perception when in reality things may be a little different.

Be Positive

“Call me Old Fashioned”   ……. My own personal view, great customer service stems from the basic values of life itself. Personally I have an outlook to life that is simple, treat others as I would like to be treated myself. In work, as in life I follow a few simple rules, honesty, and openness, respect, polite and approachable; never promise what I can’t deliver. Sticking to these basic guidelines has not let me down.

Experience through life, is in my opinion, something to be valued, and if something affects your personal life you truly learn from this, more so than something learnt in a classroom.  We all remember the bad experiences when making purchases, for example, the gum chewing person busy chatting to their associates about their exploits the night before, or the way you were treated when complaining about a faulty product. Not being listened to completely, so that you have to repeat yourself, leading to a great deal of frustration.  I could go on…..

However, on the other hand, good customer service is rarely reported but should be applauded.  Have you ever had a good experience and let the person or company know.  I must admit, I never used to, but in the many years I have been involved in Customer Service (too many to say) I have reported on good customer service a lot more, making the experience a lot more enjoyable, only through being positive about an issue rather than negative.  So no more Mrs Grumpy, my grievances are approached with a smile and never made personal.  What’s the benefit of that, you might ask.  Well, experience has shown me that, firstly, I don’t get frustrated or stressed about the situation, next comes the buying into helpfulness, the more agreeable I am the quicker issues are resolved, the other party listens more carefully so that removes the repeated conversations.

Go on, report good customer service, being positive is great.  Why not tell the person behind the counter or on the phone that they have done a good job.  Spread the “feel good” factor, I know if I feel good I do a better job, you never know, it might just catch on!

Val Wilson

Do you read our Support blog?

We've something interesting going on with CRM this week
http://www.cob-blog.com/cobweb_support/