We are warriors fighting to eliminate the billable hour.
In January 2004, we had about 120 fairly regular clients who called for technical support, project management and technical consulting. After the housing market slump began in 2006 we saw several of our customers go bankrupt, reorganize, or just disappear.
A change in the business model became necessary to effectively deliver services to our valuable remaining customers. Support tickets from the prior 24 months were reviewed to identify any trends. Here are some of the most commonly addressed issues:
- “My Internet browser keeps giving me pop-ups.”
- “My computer is running slower than usual.”
- “I am receiving many mail delivery errors from messages I did not send.”
- “My inbox is clogged with garbage spam messages.”
- “My anti-virus software keeps reporting ‘file protection error.’ ”
- “Our Internet connection seems slow, but nobody is using it right now.”
Virtually all of the issues that prompted a support incident were related to the WAY services were delivered to the customer. Simply put; It broke, we fixed it. The service delivery model was shaped by the customer’s perception. They were used to having their computers managed the same way water plumbing is managed. If there is water on the ground, call the plumber. If there was a way to shift core responsibility for operation of the customer’s information systems to the technicians most qualified, the customer wouldn’t have any support issues to report. A flaw in the service delivery model was identified. We were paid when something broke. Where is the incentive for the support technician to keep the system working? Of course, professionalism and adherence to industry best practice was at the core but there was still a possibility that a support issue would come up again.
The hunt was on to bring in technologies that would automate service delivery. This automation would reduce our costs, increase efficiency, eliminate the after-hours patch management parties and end baby-sitting dozens of VNC sessions. Customers would realize increased up-time, make fewer support calls and have peace-of-mind that their systems were being managed proactively.
After many months of evaluating off-the-shelf automation software a conclusion was reached. There is a way to automate patch management, consolidate service monitoring and lower costs. The new system would be the foundation for the future of our business.
Internal processes were created to properly leverage these new technologies. They were proved on our own in-house resources before deployment to the customer base.
Existing customers were presented with a simple conversion proposal. They received 12 month billing summaries. Monthly averages were calculated then reduced by a certain percentage. The resultant figure was proposed as the flat-fee per month for this new support model.
This flat-fee included resolution of the most common support issues. If a customer’s issue is related to a lack of regular maintenance or could have otherwise been prevented by the application of proactive protection and monitoring, then it would not cost the customer any more than the agreed-upon flat-fee.
The essence of this philosophy is to offer all of our services to our customers for a flat-fee. “Call us all you want.” How could anybody say no to that? This was the birth of the Deconn Advanced Host Management Service.
After the first year of delivering services based on the new model the early adopters have remained loyal with zero attrition. The business is finally starting to grow again and our customers report that they are actually happier than we imagined. The new support model’s method of service delivery has resulted in the highest level of customer satisfaction in our company’s history.
An unexpected bi-product was the predictability of our internal support tasks and the improvement of our lifestyles at home. The customer received peace-of-mind, and so did we!
Bottom line: Our customers don’t receive surprise billings, and we don’t have to worry about tracking our time. We just set it up right and keep it that way.
If your current technical support service company is billing you every time you call them or every time they visit your office, then you need to re-evaluate how you receive technical support services. Break out past invoices, do the math figure out how much you spend on technical support services. Then call us for a free technology review.
