Parature Releases Free White Paper on the State of Enterprise Service and Support
White Paper Explores the Results of the â??2009 Service & Support Metrics Surveyâ??
Vienna, VA (May 20, 2009) – Parature, a global leader in on-demand customer service software, announced today the release of a free white paper offering customer service and support professionals insight into what is really going on in today’s support centers. The white paper entitled “2009 Service & Support Metrics Survey” is available for download in Parature’s white paper library.
This annual survey, conducted in March 2009 by Parature and SupportIndustry.com, was designed to explore the state of enterprise service and support — technology adoption rates and deployment plans, financial challenges, workforce issues, performance metrics and other industry trends. Respondents were comprised of a cross-section of executives – senior-level managers responsible for a range of enterprise help desks and customer-facing service desks and contact centers, representing the spectrum of vertical sectors. Of these executives, 45% manage customer-facing support operations, 16% oversee internal help-desk functions, and 39% manage both. This year’s survey reinforces previous years’ findings, highlighting support organizations’ continued adoption of better-integrated and responsive technologies, efforts to improve processes, and growing recognition of the strategic role of service delivery in corporate growth. At the same time, however, these organizations continue to battle the ongoing challenges that have come to characterize the service function.
Some of the highlights from this year’s survey include:
It’s the Economy, Stupid: Given the economic decline in the U.S. and around the world, it probably comes as no surprise that many executives saw cuts in their support operation budgets: 42% say their budgets decreased over their previous year’s allocation.
Carry that Load a Long Time: While budget allocations may rise and fall, some things never change in the SupportIndustry.com survey: High demand for support services never dissipates, instead increasing year over year. The majority of respondents (60%) — those managing enterprise help desks as well as those supporting corporate customers — report seeing calls for their services increase over the previous year.
The SaaS Factor: CRM and support-related functions have been a stronghold for SaaS-based deployment, credited with some of the model’s most successful engagements. In this year’s survey, 43% of respondents say they have leveraged on-demand models for at least some of their service-related technology deployments, and 32% say they plan some kind of SaaS-based deployment in the coming year.
Selling Self-Help: Beyond phone-based support, self-service knowledgebases represent the second most-offered support channel, with 63% of respondents making such access available.
Out of Sight: As workforces globalize and telework becomes the norm, remote connectivity support tools, both Web-based and those built on other platforms, are seeing strong uptake. With these tools — which technicians can use to help end users anywhere, quickly diagnosing problems and enacting fixes — support sees both customer satisfaction and bottom-line improvements. Thirty-eight percent of respondents say they’re able to fix 75% to 100% of their end-user issues with these tools.
The Watering Hole: Though perhaps initially reluctant to do so, more service organizations are providing online forums for their customers to gather and share information. In some cases, what users may reveal there can hurt a company’s image, but if service executives leverage that information and act quickly to rectify problems and potential PR disasters, they can actually benefit from the experience. Most see their own forums as a far better option than watching their customers go elsewhere — third-party forums, blogs, and worst of all, to their competitors — to talk shop and air their issues.
All A-Twitter: Social networking applications continue to make inroads into enterprise scenarios. Nearly a third of responding companies (32%) say they expect social networking applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to play a role in their support operations within the next year.
Job Hazard: Many people, it seems, take their service seriously. Granted, by the time they finally pick up the phone or otherwise make contact with a support rep, they may not be in the best mood. But threatening? Apparently. More than a third of respondents (35%) say they’ve seen a customer service rep threatened by an angry customer.
“Parature is dedicated to helping customer service and support organizations deliver superior customer service,” stated Parature CEO and President Duke Chung. “We demonstrate this commitment, not only by providing the smartest, most efficient customer service software, but by providing valuable written content as well. Parature has conducted in-depth research to provide relevant and thought provoking insight into industry trends that will contribute to the success of customer service professionals and enable organizations to provide exceptional customer service at an affordable price.”
Parature enables any organization to fundamentally change the way they support their customers through its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery and integrated, intuitive design that empowers organizations to better and more efficiently serve, support, engage with and retain customers in today’s Web world. The seamlessly integrated suite of Parature Customer Service(TM) software modules allows organizations to effectively manage all of their support needs without additional hardware, software and IT expenses. Parature integrates everything in one dynamic, unified system to increase efficiency across entire organizations, improving processes among customer support, operations, development and sales.
For the detailed results of what the survey revealed, visit Parature’s white paper library to download. For more in-depth insight into the results of this survey, attend the Parature and SupportIndustry.com joint webinar entitled “2009 Service & Support Metrics Survey Results: A Look Behind the Scenes in Today’s Support Organization,” presented by Pete McGarahan, Founder and President, McGarahan and Associates and Gary McNeil, Vice President of Marketing, Parature on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 2:00pm EDT.
Source: Parature