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Q:  Why is ROI not enough for a customer support solution?
 
If you talk about customer support solutions, nearly everyone believes that a good return on investment (ROI) is the best yardstick for success. The more money a company can save, the more faith it puts in the solution. But are we using the wrong metrics?
 
The fact is, almost any of these solutions can reduce customer support costs. All they have to do is divert customers from the call center, where overhead is highest, and send them down a less costly avenue such as email, FAQs or search engines. That’s not a difficult task.
 
But how do the customers feel? Shouldn’t customer satisfaction be the real measure of success for any support solution? And if businesses already value customer satisfaction, why do most Web-based support tools require additional work from the user? To truly satisfy customers, we must view support interactions from their vantage point.
 
First of all, customers don’t want general information or “frequently asked questions” – they want immediate, actionable answers to their particular problems. For that, you need support solutions that “understand” the customers’ real issues, not just their questions.
 
Second, customers want the kind of support that makes life easier, not something that requires them to do additional research on their own. This is why search engines may deliver a collection of links, but they fail to deliver any meaningful support. Even email support requires the customer to wait several hours or days for a one-size-fits-all response.
 
Third, customers want to control the interaction in their support session. Some people are most comfortable using natural language, but others prefer simply to click-and-go, and still others want to use keywords. The ideal solution will give them those kinds of choices.
 
If you put factors like these into a complete package, it expands the meaning of “personalization.” Several recent reports have revealed that customers develop positive feelings about companies that take the effort to understand their personal preferences and habits. This is a concept that naturally should extend into customer support because it’s the point at which those customers typically believe they have the least amount of control.
 
When companies understand that, they will begin to generate a more meaningful ROI from their customer support programs.