SSPA Releases New Support Sense Booklet

The new Booklet now available is “A Short History Of Customer Service”, by Scott Ferrell, Senior Support Analyst Data Vantage Inc. Abstract: There was a time when there were three clerks for every one customer in department stores. There was a man in a brass button uniform or a lady in white gloves that ran the elevator. Clerks remembered your name and what you bought on your last visit to their counter. Dry cleaners drove to your house for your dirty clothes and dropped off last weeks cleaning. If you called a company to ask a question, you got a live operator instead of “press 1, press 2, press 27”. The author takes us on a trip from 1929 to the year 2000. During this journey we will explore the ups and downs of customer service, what to expect in the future, and what happened to customer service in a time where computers are doing the jobs of sales clerks.

The Support Sense Booklets are part of the SSPA Data Research Group, which also includes the SSPA Survey—-an industry-wide survey that provides a comprehensive review of over 100 service industry practices, performance indicators, and operations metrics and provides a benchmark for service and support organizations.

A new Booklet is released monthly with the first eleven available at www.supportgate.com:

• “The New Support Center: Workplace Diversity in the Twenty-First Century”
• “Customer Perceptions & Their Effect on Customer Relationships”
• “Knowledge- The Ultimate Frontier for Support Centers”
• "Making Support Managers Into Support Leaders"
• "Improving Electronic Customer Support: An E-mail Writing Guide for Support Professionals”
• "Work Place Violence: Prepare to Prevent"
• “Starting From Nothing”
• "Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Closing the Gender Gap in Information Technology”
• “Get A Better Tool Without Losing Your Sanity Or Your Time”
• “Characteristics of Effective Teams”
• “Create Outstanding Customer Relationships and Retain Customers in The Process”
• “Electronic Software Distribution Management- An Idea Whose Time Has Come”

Call for Authors: Anyone interested in authoring a Booklet and participating in this exciting new SSPA venture should send an email to info@supportgate.com for additional information.

About SSPA:
Founded in 1989, SSPA represents over 14,000 service executives in nearly 500 member companies worldwide. SSPA gives software service professionals opportunities to share ideas, discuss developing trends and network with their peers. SSPA offers its members conferences, seminars, specialized training, executive forums, certification programs and a variety of publications.

SSPA resides at the web portal of Supportgate at www.supportgate.com. Through these ‘gates’ you will find the individual Membership Communities of the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the SSPA Europe, the SSPA Pacific Rim, the SSPA Service Vendors Alliance, (SVA) and the SSPA Professionals Membership.