Implementing 21st Century Customer Service Operations at 3Com
But how did 3Com do that?
In 1998, Synesis compared 3Com's operational practices in customer service to those of another leading player in the high-tech industry. "The results of Synesis' analysis showed that there was a lot of potential for improving proactive cross-functional knowledge dissemination," states Judy Silva, 3Com's Director of NIC Support. "We immediately took steps to improve communication flows and to proactively integrate the support organization into the new product development process." Previously, support engineers communicated with product development engineers predominantly to develop solutions for existing products.
3Com did not take any chances in ensuring that customers were satisfied. After a customer call concluded, an email survey was sent out automatically to find out about the customer experience and to check if the customer's problem really was solved. A large percentage of customers responded, allowing 3Com a consistent finger on the pulse of its customer base. If there was an issue with customer support, the call center management was aware of it within hours, and action was taken immediately.
The overall project results were impressive: within just four months, the call rate dropped an astonishing 30%. The top 9 call generators for a particular product that formerly accounted for 50% of all customer service calls dropped to account for 25% of service calls only. "We used to have some issues with hold times for some product lines, but not any more," says Judy Silva. As a result of high-IQ management practices, 3Com's cost of NIC support decreased dramatically, while at the same time customer satisfaction rates consistently increased.
3Com is a leading player in the Network Interface Cards (NIC) business. NICs are commodities sold in large volumes, mostly to corporate customers, but also to the small office/home office market. Keeping the cost of customer service low, while at the same time providing world-class support to customers, is a key success factor in the high-volume NIC business. 3Com has been very successful in managing this fine balance between cost and quality. The cost of providing customer service through its call centers dropped dramatically while, at the same time, customer satisfaction increased further.
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