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May 2006

• When Support Services Revenues Flatten
  What happened to the money?

• Book News
  Another glowing review, another special discount

• Book Review
  Back by popular demand

• Upcoming Events
  Of interest to support professionals

Last month we talked about Deriving Revenue from Services. This month, let’s briefly touch on two common reasons why in many companies revenue from services starts out promisingly, then seems to hit a concrete wall, with no growth in sight.

1. "Fits one" vs. "Fits many"
   
   In this scenario, the services portfolio is either based on what the competition is doing, or what a few key customers have requested, which is then expanded to fit all customers.
   
   If you are providing only 'me too' services, many customers will feel you are just trying to make money from them, instead of providing the services they actually need and are happy to pay for. Basing your service portfolio on what a few key customers have asked for is like your bank developing a services portfolio for everyone, based on what Bill Gates asked for.
   
   Here's the problem with either approach. Without a clear understanding of your customer lifecycle or customer segmentation, your services can't be clearly positioned or marketed as "must have" solutions for customer pain issues. The result is a portfolio of services that are difficult to describe, difficult to price and will not scale.
    
2. Lack of cross-departmental consensus
   
   Very often, multiple groups within a company are responsible for specific components of services design, pricing, sales, marketing, performance metrics and service delivery. There's often no formal process for implementing a company-wide model for a service. The result is a portfolio of services that looks like it was designed for the company’s convenience, rather than the customer’s. In addition, this type of offering is difficult to service, because of the inherent inefficiencies built into the design.

If your company’s services portfolio has one or more of these symptoms, addressing them sooner rather than later will almost certainly result in a substantial increase in revenues.

Would you like a Services Checkup? Contact my office today and learn how we can make your services revenue more profitable.  Call Phil at (800) 494-9142 for a free, no-obligation discussion.

Book News about The Ultimate Customer Support Executive

I'm pleased to inform you that my book has received yet another very positive review —this time from Support World magazine:

"The technical support industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last twenty years, but one of the aspects of the support industry that has not kept pace with this growth are books written for our executives in this era of business alignment. What has always been lacking is a detailed, well organized, fun and readable book designed for support executives.

"… Combined with clear writing and years of experience in the customer support industry, (The Ultimate Customer Support Executive) will quickly become a 'must have' in every executive's library."

You can get a "Book Reviewers Special" available only on my Web site. From now through the end of June (or as long as my supply lasts), you can save 30% by purchasing the book from my Web site.

In addition, you can also pick up the book from your favorite online store – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million and more.

Book Review
Back by popular demand…

Longitude:
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

In the service industry, we have a plethora of metrics that detail what happens after a customer contacts us. Things like average speed of answer, first-time resolution, etc. As an industry, we have a much harder time trying to figure out how to measure things that we cannot control or are inherently hard to measure – what Greg Oxton, Executive Director of the Consortium for Service Innovation calls 'fuzzy metrics.'

For example, How many queries did not come in because we were able to fix the root cause for a problem?

It's difficult trying to figure out the "right" new metrics to replace the traditional, break-fix ones, and address the much harder problem of "avoidance" metrics. But if you read this book, you'll realize that far more difficult problems have been solved.

The British Longitude Act of 1714, in the reign of Queen Anne, promised a prize -- the equivalent of millions of dollars today -- to anyone that could calculate longitude to an accuracy of 1/2 degree.

As author Dava Sobel explains, "To know one's longitude at sea, one needs to know what time it is aboard ship and also the time at the home port or another place of known longitude at that very same moment… One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time the world over, although in terms of distance, one degree shrinks from 60 nautical miles at the Equator to virtually nothing at the poles."

Although accurate pendulum clocks existed in the 17th century, the movement of a ship and changes in humidity and temperature prevented them from keeping accurate time at sea. Result: Thousands of lives were lost due to miscalculations.

This short but highly enjoyable read is a great way to realize that solving complex problems is difficult enough, but it's that much harder when beset by pettiness, jealousy and "death by committee."

Reading this book, I couldn't help wondering: When are we in the service world going to have the conceptual breakthroughs we need to move from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’ service?

Are any of you working on solving the problem of fuzzy metrics? Want to share your ideas? I think this is one of the most important problems that we as an industry need to solve.

Community Involvement & Events

April and May have been really busy months.

I just got back from two talks in London, followed by a series of private "Thought Leaders in IT" dinners in London, Dubai and Milan sponsored by MRO Software. What a wonderful experience!

I also spoke for the Boston chapter of the Association of Support Professionals on "Service Delivery in a Flat World."

A white paper I authored for MRO Software is one of the hottest items among the four million users of Bitpipe.com! Here is what they had to say about it:

"Beyond ITIL: The Cultural Dynamics of IT Service Management is currently one of Bitpipe.com’s Top 10 most in-demand documents. Why the reading frenzy? Authored by internationally respected service delivery consultant Phil Verghis, Beyond ITIL reveals how organizations can work with deeply held cultural beliefs to make global IT initiatives, particularly ITIL deployments, much more effective."

Download your free copy here today.

What Do You Want to Hear About? 

Your ideas, insights and feedback are important to me. I want to hear from you! What topics or books would you like to see discussed? Who would you like to see interviewed? Your comments, questions, ideas, suggestions, feedback and contributions are welcome. Send them to the editor here. 

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Previous issues:
April 2006
February 2006
December 2005
 

About Phil Verghis
A preeminent expert on global service delivery, Phil was vice president of Infrastructure & Support at Akamai Technologies and a member of the Senior Executive Operations Group. Among other responsibilities, he launched Akamai's award- winning Customer Care Department and ran the world's largest IP network: 15,000 servers in 66 countries handling billions of hits per day. More about Phil.

About The Verghis Group
We unleash the power of your customer (SM). The Verghis Group brings years of expertise with innovative solutions that enable companies like yours to conceptualize and implement world-class customer support strategies that delight your customers and enhance your bottom line. Our strategies encompass your people, processes and technology. For the right clients, we can add significant value by taking a comprehensive look at issues from your customer's point of view.

We are vendor-neutral. Our mentorship and facilitation based model emphasizes the speedy transfer of knowledge to your internal teams.

For more information or a no-obligation initial consultation, contact:

This publication is a presentation of The Verghis Group, which is solely responsible for its contents. 
©2006 The Verghis Group. All rights reserved.