Profitable Telephone Support The expansion of sales and servicing of Managed Print Service programs has increased the need for hotline technical support. When used properly, in-house technical support can eliminate the need for many field service calls, reducing the labor hours and travel expenses technicians would spend working on equipment in the field. Depending on the size of your own service department and customer base, in-house telephone support can range from a full time job for multiple techs to a single awareness of a dispatcher. Proactive telephone support can aid your own field techs and clients who are on pre-paid service agreements. Huge service department savings and additional customer satisfaction can be achieved when proactive telephone support is properly managed. Establishing a successful Save A Call program can conserve valuable field service labor, reduce the cost of vehicle usage, save gas, improve response time, increase first call completion, become part of your company’s green initiative, reduce parts re-calls, boost employee morale, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve profitability. Establishing and being able to substantiate the success of your Save A Call program begins with logging every service request. If the customer, dispatcher, tech, supervisor, manager, or other appointed person determines a logged service call may be able to be handled without sending out a tech, the service request should be assigned to someone other than a field tech. Actually logging the call into your service system is essential. If not actually logged in, often a customer’s request for telephone support is misplaced, delayed or lost. It is difficult to calculate the success of your Save A Call program if accurate tracking of calls, which are fixed over the phone or through remote diagnosis, are not kept. Make sure your service dispatch system has a ‘fix on phone’ code that is used to clear any call that is fixed without having to send out a tech to the client’s location. Those who are responsible for phone fixes should use their own assigned ‘tech’ identification number when closing a call that was successfully cleared without sending a field tech. This will also allow you to track unsuccessful phone fixes that result in call backs. Just as field techs are rated by their first call completion rate, those assigned to phone fixes should also be accountable for the percentage of actual successful phone fixes. When dealing with an end-user over the telephone that is located at the equipment’s location, I always offer to hold while the client follows my instructions. I make sure that I have other work to do while I am on hold. Effective help desk workers always have follow-up work or research that can be done while on long holds. If the customer would rather hang up and try the suggested repair action, I leave the call open in my queue. I then follow-up with another call or email to confirm the suggested fix actually worked. Only when I am assured that the problem has been successfully cured will I close the call. This lessens the chance of multiple calls being logged and prematurely cleared. Once your Save A Call program is established, management should track and quantify success ratios and time necessary for each successful telephone or remote diagnostic repair. As with field techs, different members of your in-house staff will be more effective than others. Some will take longer per successful fix; others will have a higher percentage of being unsuccessful with the telephone assistance. Just as managers track field tech repair effectiveness, additional technical or verbal communication skills training may be necessary if a hotline tech is below your acceptable standards. Often dispatchers with little or no technical field experience can become excellent in-house telephone trouble shooters, being able to complete the phone assistance themselves. If your dispatcher often gets involved with personally aiding with the phone fix, make sure there is still someone else able to answer incoming calls. It is very distracting to a customer receiving the telephone assistance if they are constantly put on hold while the dispatcher answers other incoming calls. Dispatchers are also your first line of defense in being able to identify which incoming service calls are prime candidates to be forwarded to someone else in-house that can attempt the phone fix. When setting up the structure of a Save A Call program, teach those involved to be able to maximize the effectiveness of their time. Have a list of common trouble codes for the equipment you service. Additionally, have quick access to Web site links, hotline telephone numbers or Instant Messaging addresses for all the OEM’s of the equipment you regularly service. Take advantage of the many compatible wholesalers who have excellent equipment, parts and supply cross reference charts, and trouble code explanations accessible on line or in their printed catalog. It is vital for the profitability of your company to only offer (with no additional charge) telephone support to serialized equipment that is currently covered under an active service agreement. This can include MA, CPC, MPS, MDS, warranty, rental, national account or any other customized pre-paid equipment, network or software agreement. It is the responsibility of everyone within your organization to require an equipment I.D. number or make, model and serial number of the equipment that is in need of telephone support. Dispatch is the most logical gate keeper. All tech support calls should be filtered through someone who can quickly ascertain if the equipment needing support is covered by a current servicing agreement. If the equipment is covered and the account is current (not past due), the request for technical support can be quickly forwarded to the appropriate person. If the equipment is not covered or the end-user refuses to get a machine I.D. or serial number, each dealer can set their own limits as to how much free help to provide. Personally I have taught all my in-house support staff, who are unable to verify prepaid equipment coverage, to quickly (in less than 60 seconds) establish the problem and simply state, “Without actually seeing the equipment I am unable to provide an appropriate answer. I will transfer you back to dispatch to place a field service call if you need additional help. Please hold.” By transferring them back to dispatch, the caller has the option to just hang up. In most cases our customers are very aware when they are not covered under a servicing agreement. The dispatch staff has the time and training to explain the service charges for a field service call or options to upgrade their current service agreement to include network support or other needed services. Dealers who regularly provide hotline support to random (non-paying) callers run the risk of supporting under-trained techs from their competitors, off warranty customers who did not choose to purchase a service agreement, or past due or canceled customers. I have known non-service agreement customers to call and demand free infield service because the free technical help they received over the phone is now responsible for the entire system being down or crucial data being lost. Many dealers have a dual purpose hotline that helps their pre-paid service end-users as well as their own technical staff. Field techs must walk a fine line when using the in-house technical hotline. Some techs waste hours of costly service labor hours waiting too long to call their in-house hotline for guidance. Others become lazy, depending on the hotline to explain trouble codes, find part numbers or diagnosis common problems. Your own in-house service management policies should set guidelines that help techs to know when they should call for help or take care of their own needs. A properly structured in-house technical hotline can be an enormous asset to your customers, technicians and overall profitability of your company. Training your in-house staff to be a direct extension of your field staff can reduce response time, lower the overall number of required field service calls, reduce the anxiety of techs being sent to equipment they have never before seen and create a working relationship between end-users and your in-house workers. Ronelle Ingram, author of Service With A Smile, also teaches service seminars. She can be reached at ronellei@msn.com