The repercussions of an underperforming support service

As a cloud-based solution that blends everything great about Microsoft’s ERP and CRM business solutions, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has opened the door to a world of unlimited growth opportunity.
 
For many businesses, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is their gateway to Digital Transformation, but once you’ve got your fancy new IT setup, what next? Are you confident users will master the new system straight away? Do you have adequate support in place just in case you run into any teething problems? And what happens when you get your first error message?
You pick up the phone and call your saviour – customer support. The phone rings and rings and rings for what seems an eternity. Finally, an answer – “Your call is very important to us…”We’ve all been there.At HSO, we deliver the customer support services that we we’d like to receive as customers.
Here are 5 repercussions of choosing the wrong support service:
1. You can’t get help after 5pm (4pm on a Friday)We live in an increasingly connected world where traditional business hours simply don’t apply.  But they do to a lot of customer support services! You know what doesn’t take notice of business hours? Your IT problems!This is such a prevalent issue, that in the last year 67% of customers have hung up their phone in frustration because they couldn’t talk to a real person1. That’s why at HSO we have introduced a 24-hour, 7-days a week, global support desk.2. You’re kept waitingEven if you’re “fortunate” enough to suffer an IT problem during business hours, there’s no telling how long you’ll be subjected to automated messages and tedious hold-music before you can speak to anyone.

In fact, 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live agent2 – which perhaps suggests that 25% of people out there may secretly enjoy hold music!

We’re with the majority on this one, which is why HSO managed-services’ users have guaranteed response times and agreed SLAs when engaging our customer support.

3. Lack of a personal service

You’ve finally run the gauntlet that is the customer support helpline and got through to an actual human being – the problem is, they have no idea who you are or what you want.

If it’s the first contact you’d expect the usual time it takes to give our details and explain the problem. The call ends and we dare to feel hopeful, “Steve’s looking into it! He’s got this covered and he’s promised to get his manager to ring us back.”

Time passes. Eventually the phone rings and it’s the manager, she sounds positive, “We’re confident that we’ll have the problem fixed soon. If I can just grab a few personal details first and then you can run me through the issues you’re having…”

72% of customers blame bad customer service experiences on explaining their problem over and over to multiple people3, and we feel their pain. Our 24/7 customer support service is manned by a dedicated support team, that means they’re there for you and they know your business, support history and your staff inside out.

4. Lack of knowledge

A recent  consumer survey, found support staff fail to answer their customer’s questions 50% of the time4. Think about that for a second, you’d have just as much luck solving your problem if you based it on a coin-toss.

At HSO we don’t leave things like that to chance as your business depends on getting the right response every time. Each member of our dedicated support team is Microsoft Certified to perform on-demand technical support. And it’s not just support for your Microsoft Dynamics solution, but any applications that have been integrated into your system.

5. Project rescue

Gartner studies show approximately 75% of all ERP projects suffer significant overrun on time and/or budget, or fail completely to deliver5. One of the most frequently cited reasons is “poor partner performance”.

Recognising that your IT partner has ‘dropped the ball’ is the first step to getting your project back on track, because there are many ways to get you over the line with the solution that you originally envisaged.

And when it comes to customer support, we know how frustrating it can be, and that’s why at HSO we offer the support service that we’d like to receive ourselves.

Technology is less about, well, the technology, and more about the people that deliver it and help you make it a success. That’s because it’s one thing having the technology, it’s another getting the business to adopt it successfully, and then having the right support in place in case if there are issues.

View our Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service

Sources

1. American Express survey
2. Harris Interactive
3. Zendesk
4. Harris Interactive
5. Gartner