Total Support: Achieving Sustainable Business Growth with a Remote Support Solution

Total Support:
Achieving sustainable
business growth with a remote support solution By Peter McGarahan President, McGarahan & Associates Part of the NTRglobal Thought Leadership Series





Are you working on your business or in your business?
Think about it.
Are you expanding your reach into international markets without knowing how you will provide cost-effective, quality support? If you are, you're not alone. According to the Small Business Administration, the number of American businesses sending their goods and services overseas has tripled since 1990. About two-thirds of that boom comes from companies with fewer than 20 employees. No longer is company size a determining factor for realizing sustainable business growth by establishing an international presence. Virtual business models built on the Internet are more flexible, adaptable and responsive to rapidly changing market conditions than the traditional, physical-footprint models. Building a sustainable international business and presence also requires constant communication and collaboration with customers, partners and employees.

The challenge of expansion plans
Successfully expanding and supporting a geographically dispersed business requires big-picture vision, real-world analysis, pragmatic planning, and a relentless focus on execution. It also requires buckets of patience, especially when it comes to servicing and supporting your customers. If they are considering or have already purchased your product, they expect total support. If you fail to support them, you fail. It's that simple.
When expanding your business, you must develop a total support solution to meet customer expectations and to do business on their terms. Your solution must be relevant and valuable to them, and differentiated from your competitors. A smart solution should provide you the capability of providing customers a single point of contact support model to locate and leverage the available experts with the right skills at the right time.
What many business leaders fail to understand is that a total support solution isn't just a necessary adjunct to the business; it can also be a growth driver - if you employ the right solution.

The Total Support Solution:
Reduce costs, increase revenue
The way you service and support your customers speaks volumes in terms of what's important to you (company values), the customer experience (customer focus), and your brand identity in the market place (competitive advantage).
1. Determine what is important to you (technical, business, time, and budget requirements) and to your customers (service and support expectations). 2. Determine how you will service and support your customers seamlessly, easily and cost-effectively. 3. Select a total support solution to equip your organization to provide comprehensive, consistent, high-quality service to you customers, partners and employees, while leveraging valuable internal technical resources.

Fast-growing companies do not have the luxury of easily absorbing mistakes. Every decision is critical to brand equity and sustainable growth. Customer service and support should never be compromised or commoditized. Nor can companies afford to underestimate or under-invest in the people and technology needed. After all, once the product is purchased, the support function becomes the #1 customer touch point. Companies live and die on how well they maximize the customer support experience (see "HBR Service-Profit Chain," page 14).

What's important to the customer?
24/7 Access and availability. Multiple support options. Ease of use, solution effectiveness. Immediate response/fast resolution. Quality and consistency of information. One-click solutions and service. Secured, protected and recorded transactions. Just-in-time (JIT) training. Knowledgeable, friendly and respectful support analysts.
What's important to the enterprise?
Provide high-quality, cost-effective service and global supp... [download for more]