By Phil Verghis on November 5, 2011
Announcing the Nov 2011 Verghis View newsletter — ‘Einstein and the Pursuit of Gross National Happiness’ — lessons on measurements from disparate sources like Einstein, an ancient Egyptian cartographer and a tiny, landlocked Himalayan kingdom.
http://conta.cc/verghis_newsletter_nov11
This has generated an immense response – from five continents so far…
Posted in: article, Managing Support, Metrics & Madness | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on May 8, 2011
For a while now, we have believed that making customers wait online can cause bad things to happen. Some interesting new research from two professors at Harvard Business School has shown that this may not always be the case.
It seems that if customers have to wait, and are shown why they are waiting (for example showing them what was being searched), they give higher ratings than if the results are instantly available. (Note: The information returned has to be ‘good’.)
Read the whole article at: http://bit.ly/slowservice
There’s hope for those of you with slow websites (albeit with good information)… Bring this article to your web team or IT team and talk to them about ‘labor illusion’.
Posted in: article, customer service, IT support | 2 Comments »
By Phil Verghis on January 11, 2011
I got a call from Dennis Carter, the assistant editor of ecampus news, and was quoted in an article titled ‘College help-desk services lacking in tech use‘.
In general, many campuses tend to follow industry best practices, and fall short. It’s not surprising given the lack of resources. However, the good news is they can power past most of the best of the best in industry with smart use of social media for higher education support. They have built-in communities that, properly nurtured, can be models for service and support.
Yes before I defected to the commercial world, I worked at universities… The team at Duke University won an award from Network World.
Posted in: article, higher education | No Comments »
Tags: higher education
By Phil Verghis on October 15, 2010
I’m pleased to note the Association of Support Professionals has called my white paper on ‘Measures, Metrics & Madness: The new world of Guiding, not Grading’ “brilliant”. They further said “… will get you thinking about your whole approach to measuring performance and meeting goals.”
Posted in: article, Managing Support, Metrics & Madness | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on October 14, 2010
The Economist has a very interesting article on ‘The Biology of Business: Homo Administrans’ where they talk about how biologists have brought rigor to psychology, sociology and even economics. Now they are turning their attention to the softest science of all: management.
Read all about it at:
http://bit.ly/economist_biology_mgmt
Posted in: article, leadership | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on October 12, 2010
If you are in the area, stop by the Robert Half office in Westborough, MA from 3-6 PM where I’ll be chatting about ‘Measures, Metrics and Madness: the new world of guiding, not grading’.
Tickets, details and more available at the HDI New England site: http://bit.ly/9RMao2
Posted in: article, Managing Support, Metrics & Madness, speaking engagement | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on September 10, 2010
A classic case of the wrong behaviors that result when management puts goals on activities….
New York Times article: Secret Tape Has Police Pressing Ticket Quotas
Take a look at your own organization — is it that different? Bring in your own metrics and let’s see on October 27th, the world premier of my new workshop: Measures, Metrics and Madness: the new world of Guiding, not Grading. (Only 7 seats left.)
Posted in: article, Conferences, customer service, Enterprise Support, IT support, Managing Support, SaaS - Software as a Service, speaking engagement, Voice of the Customer, Workshop: Measures | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on May 8, 2010
Over the last year or two, I’ve been trying to replicate the magic of start-ups – where everyone is laser-focused on the mission of the organization. Everyone knows what needs to be done and just does it.
Unfortunately, this ‘honeymoon’ phase quickly dissipates during the transition to a middle-aged company and beyond.
I think I’ve moved one step closer to finding a solution, as this month’s article discusses. Two of my retainer-based clients are one year into the ‘alignment and measurement’ process, and have reported (mostly) amazing success.
One of the biggest unanticipated side effects has been the boost in employee morale, which has a multiplier effect on productivity, customer loyalty and so much more.
Get the article in a pdf format — http://bit.ly/cpFoMv or sign up for the next newsletter from my home page – www.verghisgroup.com
Posted in: article, Be the Voice of the Customer workshop, Enterprise Support, IT support, Managing Support, SaaS - Software as a Service, savvy support model | No Comments »
Tags: Guiding not Grading, Measurement, Metrics
By Phil Verghis on January 30, 2010
Andres Sanchez has published a book titled Technical Support Essentials – Advice you can use to succeed in Technical Support and has cited the Savvy Support model a few times as one of the new models for support.
Read all about it, and much more of what Andres has to say in his book.
Posted in: article, book, customer service, Customer support and service assessment, Enterprise Support, IT support, Managing Support, savvy support model, Technical Support, Voice of the Customer | No Comments »
By Phil Verghis on December 11, 2009
Oracle’s revenue from software maintenance and service fees have reached $12 billion a year. Read what this interesting article had to say on this topic (includes SAP and more).
http://bit.ly/Sv3ub
Posted in: article, CIO, Enterprise Support, IT support, Managing Support | No Comments »